By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
In basketball, one player on a team can dominate a game. In baseball, an unhittable pitcher can make up for a lot of deficiencies a team might otherwise have.
But in football, that’s a different story. With 11 guys out there, you never want to say that someone is a one-man team.
So let’s don’t say that. But trying to find the words to describe what Tony Moss did for the Bossier Bearkats during his high school football career might be as tough as trying to tackle him.
He was a quarterback, a running back, a kicker, a punt returner, a kickoff returner and receiver. When you start gathering the names of those in local history who could dominate a high school game from anywhere on the field, be sure you have Tony Moss on that list.
In a typical game his junior year against Woodlawn, he ran 15 times for 139 yards (including an 80-yard run), completed six of seven passes, kicked a 34-yard field goal, had a 60-yard interception return and a 85-yard kickoff return.
After his Parkway team beat Bossier in the final game of Moss’ 1983 junior season, the late Panthers coach Grover Colvin said “he’s phenomenal.” In that game, Moss caught a touchdown, ran for a touchdown and had an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Little did Colvin know that Moss was saving the best for last.
Moss, whose father was in the Air Force, moved to Bossier from Germany before the start of his freshman season. “When I first got to Bossier, they really didn’t have much,” he says. “The players weren’t used to winning. I didn’t mind doing what I had to do. Football was always one of my joys.”
After having played quarterback in the Bearkats’ veer offense, new coach Dick Concilio switched to the I-formation to feature the talents of Moss even more for his senior year.
You might say that worked.
Before you get too deep into the following statistics, keep this in mind – the Bearkats were a 4-6 team in 1984. In his four years as a starter, the Bearkats were a combined 7-33.
Against Airline on Oct. 5, he ran for 361 yards on 34 carries and scored five touchdowns. He had 231 yards at halftime. At the time, he was the first Shreveport-Bossier player to rush for 300 yards in 30 years.
For the season, Moss ran for 1,495 yards on 252 carries. In his career, he had 688 carries.
Moss was the first player in local history to finish his career with more than 3,000 rushing yards (3,037). (Since then, 21 other players have done it.) But keep two things in mind – (1) this was during a time when offenses weren’t nearly as prolific as they are now and (2) he only played one season at running back.
Oh, and has it been mentioned yet that he was all of 5-foot-7 and 166 pounds?
That didn’t seem to bother him when he took the next step and went to LSU, where he became a two-time consensus All-SEC receiver, finishing his career as the third-leading pass catcher in LSU history (132 catches, 2,196 yards).
“I remember getting a letter from LSU that they were coming to a game my junior year,” he remembers. “And I had a pretty good game that might. From there, I started being on their radar. I was recruited as a running back. Coach (Bill) Arnsparger even came to the house and threw that pressure on me. But he really wanted me to make the commitment. He always liked my running style and elusiveness.”
Moss was moved to wide receiver after LSU signed five running backs in one recruiting class and he joined Fair Park product Wendell Davis in the receiving corps. Davis was the featured receiver for the Tigers, but once he was picked in the first round of the 1988 draft, Moss became the go-to guy for Tommy Hodson and the LSU offense in the Tigers’ 1988 SEC championship season.
His Bossier days certainly came into play in the SEC as Moss became known for his ability to make defenders miss after the catch.
“I had never really played the position, so my main goal was to get out on the field on Saturday and figure it out,” Moss says. “Once I figured out how to play the position, I started enjoying it.”
As Moss prepared for the 1990 draft, he played in two All-Star games in two weeks. “That’s when I started having knee problems and it started swelling up,” he says. “The week after that second All-Star game was the (NFL) combine so I really didn’t have time in between to rest. I failed the physical and ended up having surgery right before the draft.”
Still, Moss was drafted in the fourth round by the Chicago Bears in 1990, but he could tell things weren’t right. “I went to camp but my body never felt the same,” he says. “But I got through camp and ended up playing in a pre-season game and separated my shoulder.”
After being on injured reserve for the Bears, he was released. Minnesota picked him up for the practice squad but he was also released.
He played for Barcelona in the World League of Football in 1992 and even had a season with the CFL’s Shreveport Pirates in 1994.
“My knee just wasn’t strong enough,” he says. “It ended up measuring about 45 percent of what my right knee was.”
He’s 59 now and has spent the last 20 years working for KCS Railroad (now CPKC). “Besides doing that, just being a grandfather, enjoying my life and trying to stay healthy,” he says.
As for being a grandfather, it’s pretty obvious that multiple apples didn’t fall far from the tree. His son Anthony had an outstanding career as a quarterback at Airline in the early 2000s and went on to play at Northwestern State.
Grandson Julius Moss was a standout for Calvary as a defensive back and running back, graduating in the spring and also headed to play college football for the Air Force Academy.
“I look back at my football career and my accomplishments in high school and college and I had always dreamed of that,” Moss says. “But once you get to the pros, it’s a different mindset. You have to reset. You’ve got to be bigger and stronger. Bur I’ve got no gripes.
“I never had the fear of not making it,” he says. “I knew my ability. If I had the ball, I knew how to make people miss.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com