When you've been the guy who poured gasoline on the fire too many times in the past, it stands to reason you top the list of usual suspects, even when a teammate is the one playing amateur arsonist.

That's what Randy Moss should have discovered Sunday afternoon, when he and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper went nose-to-nose in an incendiary third-quarter exchange aired so many times on all the national highlight shows it's a wonder the images didn't fall right off the videotape.

	Randy Moss has disappointed a lot of people this week.

So this time it was Culpepper, who had just tossed his third interception in a loss to the Carolina Panthers, who got caught red-handed with the matches. Frustrated by another spotty performance, Culpepper raised his arm to slam his helmet to the ground and then, according to two Vikings players, felt it more necessary to raise his voice and slam Moss instead for what the young passer perceived as a lack of effort.

It was not, we all know, the first time Moss has been charged with loafing through a play. Given his own foolish acknowledgement that he only plays hard when he feels like it, it won't be the last time, rest assured.

"You love Randy for all that talent ... but the guy sometimes brings this on himself, you know?" said one veteran player. "And now, because he's been the one screaming on the sideline so much in the past, he's going to catch the heat every time there's an incident."

When the all-seeing eye of the television camera caught Moss jaw-jacking with the quarterback, it was an open invitation for everyone who had seen this tired act before to react, and to at least think those same ol' Randy kinds of thoughts.

And who does Moss have to blame for the public overreaction every time he so much as raises an eyebrow on the sideline?

Try the guy in the mirror.

Forget the fact Moss can't bite his tongue on the sideline. Shove a minicam in front of him, and it's as if he has been granted license to utter something stupid, which he frequently does. Open your yap too many times, the saying goes, and you are apt to stick your foot in it. At this point in a brilliant but also flawed career, the Moss resume includes a mouthful of football cleats.

Vikings coach Mike Tice termed Sunday's contretemps "not that big of a deal." Moss referred to it as part of "the heat of battle." But bottom line, it was another photo op of Randy Moss doing what he does second-best in life, screaming at someone on a Minnesota bench he has helped to make one of the most dysfunctional locales in all of sport.

What were his alternatives, once good buddy Culpepper got in his grille, you ask? How about walking away. Or ignoring Culpepper altogether. Or, here's a novel concept, quietly apprising the quarterback that a debate might be far more appropriate in the sanctuary of the locker room.

Make no mistake, Moss is a unique talent, and he is treated as one. Tice has instituted the much-ballyhooed "Randy Ratio," in which he wants 40 percent of the team's pass attempts thrown in Moss' direction. The ratio hasn't hit the 40 percent level for the year, certainly didn't on Sunday, when Moss had just four catches for a paltry 16 yards.

Through three games, Moss has 21 catches for 185 yards and two scores. If you project those numbers over a 16-game schedule, Moss would finish with 112 receptions, 986 yards and 11 touchdowns. Of course, if you project the Vikings' record over the season, as well, they'd be 0-16.

So mark down the "Randy Ratio" as a bust to this point. But also realize that when you put a guy on a pedestal, as Tice has done with Moss, the player kind of expects to be treated as someone special. Moss is special, of course, as a player. As a team leader, though, he leaves a lot to be desired.

Leaders understand that discretion is sometimes the better part of valor. It's a lesson that, once again, went right over Moss' head on Sunday afternoon.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.