"Honestly," he told me today, "I really didn't know. I just thought I got back up. They were just tellin' me about it, but I really didn't know I was out that long. Thought I just got hit and got back up."

One of the "they" was Marko Mitchell.

"I told him," Mitchell said. " I was fixin' to run out there, the way he was. He was like" -- Mitchell demonstrated Moss's spread-out pose. "He thought he just got hit and shook it off. I was like, no you did NOT. You lay there for, like, a minute."

"I don't know if it was quite a minute," said David Elfin of the Washington Times, "but it was thirty seconds or something."

Moss shrugged. "I didn't know."

(The only other player who offered an opinion on Moss's stay on the Georgia Dome turf was Mike Sellers, who put it this way: "He was just resting." I pointed out that Moss didn't remember resting and Sellers shok his head. "Most people who go to sleep don't remember what happened," he said patiently. "I told you, he was resting. That's a little bit of a roundabout way to say it, but ... he was resting.")

Mitchell was sitting next to Moss because the two had been discussing the intricacies of the game, going back and forth about specific plays far too quickly for me to follow. "This is a good guy to learn from," Mitchell said. "I try to be like this guy."

And Moss approved of Mitchell's first regular season NFL work as well: two catches for 22 yards. "He was good, man," Moss said. "It was one of those things where, when you're a young guy -- especially a first year guy -- and you finally get your chance to play, all you're thinking of is going out there and gettin' your first NFL catch, your chance to get your feet wet. And being a receiver, the only way you can get your feet wet is by getting out there, gettin' some catches. He came in, did what he had to do. Made some key catches -- I think they were both for first downs." (They were.)

Mitchell had started the open locker room by joining the media scrum at Moss's locker, towel draped over his head and iPhone set to record.

"I'm part of the media now," he explained to me. "Gotta interview these guys, you know? Get to see what these guys are thinkin' a little bit."

Moss rolled his eyes at Mitchell. "I think I like his first job," he said, at the suggestion that Mitchell should get into media stuff full time. "I think when he's done playing, he can do whatever the [heck] he wants to do, but he's got a bright future in his first job."