In starting a truck team, Moss facing long yardage

In the summer of 2005, recently-retired NFL wide receiver Tim Brown stood before a gathering of reporters at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and announced his intentions to go racing. He didn't have a driver, didn't have a crew chief, didn't have a sponsor. Armed with only an agreement with Jack Roush to provide equipment, the former Heisman Trophy winner unveiled Tim Brown Racing, and stated his intention to compete at NASCAR's highest level the next year.

"I want to help bring NASCAR to the urban community," he said. "Right now, it's not too cool to wear a Dale Earnhardt Jr. jacket in the 'hood. We want to make it cool."

They were noble intentions, especially for a sport struggling to diversify itself, but they never happened. There was no Tim Brown Racing in 2006, 2007, or 2008. In fact, we never heard publicly from Brown on the subject again. Whatever expectations he had of breaking into NASCAR seemed to evaporate into thin air, just like the hopes of so many others who thought -- somewhat naively, in retrospect -- that they could succeed in this arena because they succeeded in another one.

And now comes word that another NFL wide receiver, Randy Moss of the New England Patriots, will try to form a Craftsman Truck Series team that will debut later this season and run full-time in 2009. While Moss seems to be a bit more NASCAR-savvy than Brown was -- he's sponsored a car on a local track in his native West Virginia, and served as an ambassador to the Urban Youth Racing School in Philadelphia -- Moss Motorsports still doesn't have anything but a name. "We don't have all the details in place just yet," he said in a release.

Now, let's make this clear: Anyone who likes NASCAR should hope Moss' organization becomes a reality. The guy may have something of a checkered past, but he seems to dig racing, and he'd add another valuable crossover personality to a sport that had Friday night's Nationwide Series race at Richmond bumped off ESPN2 because of a conflict with the NBA playoffs. And goodness knows his profile couldn't hurt the truck circuit, which these days seem to put on great races in a vacuum.

So your heart says, go Randy go. It would be very cool to see Moss walking through the truck garage, camped out on top of a pit box, sitting in on the drivers' meeting. It would be a big boost to both NASCAR's diversity efforts and the visibility of the Truck Series. But your head wonders if it will ever happen, because we've seen this movie before.

There might not be anything in sports more difficult than pulling together sponsorship for a new NASCAR organization in a depressed economy, especially when there are already established car owners in all three national series funding teams out of their own pockets. Sponsorship is far from a guarantee, and the lack of it has scuttled the dreams of neophytes and experienced racers alike.

On Tuesday, NFL star Randy Moss announced the formation of Moss Motorsports with its intended participation in the Craftsman Truck Series.

• Complete story, click here

Just ask Eddie D'Hondt. The veteran team executive went out on his own in 2006, teaming with engineer Bill Riley to form Riley-D'Hondt Motorsports. Like Brown, there was a press conference at Indianapolis full of big plans, among them two Busch cars and a part-time Cup schedule the next year. The stark reality was a handful of Busch races and one Cup start, at Infineon Raceway. The sponsorship never came together, and the partnership soon afterward dissolved.

Even when sponsorship isn't an issue, juggling the myriad of factors that make a NASCAR team go can sometimes be too much. Hip-hop artist Nelly jumped into the sport with much fanfare in 2003, buying into a Billy Ballew-owned truck that would bear the logo of Nelly's clothing line, Vokal. After a few starts with drivers Andy Houston and Patrick Lawler, Vokal -- and Nelly -- were never heard from again. Remember the big partnership between Robert Yates Racing and the Newman/Haas/Lanigan open-wheel organization, announced at Indy last year? Even Paul Newman was on stage for that one. But when Robert Yates retired, the handshake agreement fell apart.

When it comes to NASCAR, the devil is very much in the details. Year after year, prospective car owners announce big plans that never come to fruition. You'd think people would learn from that, and make sure their sponsor and manufacturer -- at the very least -- were nailed down before announcing their plans to the public. Because few things are more embarrassing than a big press conference that amounts to nothing.

In the press release announcing the formation of his race team, Moss points to the long line of current and former NFL players that have preceded him into the sport. And he's right. But what he fails to mention is that Dan Marino's involvement lasted one year. Jim Kelly's partnership with Frank Cicci lasted just two lean seasons. Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach sold majority interest in Hall of Fame Racing to a pair of Arizona Diamondbacks executives after just more than a year at the helm. Terry Bradshaw's cars started 85 races in three Nationwide seasons before he bowed out. Brown's organization never progressed beyond a press conference.

It's a tough deal, and car owners who enter this sport with anything less than full commitment are often quickly overmatched, if they even get off the ground. As his football career would suggest, Randy Moss is a determined athlete. That, and his preexisting interest in NASCAR, gives him a chance at bucking the trend. If he does, it might be a bigger achievement than his football team going 16-0.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer