Matt Moore has never truly had a team to call his own across these past dozen years. He was so close so often he could taste what it must be like to be the face of a franchise. But someone, or some twist of fate, would intercept his dreams time and time again.

So who could blame him when he tried scouting for the Dolphins two years ago, who could blame him when he gave up the game he loved a year ago and returned to Newhall, Calif., to coach at his Hart High School alma mater?

But apparently the cruel football gods have a heart, and decided that justice meant giving Matt Moore one shining moment that maybe he, his wife and three children will be able to remember forever.

That moment arrives Sunday night, when he fills in for Patrick Mahomes and tries to get coach Andy Reid and the Chiefs a win against the Packers in his first start since 2017. Everyone who knows him, everyone who knows the rocky road he has travelled on a journey that has been alternately exhilarating and heartbreaking, will be rooting for him.

“He’s impossible not to root for,” former Jets GM and Dolphins executive VP Mike Tannenbaum told Serby Says. “He’s just a great dude.”

Every step of the way — from being undrafted out of Oregon State after transferring from UCLA, to Carolina, where they drafted Jimmy Clausen in the second round of the 2010 draft to replace Jake Delhomme instead of trusting him with the job, to the Dolphins, where they summoned Jay Cutler when Ryan Tannehill went down — Moore has been forced to resign himself to be The Almost Man.

“He’s probably like 40, 50th on the planet in terms of quarterbacks,” Tannenbaum said. “He’s really ideally not a starter, but boy, you want him on your team.”

Here’s why:

“His personality is similar to Brett Favre’s,” Tannenbaum said. “Fun to be around, never had a bad day. He’s an energy magnifier. Doesn’t have the ability of Brett Favre, but you want this guy on your team.”

Moore is 35 now and has not started an NFL game since Week 11 against the Patriots in 2017, and did not play at all in 2018. He came off the bench last week when Mahomes suffered his dislocated kneecap, and he threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill to seal the victory over the Broncos.

“He likes to throw the ball down the field,” Tannenbaum said. “I don’t think he has elite arm strength. I think he has like elite risk-taking ability. He will chuck it up there.”

From 2012-15, Moore had thrown all of 30 passes for the Dolphins. One play stands out to Tannenbaum:

“We’re playing Arizona, it’s 2016. Ryan Tannehill gets hurt, we got a shot at the playoffs. He comes in, he makes a mistake on the protection, and Matt Moore hangs in there until the very last second, throws, I think it was a 29-yard pass to Kenny Stills, got demolished. Won the game, went to the playoffs. And that one play to me epitomized everything that Matt Moore is — which is tough, smart, competitive, and you want this guy in the foxhole with you. He knew that we couldn’t account for the blitz. He knew that he was gonna get crushed.”

Moore, who had 16 TDs, nine interceptions for the Dolphins in 2011 after starter Chad Henne was lost in October with a shoulder injury, was named the team’s MVP that season.

The Dolphins made Tannehill the eighth pick of the 2012 draft. Poor Moore: His Panthers days had been doomed because they were drafting Cam Newton with the first-overall pick in 2011.

“If you think about it, I’m not sure he’s ever totally been respected completely,” a man named Lynn Lashbrook said by phone. “I think he’s really had a great career considering the circumstances.”

Lashbrook runs Sports Management Worldwide in Portland, Ore. He has been with Moore from the beginning.

Moore signing with the Chiefs before the season when old friend Henne injured his ankle was manna from heaven for Lashbrook. Now 72, he grew up in Kansas City. Has been a Chiefs fan from the beginning.

“I go back to Lenny Dawson,” Lashbrook said. “Pete was a backup for Lenny Dawson. He’s my Pete Beathard.”

Lashbrook vouched for the city when Moore got the call and the itch to play again.

“The late Lamar Hunt and his wife were watching their son Clark play soccer at SMU and I was athletic director at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville University, this is back in ’85,” Lashbrook recalls. “I sat in the stands the entire game when Lamar was living and visited with him. I have so much respect for Lamar Hunt.”

Lashbrook and his wife moved swiftly to help Moore move in, helped him buy a Silverado truck at McCarthy Chevrolet.

“I was putting lightbulbs up and meeting the neighbor to get a ladder,” he said. “By Friday night he had Chipotle and had his three TVs and had a couch.”

And now the chance of a lifetime. One last chance out of nowhere. With offensive weapons everywhere he turns.

“There’s a lot of pressure Sunday night, but I think he’s up to the task, I really do,” Lashbrook said. “I’m excited for him.”

As is virtually everyone who has met Matt Moore. Who once had the “Monday Night Football” theme as his ringtone. Who loves Burger King and his Oregon State alma mater. Kerry Eggers covered Moore there for the Portland Tribune and recalls how clutch he was and how much his offensive linemen in particular believed in him.

“He’s not a big shot, let’s put it that way,” Eggers said by phone. “He’s always been humble about what he’s done. He probably is a good leader because he gets along with people so well.”

Moore prefers to act like he’s been there before.

“When Peyton [Manning] throws a touchdown, it’s congratulations, no big deal,” Moore once said. “Same thing when he throws a pick — no big deal. So that’s how I try to approach the game.”

He had been philosophical about the cutthroat nature of the NFL.

“All I can do is play my best, and I’ll do whatever I can in the situation I’m in,” Moore said once. “Whatever happens, happens. You just have to make the best of it when you get your shot.”

Matt Moore deserves a shot like this.

“I’d love to see him go to the Super Bowl,” Lashbrook said. “He really enjoys working with Mahomes, and he understands his role.”

Asked to sum up Matt Moore’s career, Lashbrook said: “A career that deserves a happier finish, I guess.”

Root for Matt Moore.