Only a Speedo brief from the same era was shorter than those pre-90s basketball shorts. Don’t believe me go look at old Larry Bird clips on Youtube. Yikes.
I don’t know who “they” is, but it sounds to me like you’re making stuff up.
The first game, they wanted Breida active so they had a “Plan B” at kick/punt returner since McKenzie had a shoulder injury. A second factor was Daboll’s game plan against a “Blitzberg” defensive plan that could be countered with 4 and 5 WR sets and speed to the outside. But Pittsburg went in a completely different direction so in hindsight he had the wrong guy active for offense (but the need for a backup KR/PR was still legit, as we saw when McKenzie left the game)
It had nothing to do with “gut checking” Moss or giving him some kind of message to “get his ass in gear”.
What possible need could there even be to deliver such a message in the very first game of the season?