The knives have been sheathed and the prodigal son has been feted. Randy Moss is in the Hall of Fame and the Vikings' Ring of Honor, and last Sunday was honored at U.S. Bank Stadium, thoroughly and redundantly.
Moss has become a popular television analyst while rightly being credited for helping transform the Vikings franchise from a cute mom-and-pop operation into the financial and cultural octopus it has become.
If anyone cares to ponder the once-difficult relationship between Moss and the Vikings, today would be the right day to do so.
Sunday, the Vikings will play at Foxborough, Mass., for the first time since 2010. That Halloween afternoon, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Brad Childress and Moss convened at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots won 28-18, and then Moss called his own news conference, pledged his allegiance to the Patriots at a Vikings podium and instigated a series of dramatic moves.
Two days later, Childress would release Moss. Three weeks later, the Vikings would fire Childress. Two months later, Favre would play in his last NFL game, his dream of combining with Moss to salvage the 2010 season at that point laughable.
The Vikings went into Foxborough hoping they could improve to 3-4 one season after losing, improbably, in the NFC Championship Game.
Instead, the day became one of the most embarrassing in Vikings history, while adding unnecessary luster to Belichick's glued-on crown.
The Vikings would take leads of 7-0 and 10-7. With the Vikings trailing 21-10 midway through the fourth quarter, Favre threw a pass at the goal line that Moss touched but didn't catch, perhaps pulling his arms in because of an impending hit.