Today the National Football League lost a legend entirely too soon. Former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green died at the age of 67, due to a heart attack.
Green, who was only the second African American to coach a team in the NFL, will be most remembered for his 2004 rant following a loss to the Chicago Bears on national television.
As a player, Green never made it big, playing in the Canadian Football League for only one season before deciding to try playing the game from the sidelines. In 1992, Green got his BIG break, landing the head coaching job for the Minnesota Vikings, where he would stay until 2001. In 2004, Green reappeared as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Although his time in the desert may have been short (only 2 seasons), the framework he set up was instrumental in their 2009 Super Bowl appearance.
“All of us at the Cardinals are incredibly saddened by the news of Dennis Green’s passing,” team president Michael Bidwill said in a statement on Friday.
Although Green never won a Super Bowl as a head coach, he did pick up a ring as a wide receivers coach of the 1988-89 San Francisco Super Bowl team.
Green last coached in 2011 for the Sacramento Mountain Lions, part of the defunct United Football League.
