The faces staring down the Redskins’ big play receiver weren’t 300-lb. defensive linemen, but a group of young juvenile offenders at Thompson Academy who hung on his every word.

“I tried to let them know that right now is a wake up call for them,” said Moss late Thursday night. “I let them know it’s ok though, because everyone makes mistakes and gets a second chance.”

He took along close friends Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne and Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson to help spread the message.

Later that night, the trio lounged at Gulfstream and Casino’s MI-VI nightclub where Moss reflected on what he calls the most “rewarding aspect of being blessed with NFL ability.”

“Knowing that I can show those kids a positive alternative is an amazing feeling,” said Moss.

Moss’s passion for helping kids in Miami’s inner-city seems only rivaled by his desire to land in the end zone after one of his signature acrobatic catches.

Maybe it’s because like them, the Carol City native has always found himself hoping for that one shot. As a walk-on at the University of Miami he went on to become the school’s all-time leader in receiving yards. His name shines alongside Michael Irvin as UM’s most prolific wide receivers.
These days Moss is more focused on being “that light in his community” through the plethora of charity initiatives founded by him and his younger brother New York Giants wide receiver Sinorice Moss.

“When I was growing I was praying that someone who I looked up to would come to my neighborhood and teach and show me something, but that never really happened,” said Moss.

“I told myself if I ever got that chance I would be that guy for my neighborhood. I would be that guy for my city.”

Currently the Moss Foundation has an award winning program in place, Santana’s 30/30 Club at Mt Vernon Senior High School in Virginia. Two Miami-Dade County cities, Hialeah and Miami Gardens, have official “Moss Day” during the last week in February, due to the enormous and continuous contribution to both cities throughout the years. 2010, Marks a major milestone for the Moss Foundation, while it was hard work and a dedicated vision that brought the Moss Foundation to fruition, it is the message of “PEACE, DETERMINATION, and HOPE” that will contribute to its legacy for years to come.

To further commemorate its 10th season of “giving back”, the Moss Foundation has taken on the mission of spreading the message of “PEACE” across the country. It all begins in Miami on Sunday, January 31. The Moss Brothers are hosting children at the South Florida FanFest in the Miami Beach Convention Center.

AND THAT’S JUST THE BEGINNING!!
Monday, February 1st , they welcome golfers to their 2nd annual Celebrity Golf Tournament with a cocktail reception at the Hard Rock Casino and Resort.

Tuesday, February 2nd, all golfers are invited to participate with their hosts Santana Moss, Sinorice Moss, Ed Reed, Reggie Wayne and many other celebrities and professional athletes.

Tuesday February 2nd, Join the Moss Brothers along with Ed Reed Reggie Wayne and all of their NFL friends to a VIP after party at Passions night club at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

To sign up now
http://www.bcf.org/content/files/customcart/reedchallenge.aspx

Friday, February 5th, everyone is invited to join the Moss Brothers along with Andre Johnson at Karu and Y for a blowout party unlike any other.

Moss’s eight catches and 92 yards were his second-best totals in both categories this season. He was Washington’s only offensive weapon. He produced the Redskins’ longest play of the night out of nothing, a screen right that he cut back across the field. He broke Dallas CB Terence Newman’s tackle on quick pass in the second half and gained 17 yards. Moss also did a nice job adjusting to a pass that was behind him near the left sideline early in the third quarter. He was able to gain seven yards and set up a manageable third-and-2, which the Redskins converted.

“Those guys were prepared,” Moss said. “They knew everything. I remember guys calling my routes off of my alignments. It’s very interesting. When we play the Giants, they come up with a whole different game plan. I’ve never seen the same thing playing them. Out of all the times we’ve played them, they come up with something different the first and second game.

“Those guys knew more than us and knew things that we were doing before the snap. It’s hard to do something if someone is waiting on you to do it. Or they’re putting you in a situation where they want you to check into it so they can get you to do what they know you’re going to do. You can’t get off the ball here and there and you can’t be yourself at the quarterback position. If he’s out of whack, we’re out of whack.”
Moss said other teams do not call out the Redskins’ pass routes at the line.

“You might see it now and then, where a team might look at something, but to hear it wows you at times,” Moss said. “Before you’re running routes, you hear guys saying they’re looking for this. We ran a route one time where I knew they knew my alignment so I changed it and when they called out … I heard the guys talking, saying I thought he would do this. I was shaking my head.”

On Thursday, Moss offered the strongest defense of Portis of any Redskin. The running back was placed on the season-ending injured-reserve list Tuesday, and he hasn’t played since suffering a concussion Nov. 8 at Atlanta. But even before that happened, Portis’s production was down, and analysts and fans questioned whether he had lost a step or if his career might be coming to an end.

“People always say stuff when you’re not doing something,” Moss said. “But you look at what we had this year. What do you expect? What do you expect from a running back to be going through what we [are] going through season-wise, and not getting the carries that he’s normally getting to get himself going? You can’t do nothing.

“I mean, people are always going to have their mixed views, and that’s what you hate about this game, because it’s never up to you to say what you really [are] going through, or what you have going on. It’s always someone else’s opinion.”

Moss’s opinion: Portis will be back next year. “When it comes down to his situation, health is more important than anything,” Moss said. “He’ll get his time to rest, and I’m sure, if everything goes well, he’ll be badder than ever next year.”

Portis acknowledged on ESPN 980 earlier this week that his career might be over. But Moss believes the challenge presented by those who doubt him could serve as a motivator to Portis.

“Knowing the competitor in him, if Clinton [is] ready to go, he’s going to be ready to go,” Moss said. “He loves the challenge. I remember last year, when they started talking about different things last year with him about the year before, and you see what he did out there,” when he ran for 1,487 yards.

“If you look at it, Clinton never had the line that he had back in Denver. That’s not saying nothing against our line; it’s just it’s a different kind of league over here. The lines over here [have] been pretty good, but when it comes to what he had in Denver, man, you would pay for that. He’s been grinding it out. He had to gain weight to be able to take on the load. He had to do a lot of different things that he wasn’t accustomed to doing, and is still one of the greatest backs of this time. I always get caught up in it. I’ll stand up for him.”

But …

“He always finds some kind of way to have an astronomical game against us,” linebacker Bradie James said. “We know those guys real well. We know Moss. For you guys that don’t have twin turbos, it’s a sixth gear. He has a sixth gear when he plays against us.”

James is right. Moss has made a living off of torturing the Cowboys. In seven games he has 41 catches for 711 yards and four touchdowns. He has had more than 100 yards in four games. The cruelest, of course, was the five-catchy, 159-yard, two-touchdown game in 2005 when the Triplets were inducted into the Ring of Honor.

In his first three games against the Cowboys since Wade Phillips took over, he had 25 catches for 381 yards. But in the last game, he had just five catches for 29 yards thanks to Terence Newman, who shadowed him all over the field.

Earlier this season Newman shadowed Carolina’s Steve Smith and limited him to four catches for 38 yards and three of those catches came on the Panthers’ first drive.

EDGE: Newman

“Obviously, when I’m out there, I want to be out there,” Moss said. “I just take it the way they give it to me. I don’t want no more than what they give to me. I think I still have a knack for doing it. I love the position because it got me to this level, but when it comes to being out there fulltime, I don’t really care for that. I’ve had my share of fulltime duties in New York [for the Jets]. I did enough of that. Now my focus is bigger and different. But when it’s asked upon, I’ll go out there because I know it’s for the team.”

Moss said it’s not a question of returning punts hurting him as the team’s No. 1 receiver.

“Especially when you haven’t had the ball a lot offensively, it helps me get into the game,” Moss said. “It kinda breaks the ice a little bit if I hadn’t had a catch yet. It’s just something that certain guys can do. I relish teh moment just to be out there because I know that I’m one block here or one missed tackle from making a big play. A good punt returner is a guy who can make most of the guys miss. Our goal is always to make the first guy miss and get 10 yards.”

“You just got to be ready,” Moss said. “They showed … that they was going to cloud me, have a safety over the top. Just when they didn’t, we had the perfect play dialed up.”

The last Redskin to have 50-yard touchdown catches in back-to-back games was Gary Clark on Dec. 6 and 13, 1987.

A week after ending the Detroit Lions’ 19-game losing streak, the Redskins again were sputtering on offense before quarterback Jason Campbell connected with Santana Moss down the sideline for a 59-yard touchdown pass. It put the Redskins ahead for the first time with 1:22 left in the third quarter, and they wound up winning 16-13 before a restless crowd at FedEx Field.

Moss took advantage of rare single coverage on the play. Buccaneers cornerback Aqib Talib intercepted three passes in the game to tie a club record, but this was not one of them. Campbell faked to running back Clinton Portis, and Moss put a double move on Talib, beat him soundly and caught the pass in stride.

“You’ve got to be ready,” said the veteran Moss, the Redskins’ only big-play wide receiver. “They showed me kind of like a cloud all game. They were gonna cloud me and have a safety over the top. And just when they didn’t, we had the perfect play dialed up.”

Tampa Bay is where the cover two defense was refined and became known as the Tampa 2. It’s designed to take away the big play, especially down the middle of the field.

“It’s what they do,” Moss said. “And they do a good job of it. They’ve been doing it ever since I’ve known about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“I’m just glad we got something out of it because it’s hard to be a receiver in a game like this when they play a cover two all game and all you have is outside routes.”

This time, though, the Bucs weren’t in it.

“The first thing I told the offensive line is this will be a touchdown,” Campbell said.

Added Moss: “That’s all I need, single coverage here and there. When you’re getting doubled, you can’t throw to somebody. I thrive to get a chance to be singled, but it seems like when I get those chances, I do stuff like that, but it gets me doubled again.

“But it all comes with the territory. I appreciate it that when I’m not covered we get opportunities like that. When I’m covered, I tell Jason all the time, ‘Hey, somebody else has got to be open, so let’s not force anything.’ ”

But if any other wide receivers were open, Campbell either failed to notice or could not accurately deliver the ball. Moss was the only wideout with a catch, and he had just two total. Tight end Chris Cooley caught five passes for 65 yards. Running backs Ladell Betts and Mike Sellers combined for four receptions.

Last week against the Lions, Moss caught a 57-yard touchdown pass as part of a career-high 178 receiving yards. With his catch against the Buccaneers, he became the first Redskins receiver with touchdown grabs of at least 50 yards in successive games since Gary Clark in 1987.

Moss didn’t know this. Not that it would have mattered. In light of the pessimism and ill feelings swirling about the team, he was just relieved not to talk about another ugly loss.

“We’re getting a lot of criticism from anywhere you can call it,” he said. “But at the end of the day, if you sit back and worry about what somebody’s telling you about what you do, then you’re not in it for the right reasons. It’s tough to be the quarterback of this team. It’s tough to be the head coach of this team. It’s tough to be the owner of this team. D.C. wants so much, and we want to do that for them.

“Particularly today, we wanted to get a win here, just to show the fans that, yeah, we hear y’all. Yeah, we understand what y’all are feeling and what y’all are going through. But just believe — we’re going through the same thing. You think we want to be in this situation? You think we want to play the way we’ve been playin’? No. The only way for us to come out of it is to come out and do what we do.”

The Redskins are now 1-2 on the season.