Precociousness was a big part of that comparison -- Discreet Cat ran a faster number in his debut than Lost in the Fog did while winning the King's Bishop on the same card. In terms of comparing careers ... Discreet Cat obviously isn't a 1st ballot Hall of Famer, Moss is.
A point that hasn't been touched upon -- Randy Moss was recently voted as the player who had the best rookie season in NFL history at ANY POSITION, not just WR. In other words, he is the most outstanding rookie in NFL history.
#1 rookie season of all-time clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkex_soikf0
Remember, you have to be in college 3 seasons before you're eligible to play in the NFL.
There are reputable scouts who say Randy Moss almost certainly would have been a high quality NFL starter when he was a junior in high school. All of his measurables were there at that age and he is regarded as the consensus best high school football player in history at any position by the most reputable old scouts alive today.
Moss went his entire college career without getting shut out a single time. That's impossible and will never happen again. Moss caught 54 TD's in his only two seasons at Marshall. Rice got just 9 TD's in his first two seasons at Mississippi Valley State.
Moss fell in the draft to late 1st round because he was arrested 3 times before he ever played a snap in the NFL. He severed a jail stint. And he had scholarships revoked at Notre Dame and FSU before ever playing a snap there. He also refused to go to the NFL combine in Indy because he had already made a dentist appointment to get braces that week.
If any player today had the rap sheet and blew the combine off for a dentist appt ... they simply wouldn't get drafted.