The opening moments of ESPN’s ‘Sunday NFL Countdown’ briefly took a more serious turn this week.
Host Mike Greenberg quickly gave the floor to NFL Hall of Famer Randy Moss, who then addressed an ongoing health issue that forced him to wear sunglasses at times throughout the broadcast. Moss’ eyes appeared to be yellow during the previous week’s show, and he asked the audience for their prayers as he is ‘battling something internally.’
‘I just want to share something with y’all,’ Moss said. ‘I put a post up maybe a few minutes ago on Instagram just telling people who were talking about my eyes last week and I just want to let the viewers know that me and my wife, me and my family, we are battling something internally. I have some great doctors around me. I couldn’t miss the show. I wanted to be here with you guys. I feel great, but if you see me with these Michigan turnover glasses that I have on, it’s not being disrespectful because I’m on television. Man, I’m battling something. I need all the prayer warriors. God bless you all and thanks for the prayers.’
Greenberg and the rest of the ‘NFL Sunday Countdown’ crew featuring Rex Ryan, Alex Smith and Tedy Bruschi then put on glasses as well in a show of solidarity with Moss for their Week 13 broadcast.
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Moss, 47, encouraged men to ‘get your blood work done,’ in his Instagram post. He also declared that ‘your boy is going to get through it.’ He did not disclose specifics about the illness or medical situation that he’s going through at the moment.
The Hall of Famer played for 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers. He ranks second all-time in career touchdown catches (156) behind only Jerry Rice and he’s fourth all-time in receiving yards (15,292).
Moss has been an NFL analyst at ESPN since 2016, with regular appearances on ‘Sunday NFL Countdown’ and ‘Monday Night Countdown’ as part of the network’s pro football coverage.