Former Minnesota Vikings Coach Dennis Green Dies at age 67

Green posted a 113-94 record as head coach for the Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals over 13 National Football League seasons.

Green was a successful head coach of the Minnesota Vikings and the Arizona Cardinals.

In a statement, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent expressed his sympathy to Green’s family following his passing, while highlighting his key achievements. He reportedly died of an apparent cardiac arrest on Thursday night with his family by his side. “In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Boys and Girls Club of San Diego”.

Green coached the Vikings from 1992-2001 and had some memorable seasons-particularly in 1998 (when his offense set the National Football League record for most points scored in a season) and 2000-taking the Vikings to the NFC title game each year. It was coaching, and that suited him fine.

Minnesota was 97-62 (.610 winning percentage) with Green at the helm. After a winless first season, Green was named Big Ten coach of the year in 1982 as the Wildcats went 3-8 and ended their FBS-record losing streak at 34 games.

But Green didn’t leave the cupboard bare for successor Ken Whisenhunt.

“Dennis Green created an outstanding environment for his players and I was privileged to spend four great years under his guidance in Minnesota”, said Del Rio. Arizona drafted Larry Fitzgerald, Karlos Dansby, Darnell Dockett, and Antrel Rolle during Green’s first two years with the team. Defensive end Antonio Smith was chosen in the fifth round.

Green was gone by that time, however, unable to put the pieces together with victories.

But one coaching stop in Green’s career has been largely overlooked: engineering the 1980 Stanford Cardinal offense, with sophomore quarterback John Elway. He also had a flair for the quotable soundbites, often blunt in his assessments.

Green did some television work and interviewed with several teams before the Cardinals hired him in 2004. It was during that presser that he uttered the infamous line “They are who we thought they were!” Green’s phrase “They are who we thought they were” became part of American culture, and at one point there were reports he attempted to copywrite the phrase. We played them in the preseason. That’s why we took the d-mn field. If you want to crown them, then crown their ass. “And we let ’em off the hook!”

Jim Omohundro, producer for the weekly “Dennis Green Show” on the Cardinals Radio Network, said Mr.

Dennis Green, a trailblazing coach in college football and the NFL whose first head coaching job was at Northwestern, has died. I’m sorry to hear about it, and I pray for his family.

Mike Tice, who served on Green’s staff in Minnesota and succeeded him as head coach, called Green a “great motivator of men”.