Former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green died early Friday morning after suffering a heart attack. His postgame press conference on October 16th, 2006- a Monday Night Football game where the Cardinals blew a huge lead to the Chicago Bears at home, is still played over and over again to this day.
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“We are saddened to hear the news of Dennis Green’s passing”, NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent said in a statement. “We express our deepest sympathy to his family and his many friends”.
Dennis Green was a father figure, mentor and coach to football players for the majority of his life. His coaching career started in 1973 as an assistant at Dayton where he was able to earn US$6,000 annually. He was who we thought he was. In 1981, Green took on the role of head coach at Northwestern, a program that had gone 3-51 in the four seasons prior to his arrival. He took the Vikings to the postseason eight times over ten seasons.
Green coached in the National Football League for 13 seasons; nine seasons with the Minnesota Vikings from 1992-2001 where he led the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game in 1998 and 2000.
Green was the Vikings coach from 1992-2001, leading the team to two NFC championship games.
A disciple of coaching legend Bill Walsh, Green became the second African-American head coach in the NFL’s modern era when he was hired by the Vikings in 1992. The team bought out his contract near the end of his tenure, and Green did not coach the final game in that last season.
“Well, I feel very fortunate”.
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The offense with Green was “a little more simplified, it makes a little more sense (than in 1979)”, Elway said in a June 4, 1980 interview with the Stanford Daily. “I came along at a time when opportunity was created by very fearless and determined people that came before me, and I was fortunate enough to benefit from it”.
