Moss is in the final season of a three-year, $27 million contract and has said several times that he expected 2010 to be his last season with the Patriots. He did not have a catch in a 41-14 win over Miami on Monday night.

“When you have done so much and put so much work in, it kind of feels like I am not wanted,” Moss said in September. “I am taking that in stride and playing my final year out and whatever the future holds is what it holds, but it is kind of a bad feeling — feeling not wanted.”

Moss later backtracked from those statements, telling The Associated Press that he hoped to finish his career with the Patriots.

“For me to be 33 years old, it’s like I’m held at bay,” he said. “If this is my last year here, I want to leave as good as I came in here in ’07. I know that’s really hard to duplicate, but I don’t want the fans, the organization, coaches or my teammates to have a sour taste in their mouths about Randy Moss.”

His agent, Joel Segal, said the Vikings have not contacted him about a long-term deal, so Moss joins a long list of Vikings in the final year of their contracts. Among them are Rice, linebackers Ben Leber and Chad Greenway and defensive end Ray Edwards.

Childress and vice president Rick Spielman were not in Minnesota during Moss’s original seven years there, though there’s no doubt he’ll be welcomed with open arms.

He caught 574 passes for 9,142 yards and 90 touchdowns in his first stint with Minnesota, bursting onto the scene in 1998 by catching deep throws from Randall Cunningham and helping a record-breaking offense reach the NFC title game.

The entertaining style of football that he brought with him started a string of sellouts at the Metrodome that is still going 13 years later. His purple No. 84 jersey can still be seen regularly on the backs of fans, six years after he was traded Oakland.

But his time in Minnesota wasn’t always smooth.

There was the time he bumped a traffic cop with his car in downtown Minneapolis, left the field early from a game in Washington, and several other occasions where he was fined for antics on the field, prompting the Vikings to trade him to the Raiders in 2005.

He hasn’t had any of those types of problems in New England, but there were signs that his time with the Patriots was coming to an end. Monday night was the first time he has not caught a pass for the Patriots since joining them in 2007.

“Consistent with my dealings with Randy from the day we acquired him through our conversation this morning, it has been honest, thoughtful and with great mutual respect,” Belichick said.