Ex-Redskin Green Continues to Work on Gamedays

[TK]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36247-2003Sep6.html

Ex-Redskin Green Continues to Work on Gamedays

Sunday, September 7, 2003; Page E02

When the New York Jets kicked off to the Washington Redskins on Thursday night at FedEx Field to begin the 2003 NFL season before 85,420 roaring fans, Darrell Green wasn't there.

He wasn't on the field in a Redskins' uniform. He wasn't in the stands or a suite. He wasn't even in front of a television.

Darrell Green, 43, who spent the last 20 years of his life playing cornerback for the Redskins and is considered one of -- if not the most popular player in the team's history until his retirement at the end of last season -- was on the Mall.

Working.

He was one of the celebrities introducing the military and civilian leaders who were in turn chosen to introduce the performers. And when he got into his car for the drive home to Virginia, he turned on Sonny, Sam and Frank for the first time ever, and between talking on his car phone, he listened to the game like thousands of other fans.

And when he got home, he watched the fourth quarter on television as his former teammates beat the Jets, 16-13.

"I was excited for my kids [Champ Bailey and Fred Smoot], but for me, I didn't feel anything at all," Green said Friday night after attending a charity fundraiser.

"I'm emotionally at a different stage of life now. And I'm there because I had to protect myself. For the last 10 years, I watched how so many players left the game unhappy. A large majority took two or three years to get a job they liked; some had problems staying with their family; they weren't happy. I didn't want that to happen to me.

"I prepared for this. I didn't need to hold on. I have my wife and three children. I have the Learning Center. I have my religion. I support charities in my town. I knew I had to move forward. I didn't want to be at the stadium Thursday night."

That's great, I said, but when you watched that fourth quarter at home, didn't your heart beat just a little faster?

"Nah," he answered. "My tank was dry as a bone when I retired last season. Only once did I think about training camp. That was the first night of camp, I had a dream I was back. But I woke up.

"And if I need a reminder, I put in the tape of my last game, when they let me return that last punt. And I can see that I couldn't run anymore. . . . There was a time I could have taken that one back all the way. But I couldn't. It was over. Say goodbye, Darrell.

"Be happy you're gone."

Color Coded

How about the Redskins showing up for the first time ever Thursday night in those all-white uniforms? I thought I was at the nurse's station at Holy Cross Hospital. Coach Steve Spurrier explained the uniform change was the idea of a "committee of captains." The committee, by the way, was larger than the beer line two minutes before halftime. And aren't we lucky LaVar's favorite color was not fuchsia?

And if you want some irony, the uniform color happened to be the favorite color of the original owner of the Redskins, the late civil libertarian, George Preston Marshall.

The Capital Gang

I've finally gotten over the Capitals blowing a 2-0 lead to the Tampa Bay Lightning last spring, losing the next four, including games 3, 4 and 6 at home. I'm ready to start fresh.

Kid Coach Bruce Cassidy has the rookies in tow for several days at a camp in Michigan before getting everyone together Friday at the team's training base at Piney Orchard.

If the Capitals tried to trade big-salary scorers Jaromir Jagr and Robert Lang, as was reported by this newspaper, they were lucky there were no takers. (Owner Ted Leonsis says there was no effort to move Jagr. Hmmm.) Jagr, for one, would have done a Chris Webber and led the NHL in scoring for some other team.

"We have a good group of forwards," Cassidy said yesterday. "Olie Kolzig is solid in goal, and Brendan Witt and Sergei Gonchar are good defensemen. After that, we're thin with experience."

Cassidy, 38, said the one year of experience behind the Caps bench will make it "a lot easier" for him. But after opening with two games at home in October, the Caps are off on their usual six-game road trip, which could be a key to their season.

Maybe some of the young defensemen will surprise, and maybe the Caps' front office will deliver a sleeper defensive addition, and maybe the thrust of the season will not be built around an impending work stoppage in the fall of 2004 that no one wants to hear or read about.

Boredom on the Courts

Between all the rain, whining over schedule conflicts, no Williams sisters competing and Pete Sampras retiring, the U.S. Open concludes today with all the excitement of a Senate hearing on C-Span. This used to be one of the best events on the sports schedule; the players, their agents and television execs badly need a retreat to assess what happened to their game.

"The first thing the U.S. Open needs to do get some good tarpaulins," said Donald Dell, who represents a number of top players and has run the tennis tournament in Washington for more than 30 years. "At Wimbledon, where it always rains, they get the tarp on in 17 seconds; at the Open it takes them 30 to 40 minutes to get the tarp out. No wonder why it's always wet on the courts. You can't have an hour break every time it drizzles."

Actually, the demise of tennis coincides with NBC's demotion several years ago of my friend, Bud Collins.

Monterrey in the Mix

How about adding insult to injury? Major League Baseball has gotten the Montreal Expos to agree to a second year of splitting home games between Montreal and another city in 2004, either San Juan or the latest addition to the sweepstakes, Monterrey, Mexico.

Talk about feeling like chopped liver (no offense to Snider's grocery).

Monterrey, Mexico? Why not the no-name Caribbean island owned by the cruise lines?

Our big-shot prospective owners, Fred Malek (D.C. powerbroker) and Bill Collins (Virginia broker), ought to sit their fannies outside Bud Selig's office now, or we don't want to hear from them again.

And where are Washington's mayor and the governor of Virginia while all this is going on? Nowhere.

Memo to ESPN's "Playmakers"

On behalf of my friends in the medical community, will you please ask the writers of your original weekly series to find a more respectful name for the fictional players to call the doctor who administers their drug tests?

What do they call this person?

Don't ask.

[fuji869]

Sounds like Darrell is not going to be much of a fan after his playing days.

That is OK, he has his Youth Life Centers which are more important than football to him. :thumb: