Randy Moss is still making big catches, long after he finished playing football.
The Hall of Fame wide receiver with the second-most touchdown receptions in NFL history has found his off-the-field calling on the boat, fishing for freshwater bass.
“That’s my passion right now. That’s my hobby. That’s my getaway. That’s my therapy,” Moss said.
Mostly confined to his home for about nine months while he underwent chemotherapy and radiation to beat cancer, Moss developed a deeper appreciation for being in nature. Since his treatment was completed last fall and his rare form of the disease — in the bile duct between the pancreas and the liver — was deemed to be in remission, Moss has often had a rod and reel in his hands.
This lifelong hobby for Moss has become a third career of sorts, following his work as an NFL analyst for ESPN that he resumed with the 2025 season.
“I’m just excited to be able to showcase my talent and go out there and show people that I have something else other than football that I love,” Moss said.
Moss was hired by World Bass Enterprises to serve as an ambassador for “ The Champions ” tournament this fall in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an inaugural five-day event just across the river from Nashville designed to determine a true title in a sport divided by two competing tours. WBE was founded earlier this year by Brian Bird, a Texas businessman and amateur angler who has become a fishing buddy to Moss.
In the meantime, Moss and his business partner, Andrew Grein, have been busy filming a documentary series, “ Chasing 10,” that features Moss fishing with celebrity guests in pursuit of the elusive 10-pound largemouth bass while offering tips and trading stories. He's auctioning off a custom-made boat for each season to benefit the Children's Cancer Research Fund in Minnesota.
“I had to take a year off to be able to get myself back right, but my health is great,” Moss said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I still have my quarterly checkups every four months, my scans, but I just think that now that I’m back outside, this is one of the things that I couldn’t wait to see. I have the bass waiting on me, so I’m just a kid in the candy store having fun, man."
The Champions event, which is carrying a total prize purse of $3.25 million for the largest in the history of the sport, will pay $1.25 million to the winner from a field of 50 anglers — the top 25 from each of the two biggest organizations in competitive bass fishing.
The Bass Anglers Sportsman Society — known as B.A.S.S. — runs the Bassmaster Elite Series. Major League Fishing has the newer Bass Pro Tour. For the past seven years, a bit like the PGA and LIV factions in golf, the best anglers in the world have been split between two groups. Moss is on board with Bird to try to help unite the sport and take it further into the mainstream.
“We both are trying to bring something that’s really positive to the sport of bass fishing,” said Bird, who sold his electrical construction services company three years ago and has invested his own money into the launch of the tournament. “It's a good way for a family to spend time out in nature.”
The first batch of Chasing 10 episodes posted to YouTube this week included a spirited outing with the Kelce brothers and a reunion of fellow receivers from the Minnesota Vikings with Cris Carter and Jake Reed. While he was out on another show with Bird on a Texas lake, Moss giddily reeled in the hallowed 10-pounder, comparing the anxiety he felt during the process to the moments before a football play when he knew the pass was coming his way.
Moss first learned how to cast a line while growing up in West Virginia with his older half-brother, Eric Moss, who died in 2019. Soon after Moss started his NFL career in Minnesota in 1998, he was introduced to a professional angler, the late John Laub, who taught him the sport on the St. Croix River along the Wisconsin border.
“My first actual bass experience, I caught 20!" Moss said. “John, he was glowing. That's the man who showed me bass fishing, and I haven't looked back since.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
FILE - Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss (84) jumps into the crowd to celebrate his 42-yard touchdown pass from Daunte Culpepper during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in Minneapolis, Oct. 9, 2000. (AP Photo/Paul Battaglia, File)
FILE - Minnesota Vikings receiver Randy Moss catches a 34-yard touchdown pass in front of Green Bay Packers cornerback Al Harris in the fourth quarter of their NFC wild-card game Sunday, Jan. 9, 2005, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)
FILE - Former wide receiver and TV analyst Randy Moss walks on the field before an NFL wild-card playoff football game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Arizona Cardinals in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Jan. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Go crazy, New York. Or, perhaps more accurately, crazier.
The red-hot Knicks are going home, two wins away from an NBA championship that the capital of the world has been waiting to see for generations.
Jalen Brunson hit a go-ahead free throw with 9.5 seconds left after a turnover by Victor Wembanyama moments earlier, then Wembanyama missed a jumper at the end of New York’s 105-104 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night for a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
“What a ballgame,” Knicks coach Mike Brown marveled.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points and 13 rebounds, while Brunson and Mikal Bridges each scored 20 for the Knicks. They have won 13 straight, the second-longest streak by any team in NBA playoff history.
“New York City showed up,” Towns said. “The fans showed up. The energy showed up. And we found a way to get it done.”
The Knicks are now just the third team to win the first two games of a finals on the road, joining Michael Jordan and the 1993 Chicago Bulls, and Hakeem Olajuwon and the 1995 Houston Rockets.
Both of those teams won championships, the Bulls needing six games to oust the Phoenix Suns, the Rockets going home after winning those first two games in Orlando and sweeping the Magic. The Knicks, seeking their first championship since 1973, are in position to join them.
Wembanyama, after a very quiet first half, scored 29. De’Aaron Fox had 20 for San Antonio.
“We can't change the past,” Wembanyama said, “We're already thinking about Game 3.”
The series now shifts to New York. Game 3 is at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.
President Donald Trump — a native New Yorker — plans on attending Monday. And ticket prices on the secondary market, for the worst seats at MSG, were approaching $9,000 apiece on Friday night, with Knicks fans evidently willing to pay tippy-top dollar just to be in the building as the team nears what would be its first championship in 53 years.
The Spurs were down 14 midway through the fourth and came all the way back — scoring the next 14 points to tie the game. Wembanyama's three-point play with 57 seconds left gave the Spurs their first lead in nearly two full quarters, putting San Antonio up 104-102.
“We showed tremendous desperation, urgency and competitive response,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “Hopefully we can try to bottle that up ... and try to play to that same level.”
But the Knicks got the last three, Brunson — the hero of Game 1 for the Knicks — getting them all.
Brunson scored on the next possession, just his seventh basket in 24 shots on the night, and the game was tied. Wembanyama missed a long jumper, OG Anunoby got the rebound for New York with 30 seconds left, the Knicks called time and the stage was set.
The Spurs got a stop, but Wembanyama threw the ball away. Brunson got fouled, the Knicks had the lead back and before long Spurs fans were filing out of the arena — possibly for the final time this season.
The Spurs called time with 7.5 seconds remaining. Fox took the inbound pass, then set up Wembanyama for a jumper that would have won it. The shot bounced off the rim, and it was over.
“We had to get a stop. We hadn’t gotten a stop all quarter,” Towns said.
They got their stop. Next stop: New York, where the hottest team in basketball knows an NBA title is just two wins away.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper shoots as New York Knicks forward Og Anunoby defends during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama drives on New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) blocks the shot of New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) and guard De'aaron Fox (4) reacts after a foul call during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson, right, and New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson (23) battle for the ball during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) looks towards San Antonio Spurs guard De'aaron Fox (4) after a foul during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) looks to his bench during the first half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson stretches during a workout prior to the start of the NBA Finals basketball series against the San Antonio Spurs, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
