It’s Darrell Green’s weekend in DC, as he’ll be getting a key to the city from Mayor Muriel Bowser Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at Franklin Park, and then he gets his No. 28 retired Sunday at Northwest Stadium when the Commanders host the Panthers.
But before all that, he came into our Half Street Studios to visit with the Junkies on Thursday morning, and you could tell Green was already emotional about his weekend ahead.
“This may sound crazy, but I want to be emotional every time; I’m naturally that way that I appreciate stuff,” Green said. “Somebody who used to work for my Foundation called me last night, and told me she was proud of me, and another teammate called me and said, ‘I'm so happy for us,’ and they get it. I am emotional because the reality is, I'm not a person that's looking for this type of stuff. I didn't live my life that way, and I'm puzzled by, why am I Darrell Green? Why am I getting this?”
Green looks back at lessons his parents instilled in him and lessons learned in the Bible as his guiding force, in that he never ‘touched the money’ so to speak.
“I went home to my wife, I didn’t chase money of free agency or beat me chest – I just tried to walk in humility,” Green said. “When I was on the field, I kicked their butt, and I went home, I cut my yard. That’s how I was created and made to operate for who I was supposed to be – no matter what happened, I went home and I was daddy.”
Brian Baldinger had just told the Junkies the story earlier in the day of Green chasing down Tony Dorsett as an example of just how good he could be on the field, but to Green, ‘it didn’t register to me – I was just playing ball.’
But as he told the story of leaving college after one semester because of the death of a friend, and returning later, he did reveal that he almost did play ball somewhere else.
“That was a God thing; I was heading for Denver one time and the deal was set, and then God said to me, ‘don't go,’ Green said. “So I stayed here.”
And it was that same divine intervention that may have been the source of his beef with Marty Schottenheimer?
“When he came here, I said to him, I have one request: I’d like to appoint the chaplain,” Green said. “So the season comes and he mistreats me, and I go to him and asked him to help me understand, and he said, ‘when I met you, you asked me to let you appoint the chaplain.’ And I knew what he meant – basically, I think he was saying, ‘you didn't come in saying, hey, I'm Darrell Green, will I make the team?’ I’m nor arrogant, but I think he wanted me to come in and kiss the ring.”
We know how that all ended, and now, his football journey ends in DC with his number going into the pantheon of the elite for all-time and having a suite named in his honor – a moment he found out about when he thought he was just filming a video for the team.
“I had nothing to do with the team basically since I retired, but new ownership reached out to my wife and son and had a secret meeting; I had a meeting that morning and told them I wasn’t going to make it to the Commanders, but she was doing a great job keeping a secret,” Green said. “I was so emotional because I was thinking about all the work they put in to make this a surprise, and I almost blew it! When I read that…I watched it the other day, and you could see my brain didn’t get it! I don’t expect this kind of stuff, so I am sincerely appreciative of this organization that is super important to our region.”
Take a listen to Green’s entire visit above!