Asked what he thought of his reception when he returned to the Metrodome on Saturday night, former Vikings coach Dennis Green said: “I didn’t notice.”
Green had donned his coaching headset at the 50-yard line when “Denny Green and the Arizona Cardinals” were booed on cue. It was neither a prolonged nor a loud non-welcome back, and not even close to emotional.
In Minnesota, Denny Green is so yesterday.
In Arizona, he is the hope for a tomorrow that never comes. It is a bigger challenge than his first head-coaching job at Northwestern in 1981.
After Saturday night’s lethargic 23-6 defeat, Green looked like a man wishing he were still fishing. His top draft choice, receiver Larry Fitzgerald, his former ball boy with the Vikings, the kid he called the best player in the draft, was in a walking cast. The injury appeared more serious than the “sprained left ankle” he suffered in the first quarter. Green insisted it wasn’t that bad, and Fitzgerald said X-rays were negative, but he wasn’t in the bench area for the entire second half after making one catch for 5 yards.
“This is not how you want to come out and make your debut,” Fitzgerald said. “I just want to get healthy.”
Green knows the feeling. In training camp he has already lost last year’s phenom rookie receiver, Anquan Boldin, and his best running back, Marcel Shipp, for most of the season, robbing inexperienced quarterback Josh McCown of his two best weapons. Emmitt Smith, the ancient hanger-on Green named as his starting running back, left Saturday’s game with a bruised thigh after his fourth carry.
Already it looks like another budding Arizona disaster, with Green doomed like Dave McGinnis and Vince Tobin and Buddy Ryan before him. Maybe it’s not all the fault of former Bears assistants.
Green quit the Vikings right before owner Red McCombs fired him at the end of the 2001 season. He downplayed his return here as the NFL’s “sense of humor,” but he found nothing amusing in watching Randy Moss run past Arizona’s best cornerback, Duane Starks, for a 48-yard touchdown pass as the Vikings racked up 254 yards in the first half.
The Vikings had dual incentives to win this exhibition. Under McGinnis, McCown and the Cardinals had knocked the Vikings out of last season’s playoffs on the last play of the regular season, a desperation pass caught by third-string receiver Nathan Poole.
Vikings coach Mike Tice played his regulars on defense for the entire first half. Poole was shut out. An end zone pass to him was knocked away. Under new defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, the Vikings collected seven sacks by seven players, including first-round draft choice Kenechi Udeze. Second-round pick Dontarrious Thomas consistently applied pressure as a blitzing linebacker.
“We’re not there yet with the firepower we need to make this offense go,” Green said.
Green guided the Vikings to the playoffs in eight of his 10 seasons yet will always be remembered here as the coach who couldn’t get to a Super Bowl, especially because of the NFC title loss to Atlanta in 1998 after an enticing 15-1 season.
When Green took over an 8-8 Minnesota team from Jerry Burns in 1992, he immediately established a reputation as an exciting offensive coach by going 4-0 in the preseason while outscoring opponents 140-6. Of course, he had veterans like Anthony Carter, Cris Carter and Rich Gannon on his side.
Pressed to expose his feelings about standing on the opposite side of the field, Green talked about the Vikings having “a fabulous crowd, an excellent fan base. They get behind their team.”
It was a message to Arizona, where apathy is the prevailing mood.
The Minnesota fans who stuck around the Metrodome into the fourth quarter did so for one reason–the NFL debut of Vikings defensive tackle Brock Lesnar.
The former World Wrestling Entertainment star and University of Minnesota wrestling champion ran down on a kickoff and played the final six minutes, getting an unusually large ovation for an assisted tackle.
In wrestling, he was billed as “The Next Big Thing.” With the Vikings he’s hoping just to make the next big cut. At the moment he represents the future, far more interesting to Vikings fans than Green, The Last Big Thing.
Green wanted nothing to do with the reminiscing, the so-called drama the NFL wants to sell in August.
“I’m one of 14 other coaches who have been in other jobs before. Hopefully we’ll focus on our team and be able to make some progress next week,” Green said.
Actually, 15 current NFL coaches were head coaches elsewhere in the league. Homecoming reunions are almost the rule rather than the exception.
There were no parades for Green here.
The indifference could go a long way in preparing him for life in Arizona.
