Darren Woodsen Reveals Why the Cowboys Didn’t Draft Randy Moss Despite Jerry Jones’ Promise

Broken promises aren’t hard to find in the world of business, but when you get to dealing in the world of professional football, and more specifically, with the Dallas Cowboys, they become far too common for anything to make sense. There’s years worth of media containing the team’s owner, Jerry Jones, making statements that are either misleading, non-coherent, or simply untrue, but perhaps the most famous example is the time in which the Cowboys’ general manager famously promised that he would draft Randy Moss.

The former three-time Super Bowl champion and career Cowboy, Darren Woodson, noted that “Jerry told Randy he was going to draft him” during a recent appearance on the Pivot podcast. When asked for his opinion on what could have caused Jones to go back on his word, Woodson suggested that it was likely the extracurricular activities of Moss, more so than anything else, that ultimately caused Jones to shy away from drafting him.

“It was because of [Michael Irvin]” Woodson smugly remarked. “Because of all the problems. I’ll just call it what it was, we had a lot of problems off the field. I’m not saying it was Jerry. I think it was Chan Gailey, who was the coach at the time, didn’t know if he could handle Michael Irvin and Randy Moss. Randy had a lot of problems off the field, when he was in college, and I don’t think they felt like it was going to be a good match.”

Considering that Moss would go on to become one of the most decorated wide receivers in the history of the gridiron, this incident is now just one of the many instances in which Jones’ gut steered him in the wrong direction. Throughout those next 14 years, Jones was forced to watch as several of Moss’ greatest moments came against his team.

In fact, Jones’ decision to pass on Moss in the draft ultimately ended up ruining his Thanksgiving in 1998. The then-Minnesota Viking famously recorded 163 receiving yards and three touchdowns on just three receptions, and after the third score, he sat down on the bench to munch on a turkey leg while Jones was left to stew up in his owner’s box.

Much like the Los Angeles Chargers and the Miami Dolphins deciding to pass on Drew Brees, Moss being drafted by the Cowboys is now considered to be one of the greatest “what ifs” in NFL history. We’ll never know what greatness we may have been deprived of, but we can’t help to ponder on what could have been.

Thankfully, we still have figures like Woodsen, who are simply hanging around and waiting to give us the next piece of the story.