Warren Sapp is one of the greatest defensive tackles in NFL history. The majority of his career was spent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but he spent his final four NFL seasons with the then-Oakland Raiders. Two of those years, 2005 and 2006, also saw Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss with the team as owner Al Davis was looking to turn around the fortunes of the franchise.
Of course, Moss’ time with the Raiders did not go as anyone would have hoped as the receiver looked nothing like his prior self, and the team would eventually trade him to the New England Patriots, where he would immediately become the game-changer everyone knows him for once again. And that apparently did not sit well with Davis.
Warren Sapp made an appearance on the What the Football podcast and spoke about a moment at the end of the 2007 season, Sapp’s last in the league. Sapp says he was in Davis’ office as they were watching him and Tom Brady connect on another touchdown and got angry at the fact that Moss was no longer with the Raiders, via Raiders Beat:
“Week 17 I went into his office to tell him that it would be my last game,” Sapp said. “We were sitting in his office and we were watching Randy Moss and Tom Brady going for the record 50 touchdowns and Randy Moss breaking Jerry Rice’s 23 touchdowns. He had 25 that year. I was sitting there with him and Tom threw one of them deep bombs to Randy and Randy ran underneath it and [Al] turned and looked at me and he said ‘Mike Lombardi said he couldn’t run anymore. I had that young man right here… how did I not see that go up and down my field?’”
“I loved him for that because he was always a competitor,” Sapp continued. “Always talking about how he could better the Raiders. It was just a pleasure to sit with him and watch the second half of that game.”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Al Davis was always known to be an extremely competitive person. So watching Moss dominate immediately after trading him away had to be eating at him because that should’ve been the case while he was with the Raiders.
But these are the moments that no one else sees, but stick with those who were close. Sapp was fortunate enough to be able to spend a lot of time with Davis, and he will cherish that forever.
