Dennis Green is sitting in one of the film rooms he uses as the receivers coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and he is talking about a job as a head coach in the National Football League. ”Hell, yeah, I want the job,” he says, and then rocks back in open-mouthed laughter.
He was still at Northwestern just two Decembers ago, but now he, Pittsburgh`s Tony Dungy and the Bears` Johnny Roland are the top candidates to be the first black to coach an NFL team. ”I don`t necessarily want to be the first one, but I`d like to have a job in the NFL, sure,” he goes on. ”Like all coaches, I want to go as far as I can go in my profession. Plus, the money`s good,” he adds, laughing again.
But you don`t want to be the first one?
”That`s not necessarily a goal, to be the first one,” he says. ”I`m just hoping that whoever gets that job that it`ll be this year. The opportunities will be there, and if they`re there, I know guys who`ll pursue them strongly.”
You mean Tony and Johnny?
”And Dennis.”
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Dennis Green has always been ambitious and willing to work to transform his dreams into reality. He was inculcated with a respect for education while growing up as the youngest of five brothers in Harrisburg, Pa., and even after his father`s death (when Green was 11) and his mother`s (two years later), he pursued the goals they had preached.
He studied at that city`s John Harris High School, where, as a senior, he was an all-state running back and captain of its undefeated state championship football team. Then he moved on to Iowa, where he became the first in his family to earn a college degree. After graduation he tried out for, and was cut by, the Canadian Football League`s British Columbia Lions. And then, rather than kicking around as a marginal player for the next few seasons, he decided to go into coaching.
At 23 he was a grad assistant at Iowa, at 24 the receivers coach at Dayton, at 25 the quarterback coach at Iowa. At 28, and on the recommendation of then-Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, Bill Walsh hired him as his receivers coach at Stanford. At 30, he followed Walsh to the 49ers and coached their receivers and special teams. At 31, he returned to Stanford as offensive coordinator under Paul Wiggin.
And at 32, he was coaching his first season at Northwestern.
He remains steadfastly silent about the true reasons he suddenly left Northwestern in March, 1986, choosing instead to talk of the opportunity he accepted with the 49ers. It was a chance to be reunited with his old mentor, Walsh, an acknowledged offensive wizard. And, continues Green, ”I was at that stage in my life where professional football was more attractive to me than college.
”If I don`t take the job I took, it wouldn`t be open for another four, five years. Also, take a look at the people the job brings. Joe Montana. Dwight Clark. Jerry Rice. On top of that, what`s good for the 49ers is good for Dennis Green. So the opportunity was there, and the time was right for it. ”Sure, I`ve always been ambitious, but I`ve always been hard-working too. They go hand in hand. In coaching, I`ve always wanted to do a good job where I`m at and when an opportunity to move comes along, take it. So now I`m in a position of learning while I`m being patient, and if that opportunity comes along, Bill will understand and wish me luck.”
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Dennis Green is optimistic that his chance will come, and not without reason. Though he did not accomplish all he had hoped for while he was at Northwestern, he did return respectability to its football program, and in his short time with the 49ers he has played a big role in the development of wondrous wide receiver Rice. Indeed, he was named the top receivers coach in the league in a poll of 24 head coaches taken by a San Francisco paper at the last Pro Bowl.
Green`s own head coach, Walsh, is his own offensive coordinator, but he entrusts Green with the job of suggesting plays from the press box during games. And, just as significantly, the eminently successful and highly respected Walsh declares that Green is ready to run his own team.
This possibility, and the issue that surrounds it, were far from Green`s mind last week as he prepared for his team`s Monday night game against the Bears. But he has thought often of this subject, and it is an inevitable topic of conversation as the off-season looms and coaching changes start being made. ”You know,” Dennis Green says as he settles back in his chair, ”this is something I haven`t spent time talking about because I never looked at myself as a black coach. It`s never been a factor. But I think it`s a factor now because you look out and see the situation.
”I imagine that something like 62 percent of the players in the league now are black, and that`s the reason it`s significant. All those players who enjoy the game and might want to continue on in the game (as coaches), they deserve the opportunity to go as far as they can go in their profession. Right now, the opportunity`s not there.”
So why have you always been more optimistic than most that the opportunity will soon come?
”I look at it this way: When you hire a new coach, you can go two ways. You look at top assistants or you hire someone who`s been a head coach before. The latter is what happened last year when you saw Marv Levy hired (in Buffalo), Ray Perkins hired (in Tampa Bay), Ron Meyer hired (in Indianapolis), Marion Campbell hired (in Atlanta). But that doesn`t happen often.
”It`s more normal for a team to get a guy out of the assistant coaching ranks, and that makes it easy for me to focus on guys who`re doing a good job, who have leadership, all that. You look at that and I`ll say this: Johnny Roland is a top assistant coach in the National Football League.
”Look closely at his background. He played at Missouri for Dan Devine, who`s recognized as a great organizer. He was an All-Pro running back (with the Cardinals). He went with Devine as an assistant and then with Dick Vermeil in Philadelphia, and Vermeil was regarded as one of the league`s best coaches. Now he`s in Chicago, and we know how successful they`ve been.
”Now someone can`t come in and say they don`t want to hire success. You hire success, and when you do that, you look for successful people in successful organizations. That applies to Dungy, that applies to me, and there aren`t many around who`re more successful than Johnny Roland. It`s not that he`s been a successful black assistant. He`s been successful, period. His success gobbles up 95 percent of the other people.
”That`s why I`m positive. I think if you have a general manager and he`s hired four head coaches in 10 years and still isn`t successful, I think he has to come under scrutiny for his hiring practices. Right now, I can think of three jobs-I won`t tell you which ones-that have been open in the last few years that wouldn`t still be in the same (bad) shape they`re in if they had hired Johnny Roland.
”If they`d hired him, he would have brought the Chicago Bear way, Johnny Roland style. If someone hires me, I`ll bring along San Francisco 49er success, and a lot of other influences, Dennis Green style.”
You feel ready for the job, then?
”Sure. I`ve interviewed for jobs before, and I think I have a clear idea of what people are looking for, of setting up a staff, of getting players, of getting them acclimated to a system, of all the things that go along with it. ”If I got hired, if Johnny Roland got hired, we wouldn`t have any trouble getting a staff. We`re all colleagues. We have a uniqueness, a brotherhood. We`re all coaches. That`s why no one should distinguish us. That`s why no one should think we`d have trouble because we`re black.
”As you know-as I know-that wasn`t a question in Chicago after the first day. Then it was, `How are you going to stop Lorenzo White?` `Mike Tomczak`s hot. How are you going to cool him off?` It would be the same in the NFL. People wouldn`t care about what it feels like being the first black head coach. `It feels good. I have a fine job and I`m getting paid well. Next question.`
”What difference does it make what color a man`s skin is? With a player, if you`ve got a defensive tackle, you don`t care what color he is. You just care whether he can fill a hole. The next step has to be applying that to coaches. You shouldn`t care what color his skin is. You should just care whether he understands defenses.
”And the sooner that happens, the better.”
