MINNEAPOLIS - I should have seen it coming. You should have, too. A pouty receiver wearing purple on a tryout basis produces 8 yards in a big game and makes no effort to catch a potential touchdown pass, then makes a spectacle of himself by conducting a postgame monologue in which he gushes about the team he just lost to and rips his own coach - of course he's going to get cut the next day.
But when you ride the Vikings' crazy train for 20 years, even Randy Moss' strange soliloquy Sunday night starts to look like a weekday afternoon at the public library.
Monday, Vikings coach Brad Childress told his players that he intended to released Moss. Moss gave him no choice. It's one thing to deal with the egomania of Brett Favre, who at least plays hard and won 13 games for the Vikings last year. It's another to tolerate open mutiny from a player who doesn't make an effort and hasn't made an impact.
Moss is the same petulant slacker the Vikings dismissed in 2005, only he's no longer able to make up for his laziness with otherworldly athletic ability.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick realized that at this point in his career Moss is no longer worth the headaches he causes, and the Vikings, after taking an understandable chance on a player who should have been able to help their offense, quickly came to agree with Belichick.
For most franchises, Moss' antics on Sunday were a once-in-a-franchise-history embarrassment. In the land of the Vikings, this is just how we pass the time between Love Boats, ticket scalpings and Favre holdouts.
Childress decided he could no longer live with Moss. No sane person could blame him.
Upon hearing the news Monday, I remembered a conversation with Childress in 2006. Back then, he was no fun for anyone to be around - whether you were a player, assistant coach or reporter.
Once I asked him why he was so dour. He said something like, ``I'm only going to get one shot to be an NFL head coach, and I'm going to do it my way.''
By banishing Moss, Childress is trying to reassert (or at least salvage) his authority in a locker room where Favre's cavalier attitude has made Childress the subject of rumors about his job security.
Moss' release is proof that if Childress is going to go, he's going to go out on his own terms.
Childress has performed poorly this year, whether when making challenges, deciding how to play out the end of the first half or choosing personnel for key plays. He has often left his best players - including Adrian Peterson - on the sideline when they are most needed.
But before you write him off as a dunce, or this season as a lost cause, remember the past two seasons.
In 2008, a team quarterbacked by Gus Frerotte and Tarvaris Jackson won 10 games and came within one ugly Jackson interception of beating the Eagles in the playoffs.
In 2009, Childress' offense looked dynamic with a real quarterback at the helm, and the Vikings came within one ugly Favre interception of going to a Super Bowl they might have won.
Childress is an excellent judge of talent and has helped build a deep roster and a strong coaching staff. He needs to perform better on gameday to keep his job, and by now he's probably figured that out.
With Moss gone, the Vikings will approach the final nine games of the season with a more focused locker room and still plenty of talent to make the playoffs. One winning streak could make all the difference, and Childress has presided over a few.
In 2007, a less-talented Childress team won five consecutive games. In 2008, a less-talented team won seven of its final nine games to make the playoffs. In 2009, the Vikings went on winning streaks of six and four games, and responded to losses at Carolina and Chicago by blowing out the Giants and Cowboys and outplaying the Saints in the NFC Championship Game.
Before the season, I predicted that the Vikings would finish 9-7. I was labeled a pessimist.
I'm sticking with a 9-7 finish, and now I'll be seen as a raving optimist.
Look around the mediocre NFC. Look at the Vikings' schedule. Look at the control with which Favre played Sunday. Look at the Vikings' roster.
If Childress can apply more sideline common sense and Favre can avoid throwing the killing interception, in two months Moss' psychotic visit will become nothing more than another bizarre footnote in the annals of strange Vikings behavior.