RIP Denny Green - thanks for both the years as a Vikings coach and giving us one of the greatest rants ever (and at the expense of the Bears to boot!)
I covered the first 2 1/2 seasons of the Denny Green regime with the Vikings. We got along fine early on, but he didn't like me after I caught him fibbing.
He tended to follow his (frequent) dishonest statements with, " ... to be honest with you," and the media used to joke about that all the time.
I also covered the infamous Bears game in AZ, which of course was followed by one of the greatest rants of all-time.
I gotta give Denny credit for later trademarking "They are who we thought they were," and for selling hats emblazoned with "We Let Them Off The Hook."
When he was the Northwestern coach, he lived in Evanston next door to my Grandmother. Somewhere in my parents' basement is a photo of me standing next to Dennis Green, who was decked out in a purple suit and a 3-foot afro. RIP, Denny.
Quote from: MU82 on July 22, 2016, 12:39:55 PM
I covered the first 2 1/2 seasons of the Denny Green regime with the Vikings. We got along fine early on, but he didn't like me after I caught him fibbing.
He tended to follow his (frequent) dishonest statements with, " ... to be honest with you," and the media used to joke about that all the time.
I also covered the infamous Bears game in AZ, which of course was followed by one of the greatest rants of all-time.
I gotta give Denny credit for later trademarking "They are who we thought they were," and for selling hats emblazoned with "We Let Them Off The Hook."
Those are the kinds of stories I love reading about-our alumni rubbin shoulders with the "big shots". It humanizes them and whodathunk as you're going thru school hangin with your peeps having a cold one at the 'lanche that some of yous guyses would stumble upon "VIP's throughout our lives just in every day chit. We should start a thread of who's met/who knows who with out the bullchit. I've always found that pretty cool
Just met a guy up here in Wisconsin Rapids-golf starter at lake arrowhead who was a superintendent at Brookfield hills on 911. golfed with president HW. Probably to try to take his mind off of what dubya and the country was going thru talk about knee knockin 2 foot putts⛳️
Quote from: rocket surgeon on July 23, 2016, 08:13:22 AM
Those are the kinds of stories I love reading about-our alumni rubbin shoulders with the "big shots". It humanizes them and whodathunk as you're going thru school hangin with your peeps having a cold one at the 'lanche that some of yous guyses would stumble upon "VIP's throughout our lives just in every day chit. We should start a thread of who's met/who knows who with out the bullchit. I've always found that pretty cool
Just met a guy up here in Wisconsin Rapids-golf starter at lake arrowhead who was a superintendent at Brookfield hills on 911. golfed with president HW. Probably to try to take his mind off of what dubya and the country was going thru talk about knee knockin 2 foot putts⛳️
Just to make things clear, I didn't "rub shoulders" with Denny Green. I was a sportswriter and he was the coach of a team I covered. So we knew each other but we weren't friends, didn't socialize, etc. It was a professional relationship. Shortly after he arrived in Minny, he spoke at an event I managed and was very accommodating. However, he was quite thin-skinned, as many coaches are, and he got p-o-ed at me for a perfectly good question I asked and then had very little use for me. Which is fine. I didn't want to be his buddy, and I moved to Chicago not long after that anyway.
As a coach, Green was a good motivator and good at the psychological stuff, less good at the X's and O's. I always thought he was a better personnel evaluator than coach. He drafted Robert Smith in the first round even though Smith wasn't rated that high by most scouts, and Smith turned out to be a great back. He took Moss when others ran away. In AZ, he drafted Fitzgerald. Etc, etc.
Erin Andrews sauntering
Quote from: MU82 on July 23, 2016, 10:04:03 AM
Just to make things clear, I didn't "rub shoulders" with Denny Green. I was a sportswriter and he was the coach of a team I covered. So we knew each other but we weren't friends, didn't socialize, etc. It was a professional relationship. Shortly after he arrived in Minny, he spoke at an event I managed and was very accommodating. However, he was quite thin-skinned, as many coaches are, and he got p-o-ed at me for a perfectly good question I asked and then had very little use for me. Which is fine. I didn't want to be his buddy, and I moved to Chicago not long after that anyway.
As a coach, Green was a good motivator and good at the psychological stuff, less good at the X's and O's. I always thought he was a better personnel evaluator than coach. He drafted Robert Smith in the first round even though Smith wasn't rated that high by most scouts, and Smith turned out to be a great back. He took Moss when others ran away. In AZ, he drafted Fitzgerald. Etc, etc.
I didn't expect/think you were buds, but just to have the kind of interaction with them is cool.
My take away from all that was I can assume you didn't interview him buck need comin out of the shower then, heyo Ein'er?
Quote from: rocket surgeon on July 23, 2016, 04:28:30 PM
I didn't expect/think you were buds, but just to have the kind of interaction with them is cool.
My take away from all that was I can assume you didn't interview him buck need comin out of the shower then, heyo Ein'er?
Quote from: MU82 on July 23, 2016, 10:28:45 PM
Nah, rocket ... I was fully clothed.
LOL...phew