The Story Behind “Straight Cash, Homie”

When the Minnesota Vikings first opened the TCO Performance Center in 2018, KARE 11 web content creator Dana Thiede visited the new facility to write a story about its debut. While he was working in the truck, Bea Chang, KARE’s social media manager, came running excitedly with a random Vikings fan by her side.

“There he is!” she said to the fan, pointing to Thiede. “This is the guy who made your shirt possible.”

The fan, who traveled all the way from Ohio to watch TCOPC and attend a Vikings practice, was wearing a T-shirt with three words on it: “Straight Cash, Homie.”

Thiede took a photo with the fan and told him how he was responsible for Randy Moss’ famous slogan.

Here is this story…

On January 9, 2005, the Vikings faced the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card round of the playoffs at Lambeau Field. Entering the fourth quarter, the Vikings had a 24-17 lead and had the ball in Packer territory at the 34-yard line. Quarterback Daunte Culpepper looked to his right and saw that his megastar receiver would be in man-to-man coverage. Every time an opponent tried to stop Moss one-on-one, the play call immediately switched to throwing a deep ball to Moss.

As he had done hundreds of times before, Moss left the Packers’ defender in the dust, flew down the sideline and caught a touchdown that effectively put the game on ice. After reaching the end zone, Moss turned his back to the Packers crowd and pantomimed pulling down his pants.

“This is a disgusting act!” said spokesman Joe Buck.

Moss later explained that his cheering was in response to Packers fans cheering for the opposing team’s bus.

The following days were a circus.

Vikings owner Red McCombs released a statement calling on FOX to remove Buck from the divisional game between the Vikings and Eagles. McCombs’ statement said Buck’s comment “suggested a bias that went beyond objective reporting.”

FOX responded by saying, “We hope Mr. McCombs enjoys Joe’s play-by-play call on Sunday because he will be in the booth.”

Four days after the false mooning, Moss was fined $10,000 by the NFL.

Back then, Vikings had a penchant for bizarre and unpleasant stories. Arrests, sex boat parties, Whizzinators, things like that. At the KARE 11 building, there were concerns from some sports reporters that players would refuse to talk if they questioned them about such stories, so they would send Thiede to the Vikings’ old facility in Winter Park to do the dirty work .

Thiede grew up a Packers fan in New Hope, Minnesota in the 1970s. Since his parents were teachers and had the summer off, he spent the summer months vacationing at their lake property, where he often read all day in a hammock. When he was eight years old, he borrowed a book by Packers legend Jerry Kramer from his uncle and became obsessed with Green Bay football.

When Thiede began his media career, he landed as a producer in Green Bay and then Milwaukee. In 1992, he returned to Minnesota to produce the 10 o’clock news. He eventually became a field reporter at KARE, which he describes as: “Going out and crafting a story, talking to interesting people, writing a script and then giving it to one of our famous people, and at the end they said my name.”

On January 13, 2005, Thiede’s dirty work assignment at Winter Park was to surveil Moss in hopes of obtaining comment on the fine the NFL had levied for the “disgusting act” at Lambeau. He went with general videographer Monica Hanson to see if Moss would speak.

Back then, if a player wasn’t in the locker room, reporters would wait outside the back door of Winter Park for him to come out and go to his cars. Thiede and the assembled Twin Cities media waited and waited and waited outside that door for Moss. Eventually, it became clear to the longtime producer that Moss would not leave the location where the reporters had gathered. No, he would try something different.

“Everyone was standing around and all of a sudden I looked at (Monica) and said, ‘You know he’s not going to come out that door, right?’ “He can’t get out of that door,” Thiede said Purple Insider over the phone. “It’s not rocket science. How could Randy get out of the building? The loading dock. You H!”

Thiede and Hanson walked down the ramp leading to the locker room door and walked to the loading dock, which was perhaps 100 feet away.

“It was late afternoon and it’s really bright and there’s a lot of shadows and all of a sudden I look up at the dock and the door opens and there comes a very tall, thin man with a hood pulled around his head.” said Thiede. I looked at (Monica) and said, ‘Let’s go!’ She rolled it.”

As Moss approached his truck, Thiede shouted something to Moss. Here was the exchange:

THIEDE: “Are you writing the check yet, Randy?”

MOSS: “When you’re rich, you don’t write checks.”

THIEDE: “How do you pay, man?”

MOSS: Huh?

THIEDE: “If you don’t write checks, how do you pay these people?”

MOSS: “Lots of money, buddy.”

Boom. Iconic. But why would Moss ask the question this way?

Thiede has an explanation.

Throughout the years he spent reporting on the ground, he kept asking questions, but they never appeared in the reports, so he learned to strike up conversations with interviewees on camera. And when it wasn’t a serious topic, he often joked and kept things light. Since he was more of a news reporter, he viewed Moss’ moon trip as a hilarious turn of events rather than something that needed to be treated like a serious news story.

He also had enough contact with Moss to get a feel for his personality. He knew the superstar wide receiver had a good sense of humor, so he tried to capitalize on it.

“One thing I learned about Randy is that you didn’t treat him the same way you treated other people,” Thiede said. “You were playful and having fun because he couldn’t stop. He was a funny guy. God, it was fun covering him. I always noticed in the interactions I had with him that when you were having fun with him, he always reacted completely differently and was much more engaged. That was the intention.”

Thiede and Hanson knew exactly what they had when they jumped back into the KARE truck and headed to the studio. Pure gold.

When they arrived, Thiede told executive producer Lonnie Hartley that he had something to show him. They put the tape in the logging station, turned up the volume and played it.

“(Lonnie) wasn’t the type of guy who usually laughed, but he started laughing and kept laughing until tears started streaming from his eyes,” Thiede said. “He yells, ‘Hey guys, come back and look at this!’ All of a sudden you have a logging room and there’s 25 people crammed in there and we’re playing it over and over and everyone’s laughing. Then it exploded.”

KARE showed it on TV again and again for the rest of the week. After that, it exploded and was one of the moments that defined Moss’ time in Minnesota.

The fascinating thing about “Straight Cash, Homie” is that it had staying power. How many events from 20 years ago, no matter how memorable, still have such resonance?

“People just loved it,” Thiede said.

They still do that. When the Vikings play the Packers at US Bank Stadium on Sunday, it’s a total guarantee that fans wearing “Straight Cash, Homie” jerseys will be in the crowd. ESPN used the phrase as a segment NFL countdown, in which Moss appears as an analyst.

Thiede said that every time the saying appears on television during an ESPN broadcast or on an anniversary, his phone blows up and friends and family remind him that he was the one who popped the question to Moss.

“It was a fun part of my life,” Thiede said. “I’ve won Emmys and the 2005 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Major Author in America, but I’ll never be known for those things. In 33 years of work, this is the unique moment that people associate with me and I feel completely comfortable with it. It was great to be there.”

Of course, his wife thinks he deserves a little more credit for Moss’ famous moment.

“But when you talk to her, every time it comes up she rolls her eyes and says, ‘That guy owes you some money,’ and I say, ‘Honey, calm down,'” Thiede said with a laugh. “That’s her thing.”

Thiede never had the opportunity to talk to Moss about it and relive that moment. He hopes to do that one day.

When the Vikings play the Packers at US Bank Stadium on Sunday, Thiede will be cheering on Green Bay. He will also be cheering on Moss and missing him on ESPN. Two weeks ago, the Vikings legend announced he was battling cancer.

“You want to talk about a great success story,” said Thiede. “For him to step up to a role like that (on ESPN) to show that he’s smart and funny and the shining star of this show – that’s how I warm up on Sundays before football by watching Randy.”

And in case you’re wondering, yes, Thiede owns a “Straight Cash, Homie” t-shirt.