Randy Moss (born 1959) is an American sports announcer and reporter who covers thoroughbred racing, football and Olympics forNBC Sports and theNFL Network, and until its closure in 2021,NBCSN.
Moss was born in 1959, inHot Springs, Arkansas. He attended horse races atOaklawn Park Race Track during his youth, often sneaking into the track despite being underage. During high school and college he assistedDaily Racing Form columnist Don Grisham on an Oaklawn handicapping column in theArkansas Gazette. Moss then spent one semester in pharmacy school at theUniversity of Arkansas beforeGazette sports editor Orville Henry hired him to work for the paper full time.[1]
In 1984, Moss left theGazette for theArkansas Democrat after theDemocrat offered to double his salary due to his popularity as a handicapper. From 1989 to 1995, he worked forThe Dallas Morning News.[1]
Moss left journalism in 1995 and returned home to work as the director of operations for Oaklawn. In 1996, Moss returned to sports writing as a reporter for theFort Worth Star-Telegram. He left theStar-Telegram in 1999 after he subbed as an ESPN analyst for that year's Preakness Stakes coverage and subsequently was offered a full-time job by the network.[1]
For thirty years, Moss has been part ofAndrew Beyer's team that calculates forDaily Racing Form the iconicBeyer Speed Figures, a mathematical index measuring racehorse speed that is widely considered the most popular handicapping tool in thoroughbred racing. He also created the "Moss Pace Figures" published online byDaily Racing Form.[citation needed]
In June 1999, Moss becameESPN's primary horse racing analyst.[1] In August 2008, he joined theNFL Network, where for three years he was studio host for "Team Cam" and "Around the League" and now is primarily a remote reporter.[2]
In 2011, Moss began as an analyst for theTriple Crown forNBC andNBCSN and now covers horse racing exclusively for those networks. In addition to his horse racing analyst duties, Moss has handled reporter, host or play-by-play duties for a wide variety of other sports broadcasts on the NBC family of networks includingcollege football,college basketball,golf,show jumping, twoSuper Bowls and multipleOlympic Games (2012,2014 and2016,2022). For Olympic coverage, he has been assigned to equestrian sports, ski jumping, freestyle skiing, water polo, whitewater canoeing and kayaking, synchronized swimming, and race walking.[citation needed]