Head coach Dennis Green of the Minnesota Vikings calls plays as his team is defeated by the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Mr. Green spent 10 seasons in Minnesota, leading the Vikings to eight playoff appearances and two NFC championship games. After a winless first season, Green was named Big Ten coach of the year in 1982 as the Wildcats went 3-8 and ended their FBS-record losing streak at 34 games.
The way a lot of sports fans remember Dennis Green was a weird rant after his Arizona Cardinals lost to the Chicago Bears when he said, “They are exactly who we thought they were”. “His family was by his side and he fought hard”. After the Cardinals squandered a 20-0 lead en route to a 24-23 loss to the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football in Week 6 of 2006, Green slowly exploded.
Dennis Green, who served as coach, mentor and father figure to football players for most of his life, once told The Bee, “I live for this great game”.
Green will go down in history as the second African American head coach in modern National Football League history after the Oakland Raiders’ Art Shell.
James “Buddy” Ryan, the Cardinals” head coach from 1994 to “95, died on June 28th after a long illness. He had a 113-94 career record as a head. His three-year tenure in the desert was not as successful as his stint in Minnesota, as the Cards failed to reach the playoffs or even crack.500 during his three seasons there. “He helped pave the way for minority coaches and recently served as a key advisor on the NFL’s Career Development Advisory Panel”. The game then went to overtime, and the Vikings, who were 15-1 in the regular season, lost.
“The Bears are what we thought they were”. He finished his National Football League career with a 113-94 record.
Mr. Green pounded the podium and yelled “The Bears are who we thought they were!” afterward, a line that would be replayed endlessly over the years.
“We are incredibly saddened by the sudden passing of former Vikings Head Coach Dennis Green”, the Vikings said in a statement.
Some of Green’s former players also were reacting to news of his death on Twitter. “We express our deepest sympathy to his family and friends”. It’s easy to condense him down to one rant, but Dennis Green broke boundaries on the field in terms of success with teams not meant to succeed and off the field in terms of race. “Denny stuck his neck out and activated me, put me on the roster in Minnesota to protect me because he knew I was part of the future and that really meant a lot to me”, remembered Liwienski.
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Green was a passionate coach who often let his heart rule his brain, and it’s no wonder.
