NFL 100: At No. 88, Darrell Green, whose blazing speed made him ‘unbelievable’

Welcome to the NFL 100, The Athletic’s endeavor to identify the 100 best players in football history. You can order the book version here. Every day until the season begins, we’ll unveil new members of the list, with the No. 1 player to be crowned on Wednesday, Sept. 8.

Darrell Green’s faster-than-a-speeding-bullet velocity fueled his one-team, 20-year career. Yet despite setting NFL records, winning two Super Bowls, finishing as arguably Washington’s greatest player and being among the fastest players the league has ever had, the cornerback never viewed himself as special, let alone Superman.

“It’s almost like Clark Kent. I’m just a guy,” Green, the 2008 Pro Football Hall of Fame selection, said last month. “I just worked down the street and I lived down the street. I’m in the neighborhood playing with kids and helping kids. Oh, and then on Sunday, then I go and play pro football.”

There’s nothing modest about Green’s preposterously impressive resume, which includes NFL records of 295 games played by a defender and 19 consecutive seasons with an interception. Drafted in 1983 by the reigning Super Bowl champions, he arrived from Division II Texas A&I (now Texas A&M–Kingsville) as the 28th and final player chosen in the first round and ended his playing days as a seven-time Pro Bowl selection.

In between were superhero moments, starting with a stunning chase-down tackle of Dallas running back Tony Dorsett in Green’s first game. In the 1987 playoffs, he sparked a divisional-round road win against Chicago with a 52-yard punt-return touchdown during which he tore rib cartilage while hurdling a potential tackler. The following week, Green batted a fourth-down pass at the goal line inside the final minute to secure an NFC Championship Game victory over Minnesota.

Green’s second Super Bowl appearance resulted in his first of two titles as Washington routed Denver 42-10 in Super Bowl XXII. He would earn another ring four years later in a 37-24 win over Buffalo. The Joe Gibbs era ended when the legendary coach retired after the following season, but Green played for another decade. Selected to the NFL’s all-decade team for the 1990s, Green finished with franchise records of 54 interceptions and 258 starts before ending his career after the 2002 season at 42.

Green never donned a cape, but his burgundy-and-gold No. 28 jersey made opponents sweat and fans roar.

“Darrell (as a leader) was very vocal,” Gibbs said ahead of Green’s Hall of Fame induction. “High-quality person. Extremely gifted, obviously. To play speed corner for all of those years … is unbelievable.”

Those are the primary accomplishments mentioned in any recap of Green’s career. Therefore, upon his selection as one of the top 100 players in NFL history, The Athletic asked Green, now 61, to help paint the picture beyond his playmaking and blistering speed.

As it turned out, the sprinter-turned-cornerback recently took his own stroll down memory lane. One of Green’s brothers said he should consider writing an autobiography. Raised with six siblings in a rough part of Houston — though he didn’t know him, Green said he’s from “The Bricks,” the same housing complex where George Floyd grew up — and drugs, alcohol, a lack of opportunity and other potential kryptonite lurked everywhere. Green made it to college but dropped out after a close friend died in a car accident. He returned after 18 months. “Three years later, I was a first-round pick,” said Green, who was the player drafted after Dan Marino.

It’s not hyperbole to declare Green’s speed world-class. When Washington general manager Bobby Beathard drafted him, Green could run the 100 meters in 10.08 seconds. That same time a year later would have earned Green a silver medal, behind Carl Lewis, at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Green arrived in Washington with that freakish speed — he won the NFL’s fastest man competition four times — in a diminutive frame. “He was so impressive, you forgot about his size,” Beathard told ESPN in 2008. The leap from Division II to the NFL was massive, and upon joining a Super Bowl-winning team that included wide receiver Art Monk, also a 2008 Hall of Fame inductee, Green quickly grasped that he possessed scant craft for the cornerback position. Perhaps more importantly, he knew the standard approaches to playing the position wouldn’t work for him.

Staying afloat against NFL wide receivers meant finding his own unique style.

“I was unorthodox. I was little and I couldn’t play the technique, so I developed what I call ‘results-nique,'” Green said. “So, I played that ‘nique’ that got the results. Had I stayed with the (standard) technique, I wouldn’t have played one season.”

For Green, that meant learning how to play his foes, including NFC East rivals Roy Green and Mike Quick, rather than focusing on backpedaling and other standard cornerback movements. “(I’m) probably the pioneer of truly matching up (one-on-one) on a consistent basis,” Green said. Though he declined to name any specific wide receiver as his Lex Luthor, Green said Jerry Rice was the best he faced.

“I’m not Deion (Sanders). I’m not Rod Woodson. I don’t have very many similarities to any of them and how they play,” Green said of his contemporaries and those who followed. “I don’t know any player in history that I’ve seen play position-wise (like me). … I think that from a football standpoint, you know, I have some unique things.”

Champ Bailey, another Hall of Fame cornerback and Washington’s first-round pick in 1999, credits Green for helping him learn the league and thrive. While Green didn’t force his “results-nique” approach on Bailey, he helped the rookie refine his skill, including the importance of moving his feet and body position rather than worrying about hand placement.

Unlike the flashy Sanders, a future teammate in Washington, Green skipped individual celebrations. That meant he didn’t stand out as much despite winning two Super Bowls with Washington, which had an offensive line known as “The Hogs.” Green understood such look-at-me bravado, especially from an economic perspective, but that flamboyance wasn’t for him. He kept the focus on the game-day task and his family and rolled his dedicated mindset into rigorous twice-daily offseason workouts. “I was ‘wax on, wax off’ every day of my offseason,” Green said.

Green, who passed on an invitation to train for the 1984 U.S. Olympic track team, made a memorable debut on “Monday Night Football” in September 1983 when he sprinted nearly the length of the field to tackle Dorsett. Think about what Seattle’s DK Metcalf did last season, but instead of chasing down Arizona safety Budda Baker, Green caught up with a future Hall of Fame running back — and, in turn, had millions of football fans saying, “Who is he?”

“I was from Texas A&I,” Green said. “I’m 5-foot-8 3/4, 173 pounds. I (played) in NAIA and then two years of NCAA Division II. So, I guarantee you 99 percent of the people that saw me in that moment in that first game did not have any recollection of me.”

Washington fans began swooning during that jaw-dropping dash, and their love affair continues four decades later. Green didn’t just live and work within the community. Perpetually optimistic and youthful-looking, Green set an example to his legion of fans through his charitable work and an approach to life he believes helped get him to Canton.

Rather than deliver some rah-rah talk about giving a fictitious 120 percent, Green still tells kids or those seeking guidance about the “five 100s.” That’s the percentage the devout Christian gives to five areas of his life: God; Jewell, his wife of nearly 37 years; their four children; his football job; and his charitable outlets, specifically the Darrell Green Foundation and Strong Youth Strong Communities.

“I just had five simple things,” Green said. “I dedicated myself to making a simple life out of what can be a complicated life or intrusive life. … I did a good job of keeping the noise down.”

Beyond the helping hand — there’s a new project designed to support children with autism — Green remains a fixture in the greater Washington area as an entrepreneur and in the sports world. He serves as a special assistant to George Mason University athletic director Brad Edwards, who was a starting safety for Washington when it won Super Bowl XXVI.

Special memories continue to come via his dozen grandchildren, most of whom happened to be overrunning his house when he spoke one day in late June. As for his glory days on the field, maybe Green eventually writes that book. He’s also pondered a movie about his life, one that began and remains steeped in humility.

Green claims he’s more “normal human” than years of attention and accolades — and running a 4.43-second 40-yard dash when he was 50 — would suggest.

“I guess that’s how I played for 20 years,” Green said. “Because I never (drank) the water. … All this famous recognition stuff, I’m way more of a guy next door than I am that.”

That’s exactly what Clark Kent would want everyone to think.

(Illustration: Wes McCabe / The Athletic; photo: Focus on Sport / Getty Images)