He reportedly died of an apparent cardiac arrest on Thursday night with his family by his side.
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He was the second African American to lead an National Football League team in the modern era, after Art Shell, who was named coach of the Oakland Raiders in 1989.
In his ten seasons as head coach, the Vikings made eight playoff appearances.setting a high standard for all the coaches taking the helm after him.
Dennis Green’s most infamous moment might be his “We are who we thought they were” rant as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.
The death of former Vikings and Cardinals coach Dennis Green has sparked many remembrances from around the league on Friday, including one from Cardinals president Michael Bidwill.
Green was sacked in 2001, finishing his Vikings career with a 97-62 record and four NFC Central Division titles, but he remained influential in the NFL.
Green also served as the head coach of Northwestern University for four years in the early 1980’s.
Green was the head coach for the Minnesota Vikings and the Arizona Cardinals. But Green’s teams were never able to get over the hump and make it to the Super Bowl, twice losing the NFC Championship Game in stunning fashion. “Denny made his mark in ways far beyond being an outstanding football coach”, the Vikings said in a statement. In 1979, Green was tagged along Stanford’s head coach Bill Walsh, who assigned him as N.F. L. special teams coach. “He helped pave the way for minority coaches and recently served as a key advisor on the NFL’s Career Development Advisory Panel”. But they are who we thought they were.
Check back for more on this breaking story. Green will be missed by his family, friends, players, and the NFL.
His time in Minnesota wasn’t without controversy, though, and by 2001, in the midst of a miserable season that saw Korey Stringer die in training camp, Green was relieved of duties and was replaced by Mike Tice.
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But one coaching stop in Green’s career has been largely overlooked: engineering the 1980 Stanford Cardinal offense, with sophomore quarterback John Elway.
