On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, Peanut and Roman are joined by Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green. He joined the guys the same day the Washington Commanders announced his #28 jersey would be retired by the organization. Darrell talks about that special honor and rekindling his relationship with organization under its new ownership.
Darrell also sheds light on how despite his 5’9” frame he maintained 20 years of excellence in the NFL. He also shares how he’s made it his mission to impact the lives of young people both through his Darrell Green Youth Life Foundation and as the Associate Athletic Director at George Mason University.
And he shares the story of the long-standing beef he had with Jerry Rice during their playing days, and how he used the media to finally get Jerry’s attention. All that, and much more, in this wide-ranging interview.
The NFL Players: Second Acts podcast is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeart Radio.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the NFL Player Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Peanuts Tillman.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Gandalf the Gray. What's up, baby, it's my guy, Romanhopper
right here.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Man, this is the name of the week, I guess,
and I appreciate it. So let's just get right into
this thing. First and foremost, let's thank all of our
listeners and all of our viewers out there. Wherever you
pick us up on your podcast, whether it's Apple Podcasts,
iHeartRadio app make sure you always give us a review,
five stars, thank you, review comment. Also hit that follow,
(00:34):
but leave a couple likes in there too. Man, appreciate it, man,
and peanup. And I'm really excited about this one. I
think it's all dbs, but clearly it's only one dB
on the show today. And then we got two corners,
So we're gonna separate this thing and we're gonna get
down to it. Let's tell you exactly why, because I
didn't know up until this point that corners are born
(00:56):
and DB's I guess, we just are made and later
on in life.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So here we go.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
He was once known as and probably still is as
the Ageless Wonder. He's one of the greatest cornerbacks to
ever play the game. He played twenty years in the NFL,
all with the team that is currently known as the
Washington Commanders. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall
of Fame in two thousand and eight. He's the associate
(01:21):
athletic director at George Mason University and he has impacted
thousands upon thousands of youth and young people through his
Darryl Green Youth Life Foundation. Everybody, let's give a warm
welcome to mister Darryll Green.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's why I wanted him to do the intro because
I wouldn't didn't know you did that was that was
so good. That's what DB's do. That's what DB's do.
Now quarters Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I didn't know what DB's do, but now I know.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
See there it is.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I'm glad I was able to get you guys to
understand you.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I appreciate we do.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I would like to know this before we go to
the real questions. All right, Daryl, you gotta explain to me.
All right, So how are corners born and DB's are
or not?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Because I like this.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
I like there's certain things that just are uniquely God given,
uh in their expression, and you can't just go and
make that. You know you just can't go. Oh, I
want to make Let me make one now, the real
cornerbacks with the footwork and the different Actually, i'll give
(02:34):
you one that people could probably identify with. You're in
New York, Oakland. They're all Oakland, Philadelphia. They are not
the city of brotherly love in that stadium, they're not.
They are the city of you. Better put your hat on,
you better stay away from these people. Okay. So when
(02:57):
you're dealing with with that and the guy caught the
touchdown in the end zone, spent the ball, everybody's screaming.
They send stuff to you, not nice stuff, and you
you you walking out of that and you have to
come back out on that field and then guess what
(03:18):
they might do it again. You have to be born.
There's something on the inside of you that just just
just it only lasts till I got to the sideline,
don't I don't remember that. You can't. I can't train
you for that. I can't train you for that. There's
something about they gonna kick your behind and you come
(03:38):
back and you kick theirs nine more times. But so
and then the footwork and the mentality, the real, the
real cornerbacks and my humble opinion, I'm five eight and
three quarters, thank you very much, and I do want
my three quarters. And uh, you know I was I
was drafted first round, twenty eight pick. It was twenty
eight teams back then, and so you know, they probably
(04:03):
wouldn't pick me today. You know, all you're too little,
you can't play. I don't know what they would say,
but they said a lot of that before when I
was a kid. But at the end of the day,
when I came out there and played, I didn't play
accord into their thinking. I didn't play according to what
the coach had in mind. I played what you call
result nique because I couldn't play the technique. What's the technique, coach,
(04:25):
ah Man, I tell you what. Let's just let's do this.
Let's go with what's the end result? Bible says, run
the race to win, running a card into the rules.
I'm not gonna hold his jersey, not gonna pull his
face mask. But I probably won't be doing it in
the technique that you say, but I'll do it in
the result nique that you want. And so that's why
I think that you know, for me, I knew that
(04:46):
I wasn't made by somebody. I wasn't a prototypical size
or whatever whatever, And so I think I was born
in a way that even if you do get me,
I'm still good. I'll see you the next play. Yeah,
I feel like I can get it done. I'll get
it done. If you beat me a thousand times, I'm
still gonna come back. And I'm not embarrassed and I'm
(05:08):
not scared. So that's a little bit of you know,
and I think that's for some other people in places
and different skills, and but that's how I've always kind
of been.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I think that's like the David and Goliath mentality to know.
And what I mean by that is if if David
fought Goliath like straight on, head up, David.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Probably would have lost. It's fair to say, right, but what.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
David did he did something completely outside the box. He
was thinking outside the boxes, like I got this.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Little slang thing.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I'm a sling this thing really really hard in today's world.
That's like he shot him and he brought a knife
to a gunfight any one because he had he had
his gun right, So kind of like what you what
do you call it?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Result resultanti that's kind.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Of in my opinion, the five ay three quarters, Like
that's how you think, Like, I'm not gonna do it
your way. I'm gonna do it within the scheme. I'm
gonna do it my way and we're gonna get some results.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That's I think. That's I like that. I like that.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
And no, and it's not in a negative connotation. No, No,
I'm not gonna do it your way. It's just this
is how I do it. Yeah, this is how.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We do.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Shout out to my tell I love that guy. I
want to know about this though, because and I don't
want you to stay humble, Darryl.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Okay, this ain't the time to be humble. I don't
want you to be humble. Okay, I want it s
ain't humble. Yeah, yeah, hold on, yeah, I don't want
you to be Let's go.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Is it really true you ran a four four three
at fifty because you you.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
One hundred percent? And it's true. When I was in
my eighteen season at forty, I ran four four to
two for I ran for.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Two four for two four Yeah at eighteen season.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Yeah, I did all that at my eighteenth of twenty.
But you got to keep in mind, I mean you.
But you know something, I couldn't show up at four five.
I made three quarters.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
He was like Willie Maids, Willy Mays Hayes from Major League.
He just woke up and he woke up outside. They
was gonna cut him, and his bell was on the
lawn and then he woke up and he saw people running.
That's that's what your mommy and William mas hay just
running all the time, just straight speed.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Well that's also I think one of the the most
one of the more interesting facts. And I don't know
if you would know this because it's not going to
show up on Google or anything, but this is what
you knew if you knew Darryl Green's career, was that
you always played kickoff because you were the real safety.
You were like the first real safety on the kickoff team,
and you were out there just because.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
You were as fast all I was out there for you.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So if anybody breaks, Darrell, go get him, you know what.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Then to have to credit Richie pettiball On, my defense coordinator,
and Joe Gibbs, of course I heard coach. They they
had the mindset like me. You know, I don't know
if I don't know if I've helped them with it,
but they had the mindset like me. We would we
would go and create stuff, you know, in the dirt,
like you know, I'll let you play what you can play,
and we can build that defense around that. So, in
other words, if I can actually truthfully shut this receiver
(07:58):
down who called eight last week two hundred and twelve
and two touchdowns or three touchdowns, if I can actually
hold him to three for seventy no touchdowns, and I
do it the way I want to do it. Yet,
in the context of our scheme, we're gonna win this game.
They wasn't stupid. We're gonna win this game. And so
(08:20):
you know, okay, let him Dodd. That's not how left
foot up, right foot up, coach, whatever, foot up? You know,
you know. And when I bumped and run, I didn't.
I didn't. I didn't. I wasn't trying to grab nobody. Yeah,
I was trying to move and so I worked my feet,
you know. And the other thing, too, is going back
to your speed thing. I don't hate this, but it
(08:42):
took me many years to overcome my own appreciation for
being fast because I my first game, I chased out
my good friend Today Tony Darcet and it made me famous.
I was riding on Tony death since fame that I
chased him down.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, he went nine to nine.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, And he and I are great friends and we
travel speak to youth all over the country and we
talk about that. How y'all saying you're trying to belittle him, Well,
I'm riding on his shoulders. If he ain't, if I
caught you, it wouldn't mean nothing. So we're good friends.
But for me being recognized as this fast guy, I
(09:20):
despised it in the early years. It's like, man, I'm
shutting receivers down. Y'all talk about how fast I am.
My speed is a part of it, and I'm grateful
for that, But dude, I'm moving my feet, I'm playing
the ball. Guys ain't not catching balls on me. I'm
not just a fast dude. I'm not going to Pro
Bowl to run one hundred meters. I want a pro
(09:41):
bowler to go and the coverties wide receivers. So but
it took me a long time to mature and realize. Man,
I thank God for that. I'm grateful for my speed,
but in reality, my speed and my technique and my
mind and all the scheme, everything was a part of
my success.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
How long do you think it took for the league
or for everyone else for fans to realize that, like
damn and he can shut this guy down.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
They still have Yeah, I don't think. I don't think
people really have. I don't think they really get it.
I agree with I was being fast. I mean, dude,
I chased down some guys. I won the fastest Man.
You know, I probably have most of the the majority
of the iconic rundowns in the NFL's Faster Man, the
old NFL's Fastest Man, and in uh in Palm Spring, California,
(10:25):
where it was eight guys and they broke off two
go to to two, then four dours two. I'm undefeated
and three Olympians was in that and some legitimate guys
that were in those races. And I never lost. And
these are one on one, these are mono in the backyard.
You y'all you know this was no eight guys. This
(10:47):
is this me and you. Then I beat you, then
I raised Johnny. You know, so I'm undefeated. Yeah, do
y'all know that I'm under.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And what was the distance? Sixty sixty yards sixty like that.
That means you open up to your Yeah you got it.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Was good distance. Yeah, but you had to you know,
sometime I got out late sixty honest, you got to
do something.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I saw the well you and herschel.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
And that's also the forty. Sometimes guys get a not
as good of a start. The forty you don't get out,
but sixty you gotta hold it through the forty all
the way through.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
So I know I'm the reigning undefeated in the real
NFL's fastest man. I want them all. Everyone that I
went to, I won, and I chased down the iconic,
incredible athletes that I have great respect for. The guys
Eric Dixon, who's a great friend of mine. I don't
belittle him that I called him. He's he he's he
(11:42):
enhances me because he was great. Yeah, And so it
ran down a lot of guys and played a long time.
Ran for two at eighteen at my eighteen season, forty
years old, and ran for three at fifty.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's a big that's a big deal to be proud of.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
A lot of work, a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
We went outside right What you running me and you
was was racing what you think you do in Detroit.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
If we was a race, yeah, and this weather, yeah,
Cols it is.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, bro, I'm probably like Foe six eight because I
refuse to go to four seven. Refuse, refuse, I'll never
all right, but.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
I even I even show, I even lift you up
more and say i'd have y'all have to catch me
in July, so you win. I'll see you in July.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I went through.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I want to know this though, Darryl. And and this
is because I truly don't know. But I watched you
a lot of times in your career, and that is
because it was because all I remember them always talking
about was how fast you were. But what do you say,
technique wise? Is what made you better? Was it more
you more of a pressed the man guy. I know
(12:50):
you love shadowing guys because you you know, you whoop
them with your feet, catching with your hands. That's what
I was taught, especially pressed man and man coverage. If
I whoop you with your feet and I'm staying in front, dude,
I can catch him with the hands.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
That's easy.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Where a lot of people trying to be so quick handsy.
Now it's feet work first early or footwork footwork early?
You know, I got two feet though, so it or
were you more of an off man guy off coverage,
which one would you like?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
The key would be for me because you weren't the
biggest either.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Yeah, I problemself in being great in both. I don't
want to be a disadvantage. If I'm playing off on
the left side, on on the right side, off on
the right side, I want to play you because I
covered the man, so he can line up in the
slot left, slot, right, outside, left, outside right. It doesn't matter.
I got you all day, so whatever the route, wherever
(13:45):
you line up, so I'm prepared for that. From a
footwork standpoint, From a mental standpoint, speed quickness, mental toughness,
and conditioning. Speed quickness, mental toughness and conditioning is a
very important thing that I worked on. But my footwork.
I work my feet every day. I had a concept
about my arm, my arms. You say, well, what about
(14:07):
your arm? My arms had three jobs. Help me run
if he get really up on me too, clothes, hey,
push him off me, help me get away from him
because I don't want that much space, and then go
back and start running. And then when the ball comes,
try to play the ball. So if my arms grabbed
you or did something. I'm like, excuse me, I don't
(14:29):
think I asked you to do that. You don't grab him,
you don't push him, you don't just put yourself like
this young kid put his hands on the guy's shoulders.
For what why you put your hair? You should be
helping me run and move my feet, because really, at
the end of the day, you have to be where
you are in position to play the ball. You're not
(14:51):
just trying to you're out here just running and jacking around.
For example, if you line up in the press and
they throw the ball, you should make the play. I
mean if you're right there with So I want to
really be right there, thirty yards down the field. So
I may get I'm start off in position, I might
get out. How do I get back? My feet get
me back. I might get out again, my feet, get
(15:13):
me back, and then when the ball shows up, I'm
back where I wanted to be. But that was a
lot of work, a lot of technique, a lot of focus,
a lot of understanding, a lot of understanding. And I
will say this, I watched a lot of film, but
I watched seventy five, seventy five, twenty five, twenty five
him seventy five me because I got something that I'm
(15:37):
planning to do that I've been working on that is
important to me that i think will help me beat you.
And I'm going to focus on that a lot. I'll
get you. Okay, his routes, his speed, his quarterback, you
know that. I got that. That's what they do. Now
let's focus on what I do. All right, Dude, you're faster,
(15:58):
you're quicker, you mentally tell for arms, y'all know what
y'all got to do. Now, I don't do that. Now
if you, hey, you get get him off of me. Okay, good,
got you, come on, let's go back. So everything there's
a real technical I never really talked about that. But
I wasn't just some goofy fast guy running out there.
I can't do that play twenty years against these big
old guys quarterbacks throwing bbs. So now it was people
(16:20):
don't realize what it really was.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, I wanted to know that, That's why I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, it was definitely for me. I'm not I'm not
speaking for anybody else. Yeah, and I wasn't. I'm not
telling that. I'm not knocking. I wasn't a cover two corner. Yeah,
you know, you play cover three, I play cover four.
I can play cover one, cover zero. I like zero
and one, you know, And that's kind of what I did.
And I played some guys I played, you know. I
did this jokingly at the Hall of Fame last year,
(16:47):
like to some of the wife sayd y'all know why
I'm here because I covered all of y'all. I like
that they can see they can cover the second and
third get covered. I was the second, third and first,
second and third guy. I was only dealing with the
one guy.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
So, and I wasn't going to joke, but it was
kind of true, like in the Hall of Fame, because.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I covered against all y'all. Yeah, I appreciate you'll thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So twenty twelve, my number got retired when I went
to UH, I went to Losing a Life. Yet they
retire my number. And I remember my family being there
and it was this great, great ceremony, awesome, awesome deal.
The Washington commanders announced that they're going to retire Jersey.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So, first off, congratulations, right, no doubt, that's a huge honor.
Good job crowd in the background, good job on me. Wrong,
that's what I'm talking about because they don't. I don't.
I feel like they don't.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Do that a lot, you know, and that's rare. How
are you feeling that they're retiring your number? How does
that make you feel?
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Oh? Man, I've cried a lot of thousand people that
have texted me have cried. It's it's a real honor
and and I think that people appreciate. You know, I
was in one team for twenty seasons. Yeah, and I
was on the strike, and now God told me not
to go to another team. I don't know if a
lot of people even know that, but if you think
(18:04):
about it, I mean, people say, well, man, why don't
you go Reggie White? The guys who free agent free
agency and started playing bead You're like, why didn't dryl
Green ever go? Well, I didn't go and tell the word.
God told me not to go, you know, like yeah, right, yeah,
but he did, and so he protected me. I didn't
(18:24):
get hurt, it didn't break my neck, and the people
didn't get rid of me. But I was really impacting
that city. Trying to impact the city. Part of my church,
part of my learning centers, faithful marriage. Thirty nine years.
My kids raised up there. All my kids are married now,
my grandkids and stuff. So I tried to live a
right I tried to live a right life.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
The way I positioned myself is oh, and by the
way I played football. The primary is, man, I'm a
great dad, a great husband, a great man, you know, brother, friend,
love God. And by the way, I'm an NFL player.
So I think the people that know me reason while
we cried because we appreciate that. The people appreciated it.
(19:06):
And I think it's more than football. And maybe I'm wrong,
but I'm humbled by that. I came there and gave
my whole life there, met my wife there my rookie year,
and been faithfully married all those years, and didn't chase
the women, didn't chase the money, went out there hoarding
around and crap. I went to work, brought my butt home,
cut the yard, ride the bikes and served and did
(19:30):
what I was supposed to do. And to come back
and they say, man, you're one of the greatest players
and community guys. Dude, I mean, it's not just that
I played corner. Yeah, I don't see this as that.
I think it's more, and I believe it's more and
I'm humbled by that. This team was the last team
(19:51):
to get African American player Bobby Mitchell. I met him.
He's the Jackie Robinson. When I came there and sat
down with him, it was a real to come to Washington,
d C. And play in this shadow of his beginning
the story team. And then as we went on, we
(20:12):
had Doug Willis, Winner's super old Wiseman. You know, we
went to Super Bowls. Joe Gibbs was a great man,
great community. We had some very special so I'm very
I'm humbled by this new ownership. You know, Josh, Josh
Harris and Mitch Rail's got we right in his backyard.
Maggie Johnson, you know these guys and people don't know.
(20:36):
I've had nothing to do with the Commander's Redskin Commanders
since I retired. So these new guys come in and said, hey,
wait a minute. Darryl Green and fortunately they were from
that area. Josh moved to Philadelphia in that area, but
the other guys are local. I know, all the guys
have been doing magic thirty five years. So these guys
(20:58):
appreciated Daryl Green and and here I am, I'm disconnected
from the team and not in a bad way. I mean,
I work with youth, so I'm all over the country.
I'm everywhere, So I mean, I got a life. They
have a life. But to bring me back and acknowledge that, man, I'm.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
You're one of the core faces of the franchise. Are like,
that's that's gotta that's got to mean something. I know
you might not.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Affiliated with them, probably since retirement, but.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
True hall of famer you you know, like you you
you're a pillar in the community, like you represent them well.
So I think that's that speaks for itself, like you're
you are only.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Different, is only in your one hundred percent right. I'm
not gonna go and tell you if you don't acknowledge it,
I keep rolling, I keep rolling. But I am. I'm humbled,
and I am grateful that that they do. They just
got here. They say, man, look what about first things
we're gonna do. We're gonna acknowledge you. I mean, so
I'm very grateful.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
For Where were you at when when you cut when
you heard the news?
Speaker 4 (21:59):
So y'all don't know the whole story. So my wife
and my son was interacting with them for the last
three months, so they were in on it was yeah,
and we almost got divorced though talking on the phone.
And then the day I was supposed to go over
(22:20):
to the facility, Uh, I was like, hey, I got
something I'm going on. She said, no, you gotta go
over here, Like I ain't going nowhere. I gotta go.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I got a meeting to go to.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
So so thank god she didn't let me break her
and say, don't forget this. We're trying to surprise you,
you know, like dad, forget it Dan. We were trying
to surprise you any can you.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Miss it all?
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Oh my gosh, man, I was so glad. I say, Honey,
I love you to depth. You're the best. It was
the greatest moment. All my kids were there, Oh that's awesome.
And so they came and the grandkids were there, and
it was it was special's and I say all my
kids just in case my daughter in Houston is listening
(23:05):
to this, It wasn't all my kids. Her and their
husband and their kids weren't there and and so but anyway, yeah,
it was That's how they told me. But they worked
for months working on this and then uh, it was
just yeah, I was totally hummed.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So they tell you at the stadium or.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Was it we were at the facility. So I'll tell
you how they did it, and you can find it
because it's probably out there. I went and they were
telling me to present to do a video for these
draftees draft, and so I'm going to do. I'm going
to say to them, you know, the Lords, the Redskins,
the commanders, Washington, d C. You know, just say, hey,
(23:42):
this is a big deal that you worked all your
life for this. And so I'm reading through it. How
is that you know you're reading the tailor prompt?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Then they prompt.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Then they said, okay, that's good. He just got one
last one, hit, this hit, this next one, and we
should be good. And I read that.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I'm going to be and I did you finish reading?
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Or yeah? It was really I have to give them credit.
It was And again, dude, they put a lot of thought, yeah,
and energy and a lot of people. So I was humble.
I was. I was. It brings me to tears in
a lot of people as well, and I appreciate that
because people know who I am, they'll know what I'm about.
(24:22):
I'm not I'm not that dude, you know, I'm just
a guy down the street. It's grateful to be alive,
have a family, and and you know, just to digress football.
I started football eleventh grade on JB. I made divarsity.
I walked on that Texas are and in AI. I
left after one semester. After started the last game. My
buddy got killed. In correct. I was supposed to be
(24:44):
in that car. I left, went home, no grade, zero grades.
A year and a half later, I came back, but
I got twelve hours in community college. New coach let
me walk on again. Three years later, I was the
first round draft pick that weekend. I got drafted. The
next weekend, Clem Greenwood hung itself. The guy that got
in the car that was my second best friend. His
(25:04):
name was Connelle Green. Clem Greenwood with my second best
When my parents got divorced in sixth grade, I met
them at the new school and knew them all my life.
One gets killed, I was supposed to be in the car.
One dies and hangs itself when I hung itself when
I got drafted, So my life wasn't all just peachy cream.
And we grew up in the project, food stamps all
that stuff, and so I came from that broken home
(25:25):
all that stuff. And so next thing, no, I'm in Washington,
Like you think you surprised, I'm surprised. How did we'll
I get to be in the NFL draft. Yeah, I
didn't even I wasn't all that, you know. Now, we
won the state in the MA relay my senior year.
I ran tracking the eleventh twelfth grade and I ran
track in the tenth grade. I played football eleventh grade JV,
and I played football my senior year. So we won
(25:46):
the state. So I had some success in that. I
think I made all district at corner even as a
one year player. But I wasn't somebody's you know hot,
you know hot hot item. So but I walked on
and had fun. But that tragically, tragic happened, and I
just went back. I had no clue I was gonna
be in the NFL. I didn't dream about it. I
(26:08):
didn't dream about it, think about it. It's not even real.
I never even thought about it. Wasn't real or not.
It wasn't real. I didn't thought about it. So next thing,
you know, I was in the NFL. And then as
a Christian, I could hear God speak, and then when
he told me not to go to another team. Fine,
I'm gonna stay here. Next thing. I know it's twenty years,
(26:29):
but it's pretty crazy, man. And then, but I got
a great family, great marriage, great wife. So I'm humble
by that.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
We're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
About those twenty years. I want to know if you're
aware that, which I think you may be, that you're
on hold the record for the seasons with an interception
at nineteen Yeah. Yeah, and the only one you didn't
get was your very last one. How close were you
getting one or your last year?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
And how much do you still hold on to this?
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Oh? No, I hold on to it. And what's funny
about it is a guy named Mitchell. He was a
linebacker and I seen my last game. I wasn't starting,
but I was. I was playing there. I was in there,
I remember, and I got an interception and here it comes,
knocked the crap out of me, and he caught it.
Here's a bad part about it. He died a little
(27:35):
bit after that. I was at his house with his family.
That painted ball was on the on the thing and
I looked, oh my god, that's my Yeah. Yeah, that
was crazy, crazy story, man, that's the crazy story. But yeah,
I would have got it. I would have got an interception.
(27:56):
One interception for twenty years. But even nineteen it's still
it's still a great Is that a record?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah? Yeah, okay, yeah, Corners ain't playing twenty years.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Yeah, so that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Manty, he played twenty years when the NFL was real. Yeah,
probably you probably would have played about you to play longer.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
How long the time twenty something, but I think I
think probably just the way they don't practice and don't
hit and stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
He knocked out twenty I think you could have not
because I quit.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I didn't get cut. Yeah, I didn't, you know, I
was still playing. Here's what I want to know. The
very first game I ever started, it's my fourth game
of the season. We played Oakland. My coach comes over
to me. It was like, Peanut, that was my rookie year.
He goes, Peanut, you starting this week. You're going against
two future Hall of famers. You're going against Jay Rice
and Tim Brown. Now don't be in there fing up.
(28:53):
And he walked away and I was like, all right.
And then as soon as he walked away, I was
like and it was this great feeling for me, right,
what I want to know, Give us a story about
some of the greatest battles you had with Jerry Rice
and some of the you know, the Michael Irvin's and
some of these all the.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Big time receivers that I grew up watching. Andre Reid.
Philadelphia had two of the boys back in the day.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Quick.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Number one Michael six eight taller than me and started
off against him. Uh, well, it started off Monday night.
I'm from Texas.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
We planned the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night. My Redskins
at the time had just won the Super Bowl. They
beat Dallas in the championship game. Just you know, a
few months before, and we're gonna kick off. I'm the
new guy. I'm on the field. I'm thinking that week now.
They told me on Monday that I was starting. We
(29:57):
had a training camp. Hey were starting on Monday night.
You starting, So the previous Monday they telling me, oh
my gosh, I'm starting the Cowboys. I want to get
Drew Pearson's autograph, the receiver that I'm matching up with him.
Tony Hill was on the other side, Drew Piers. Tony
Hill was a number one.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
That's so funny y'all having these heroes and all of
a sudden we play them.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Dude, it's crazy. It's crazy. So I'm thinking Monday, I
want to get this autograph. Tuesday, I want to get
his autograph Wednesday. I hate him. They didn't. They didn't.
Don't see. This is back and this is where we're
going to get back to Commanders. We are going to
get back to that where the Cowboys beating the Cowboys
(30:42):
mean something, where half the team, half the fans are
not Cowboy fans in our stadium, half the players are
not from Philadelphia, in the stands, half the Giant. It's
gonna be us in our own stands. I'm telling my
people that I hope they listen to y'all show. Y'all
better be DMB. I hope you will. Yeah, we're gonna
(31:02):
be taking our place back anyway. The Cowboys I didn't know.
I knew nothing about a rivalry. I'm from Texas. I
don't know anything, so they baptized me in this. I
don't want to get nothing from this. Dude. Forget him.
You know he got in the Hall of Fame about
three years ago. Yeah, yeah, I told him. The Stewart
(31:23):
and got an autographed from him. Oh, I had never
talked to him.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
That was gonna be my next question Hall of Fame. Now,
so did you did you ever? You held this for
thirty years?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
I told him, I told him the whole story.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
What was this reaction.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Well, he told me that I busted his lip of
nose in the game. I don't remember that. And he
also told me something this is bad to say. I'm
say it anyway because we all love if you all
anybody have to do with the NFL, you love Tom Landry.
But he said Tom Landry kind of blamed him for
me chasing down Tony dar Sat wouldn't get the block.
Come on, man, you couldn't block. I'm going I'm not
(32:04):
running everybody on the field. So I don't know, I
don't know you did tell me that, but but yeah,
that was a really unique thing. We went fourteen and
two that year, my rookie year, and we lost in
the Super Bowl. But it was a fun year. But
I got introduced to the Cowboys receivers Philadelphia, as I said,
(32:25):
Mike Quick, Roy Green, and because Arizona St. Louis, Yeah, St.
Louis Cardinals was in our league at that time. So
I don't know if they draft me for these guys,
but I messed up on all these guys, Roy, Mike Quick,
Tony Well. I ultimately went to Tony here, but I
(32:45):
was on Drew John's didn't have anybody. They didn't have
they didn't have a premier receiver. But I started off
pretty much early on matching up with people. Definitely the
second year matching up with the guys, and so, you know,
was a lot to me. I had a tough I
had a lot of fun when I played. I had
I was a fun guy. I didn't I wasn't cussing
(33:08):
and screaming. And let me just tell you this, Jared Rice.
You mentioned, Jared Rice, the attributes of wide receiver, rot, running, hands, heart, speed.
You know, those are the things that are important. And
you start to say, well, who has the highest number
calculated number of you know, I got it. He's a ten,
(33:29):
he's a seven, he's a six, he's a four, and
then oh well he's a seven and nine and nine
and a six. So the numbers add up. So Jared
Rice equals out the highest numbers. To me, he's a
low speed, but rot running, he's high hands, he's high
uh and uh and hard he's high, Mike girvs his
hands heart way up here, speed he's low. Uh. And
(33:53):
then you got to add their quarterbacks to So that's
how I looked at him, you know, And I say so,
I would give him the odd for that, but just
the privilege of being able to say, uh, that I
played against these guys and maybe have you ever had
Jared Rice on the show. We have no, Okay, So
I'm gonna get him to come on the show to
rebuttle this. So so so Jared right, So I'm really,
(34:18):
I'm really, I'm just a dude. I mean, if I'm
playing against you, hey, man, what's up? What how you doing? Man?
Your mama and Nail and everybody good. When we get
in the game, trust me, we're gonna be competing. We
ain't competing right now, and I know how to go
into competition and separate that from Hey, what's up? Bro?
I ain't I ain't mad at nobody. I don't hate nobody.
(34:39):
I ain't screaming at nobody. When we competing, it's competition
and skill against skilled. If you did it good, hey, dude,
good man, dude, those a route. That's how I played
the game like, you know, if you did it, you
did it. If you did it and got me, you
really did something. I ain't mad. I'm really like, man, dude,
I gotta give it to you. J Rice wouldn't speak
(35:01):
to me before the game, would't speak to me during
the game, won't speak to me after the game. So
one day I did something that was out of my character.
I said to the media. I said, you know what
burns me up. I've been you know it's green on Rice.
You know, all these years, y'all won't shake my hand,
say what's up? Boom boom boom. So I said that
(35:23):
to them there, I said that to them, and you
remember this story. So we get to the Pro Bowl
in Hawaii. I'm coming off you name it, he coming
off America. You know, we meet. Hey, damn, I knew
what he was talking about. Yeah, man, what up? Man? You?
I said, Man, huh? I actually I ain't know what
he was talking about. And then I said, man, you
(35:44):
know what, Yeah, you're right, I said, man, But one
day we're not gonna be in the NFL and you
can't shake my hand, you don't say hi, you don't, dude.
We donna compete either way, I'm gonna compete hard against
you rather I like you or not like you. You
say nice things, but we should be able to be Hey, man,
what's up, how you doing, how your mamae? And whatever?
(36:06):
And he said he was superstitious, and he gave some
answers for it, and I just I never liked that, dude.
I want to be friends with my quick when the
game is over. That ain't gonna take nothing off It
ain't gonna take nothing off me. I'm gonna hit you
hard and try to you know, Michael or whoever it is.
That's just the way I am. I don't hate my team,
(36:28):
my opponent. I don't you know. I'm not gonna try
to kill dude. This is a skill. You got a
quarterback throwing these balls, You running precise routes, and I'm
trying to stop you. That's a competition, for sure. That's
not something for us to be mad and fighting about.
It's like either you can or you can't. When you're
playing me, you can either beat me or you can't.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
I think it's interesting because you probably played in the
wrong era. Because nowadays everybody knows each other because of
social media.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Most of these players are.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Friends with others and they try to get the jerseys
and then take the jersey and they're doing all the
other When you were playing nobody talk to nobody.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
You ain't know nobody else on the other team. You
usually hated that person.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Ye're different.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
I probably have a couple more dollars in my pocket
if I played in this era. Hunh you will. That's
interesting you saying that, because I truthfully, I don't. I
don't know if I'm agree with you with everybody after
the game with the with the jerseys that I don't
know if I would go that far every week. I look,
we're doing that, yeah, but there's a level of causal
(37:35):
respect and hey, what up, dude? Are you doing? Man?
Good to see you. You know, dude, we've been around.
We played eight years together, nine years, but you're in
the NFC. He some I'm playing you every year. You
don't have to invite me to your house and be
my best friend. But you got to be causial and
I'm not cussing and fighting and stuff because at the
end of the day, like I said, you awesome if
(37:56):
you can beat me, because I put in a lot
of work and I want to see my skills against
your skills. And I'm fortunate too because I'm probably one
of the only guys got the match up in an
era and the deal came later. But a lot of
the other greats they didn't match up. No, I don't
think Woodson matched up, and I don't Nias may have
matched up a little bits.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Also transitioned to the slot too.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Yeah, went to safety as well as you went to
safety in this that's my guy. But but no, you know,
it was a unique It was kind of you know,
as I played, and I'm you know, I'm kind of
a guy. I'm not I'm not really famous since I
don't I'm not out there. I'm not as popular a
lot of people. But uh, you know, people don't really
(38:41):
know what I how and you guys are getting a
little bit of it out of me. But yeah, the
way I thought about the game, where I approached it,
what I thought about the players and the companies that
I had. You know, when I played Randy Moss, you know,
I was scared of Randy Moss. You know, he was
that's back when he's Moss and people, you know, Randy
is incredible. But I'm pretty good too.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
You gotta play the man. You gotta guard the man,
not his reputation.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Exactly exactly of something, Gil Bird gil Bert, that's that's
my draft class. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Gil Gill coach me in Chicago, and that's one thing
he used to always say, you gotta you gotta guard
the man, not his reputation. Don't be scared to play anybody.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Gills, that's my guy.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Was a good player San Diego too. Yeah, you used
to drop those those gyms San Diego.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Speaking of the draft, San Diego had like three first
round draft picks, Gary Anderson I think his last name
was Anderson, Billy Ray Smith linebacker, and Gil in nineteen
eighty three draft and you can look that up. I
think I'm right. Three first round picks in the draft
when I came out of and Gil. I think Gil
was one of those. Yeah, that's my guy.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
That was Yeah. Gil was a good dude.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
I want to answer a question real quick though, So
I know you had a George Mason University assistant athletic director.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
I'm so sociated. I thought, excuse me, apologize.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
What's been one of the most gratifying feelings you've had
having that job, being around the youth and other young athletes.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
That's really all I'm really interested in, you know, as
young people. That's what I do have my life. But
I'm more you know, I'm a really from elementary school
through college. But unfortunately it's a lot of business trying
to raise money and so forth. But I do get
a chance to participate and interact with young people. That's
(40:31):
my life. That's what I love, you know. And it's
really tough because everybody wants you to be the next
this and next that, and I'm gonna be this, I'm
gonna be that, and sometimes people forget about just really
living just how do you live? What is it like
to be a man, just to be a friend, be
a son, you know. And so I enjoy it from
(40:54):
that bandness point the other parts of it, you know,
people like me can have, you know, but but I
do enjoy that. And you get with young people and
you and they want to know, you know, how a man,
how can you do it? What do I have to do?
And then sometimes they don't want to know you know it,
and it can create a lot of problems for people.
(41:16):
And and sometimes the problem not my brother, you know,
I had a brother who I think he died a
drug overdose. I'm not sure, but you know, my father
was an alcoholic and all that stuff. They got divorced.
I lived in all that stuff. And so I'm really
more passionate about young people of all all types of
young people having a chance to be successful. Give him
(41:37):
a shot, give him a chance, give him a chance
to win, you know, and you know, don't lock him up,
don't kick him out, give him a shot. Let's talk
to him. So I'd like to be the guy that
I that they talk to.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Do you feel that you're you're a wisdom that you
have this, you've got life experience. Do you feel that
the youth and what you give them their receptive to receiving?
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Yeah? I think so. Now what I do as a
company I work with called centen CE and T and E.
They're a large managed care in the company in this
country and we partner with the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
and so we're we're all over the United States every
week every month. You know, I just got back from
Ohio with youth and so I call my gold jacket
a key. And what do you do with your key?
(42:26):
You open your door and then as you walk into
your house, what do you do? You throw your key?
So I take my jacket off, I throw it down.
So I'm here, I'm here home. So when i'm when,
i'm when my key gets me in front of them.
And what's unique about it? Rather it's media. Rather it's
that gold jacket. I'm not sure. But it's not like
I have a generation gap. I'm in once I get in,
(42:47):
and then now when I start talking my story, they
find familiarity in it, because really there's nothing new under
the sign. Oh I grew up over here. I grew
up man, we did too, you know, So come on,
trust me. I don't care if you rich or poor, black, yellow,
trust me. If you're breathing the human you got the
same experiences.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah, we all. We all got some struggles in there.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
We got some struggles. I don't care how rich you were,
how great you were where you went to school. If
you're alive, your headache is just like my headache. You
need and an aspirin just like I do. You got
you get stump your toe just like I can stump mind.
So that's the privilege that I get, is that I
get to use that key, this childhood game that I played,
(43:30):
that gave me this level of recognition to access these
young people and adults on many levels. And then from there,
if you got something to say and some wisdom, then
it works.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
We're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
All right.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Tell me this key that you keep talking about. I
think it's opened up and it's continued to pour into
so many others, and that is through your Darryl Green's
Youth Life Foundation. How did you come up with it
first and foremost? And then what was your initial goal
or thoughts that you thought you'd do? And then tell
me one thing that you're like, I know, but like
(44:19):
I'm trying to build the whole pressure. But it's like
I want to know how you know, how it came about,
what you initially wanted it to be, and then what
it's turned into.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
All right, So I got to Washington, d C. I
would drive over to DC. We live in Virginia. I
drive into d C. What I learned through through time
and knowledge is that if you support and volunteer and
help people as a child, you'll do it as an adult.
So we did it. I did it cause my mama,
grab my ear, take that food over that of these people,
(44:50):
we will pour it too, like take that over that,
like you get over that here. But even if you're
forced to do it, you'll do it as an adult.
It's just it's in you. So I'm indeed, you see,
I'm trying to work with kids. I actually joined the
recreation department. They didn't pay me. I just I'm on
the team. We're doing all this stuff, Christmas events, all
these different things, and you're getting to meet all these
(45:11):
little kids. Man, he needs a diaper, he needs a jacket. Man,
he you know that ladies man like she's been drinking,
you know. So you I'm out there, yeah, out there,
even though I came from it. You don't see it
when you're in it. But I'm out there, like, wow,
this is crazy. So one night I drove home a
road called George Washington Parkway. I just started crying. It
(45:34):
was Christmas time. That kid didn't have the right clothes on.
He needed to dipeer, you know, all these you know,
And we got a little Hey, did you get a
piece of cake? Did you get a little toy? And
so God said to me, he said, Daryl, I mean,
what are you doing. I'm going out here. I wouldn't.
(45:55):
I knew I wasn't doing nothing. I ain't doing nothing.
Ain't no real I'm going back to the suburbs. That
kid ain't he met Darryl Green. I just not changed
his life, not one bit in reality. I called an attorney, said, man,
I want to start the foundation. I can't spell foundation.
I'm gonna do something. I don't know what. If I
started a foundation and I started doing food, clothes and
(46:18):
paying light bills. I had an office and I had
a little those you know the cassette tape beeph mister Green,
this missus Johnson. You know that I would try to
fix it if I could. Can I pay her bill?
Can I help us some get out of prison? Can I,
you know, buy this food? And we just did that
over and over there. I bought a van, we delivered
food edenberg bread. I remember now we able to get
(46:41):
food from bread from them. And then ultimately I had
a teammate named Dexter Manley, and Dexter was reported and
this is public that he couldn't read. It's my teammate.
Like man, so I'm thinking when I was in school,
kid couldn't read. Go up to the blackboard that day
the teacher is going to put us to the blackboard.
(47:02):
That kid start screaming in creating a problem, throwing spitballs,
kicking pull of girls hair. Because if they say that
you're so silly, it's better than you so dumb. Because
when I go up there, see Mike Man, you dumb,
(47:23):
but you being something silly that's cute. So I start
thinking about the academic side. Then I thought about the
fact that we want food stamps, free lunch, free housing.
So I'm thinking about academics, education, I'm thinking about provision.
Now I'm thinking about morals. I'm Christian. I understand biblical
(47:46):
processes and principles, so now I understand how to live.
And so at the end of the day, you think
about homeschool, church and government. The home really can do
it all. You can teach your kids, don't even go
to school. They can be homeschool, they can provide for them.
You can either and then you can go to church
or you can do church at home. And then so
(48:09):
when I looked at that, I saw the deficiencies in
these children where the government is saying, you know, I
remember I think it was George Bush, you know, welfare
of work, you know, But I grew up where people
lived in the projects for three generations, poor generations, and
so I was on food stamps, and my mom and
(48:33):
them provided the love and nurture. So that's what it is,
is love and nurture provision. That's government school, that school,
and in the church. That's really the four institutions that
support pretty much human beings in American soul. And when
there's a deficiency, then one take more than it came.
The government take over more, the church might do more. Well.
(48:56):
I am with the learning centers. Now I create these centers,
say I want to get the kids in here, and
I want to be able to manage that. So I'll
try to. I'm gonna marry mom and be the other
provision that she give the love and nurture. We'll give
the provision. We'll give the academics. We'll teach them. We'll
teach them biblical principles and will help raise this generation
(49:17):
back up. So that's how I created the Youth Life
Learning Centers. Presently, the learning centers are in Richmond, Virginia,
not in the DC area, which I'm sad to say, uh,
and in some parts of North Carolina. Uh. Maybe one
still left in Tennessee used to be Florida. But the
other other bad part about it is it's very hard
(49:39):
to raise resources for poor people because they're trying to say,
what do I get out of it? What do I
get out of it? Sometimes the sponsors won't help you,
and they will very hard on me, just say and
scrutinize me about how I gave or if I spent
too much money on them. I won't spend the money
(50:00):
on them. All of these people need this, they need that.
And then well, you went across the budget, so you're
not gonna give it to me. I'm not putting it
in my pocket. I'm just trying to help these people.
So I live with a lot of frustration. But I
did that my whole adult life, So yeah, you know,
I just I just took advantage of the revelation of
respond to the revelation that I had going down GW Parkway.
(50:23):
Didn't really know what I was doing. But then when
I pull it all together with this concept, it's a
human concept. Mom and dad for love and nurture, government
for food and provision, roof over your head, church help
you learn morals, and the school support you academically. That's
like alphabets ABC. That ain't no brain surgery stuff. That
(50:44):
was a revelation that I had. That's how I created
a learning centers.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
Who would you say would be on your personal amount
rushmore of success? So you've had this amazing life, marriage, kids, grandkids,
amazing football career, hall of fame, seen some stuff, you know,
I don't want say a rough childhood, but you saw
some things. You know, You've had some friends, things like that,
(51:10):
You've had a very blessed life. Who would be who
would be the four people that would be on your
personal amount rushmore of helping you become the person you
are today?
Speaker 4 (51:23):
And not saying, of course, obviously the Lord has done
it all God, but I'd say my dad, my dad
didn't know his dad he was. He became an alcoholic
through his childhood trauma. Yeah, married, my mama, had seven kids,
and just you know, in the Arab born in nineteen
(51:44):
thirty three in America and all the stuff he faced.
So that was that was. But I always loved him
and I always appreciated him. I always and I've been
pretty good at this my whole ad dope life. I
can stand in your shoe, you know, you come in
in a restaurant and you want to get an autograph
(52:04):
or whatever whatever, I can stand in your shoe. I
don't feel like it, but you know, as a professional athlete,
you should be able to be really good at standing
another person's shoes. Now, because you always stay from your band,
well you believe him, Well, won't you stand in his
shoes and see it from his vantished point. So I've
been good at that. So my dad loved him. He
was he was the best, really sharp dude, really highly intelligent,
(52:30):
highly intelligent. Uh, so he'd be first. And then any
people who have really helped me for what we call
in christiandom discipled me. Helped me become more like God,
help me to learn to follow Jesus. You know, Uh,
Colonel Melendez and uh and his wife Jeanie invited me
(52:50):
to their home in college. Doug Taff was the one
that introduced me to them. I got to Washington, d C.
I met Brett Fuller, who's a pastor and a bishop
and the every nation church world. And then even I
go beyond that and say that that my my son,
and my wife and my girls have helped me really material,
(53:15):
you know, really kind of realize, realize my life, you know.
In other words, I'm out here working and and all that.
I appreciate all the fans. Fans love me. I've been
respected and they have a role. But but my my
thing with them is I'm more trying to serve them
in terms of a model of goodness. And I didn't know. Man,
(53:38):
come on, you think I knew I was gonna play
twenty years.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
Well, no, you didn't even know you're gonna go to
the NFL.
Speaker 4 (53:43):
So so I think that for me, I never really
kind of weirded out on that. I just felt like, Okay, man,
this is a great opportunity. This is a It's not
only an opportunity, but it's a responsibility. So I've had
a good sober of my sober kind of a sober
mindset about stuff. But primarily my dad and the people
will have helped me because at the end of the day,
(54:05):
what has really made me great is God and the
revelation of who he is. I would have never been
faithfully married. I mean, I'm not from that world. You know.
I had all of the eight kids my dad had,
we all had kids out of wedlock. We're from the projects,
you know, we don't do good. It's not my history,
and so I would have been changed, not by football,
(54:28):
the money or people screaming my name. I've been changed
by God. So I'm faithfully married to one woman thirty
nine years and that ain't my history. My dad don't
even know his dad and they would divorced. So I'm
more grateful for that. I'm more humble by that. And
those are those that's what affected me, you know, that's
what mold me, should I say, and mold my decision
(54:51):
making to marry her. I only knew her for I
met her on Christmas Eve. We got engaged in June,
so you know, you know, for me to the faith
in God, the confidence, and you know, and people said, hey,
you're gonna get a prenup. You know, I can't even
spell that, you know, so I'm trying to. You know,
I'm really I'm grateful because my real whole me is
(55:15):
my faith in God and he is really he leads me,
not so much some other hero that did something. Because
when I was ten, I knew what I wanted to be.
I still don't know what I want to do. And
that's what we get it mixed up at We think
that I do is our bee? For example, if I'm
covering this guy, I'm doing this move, that move is
(55:38):
not my bee. That's what I did. But we get
celebrated for what we did, and everybody just looks right
over the bee. Well who is he? Though you ain't
see that movie made? Now? I said, who is he?
Is he somebody you want to go to dinner with?
Are somebody you want to get to just get an
autograph from and go to dinner with. I'm more interested
(56:01):
in that guy, and I appreciate that move he did.
Who is he? Who is he being? What does he do?
And we get really clouded with that.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
Yeah, yeah, that dope.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
I got one question that's completely off topic because I
don't know how many times I'm going to have Darryl
Green here to actually hear his opinion. And this is
something This is almost like being in the bottle shot
and the goat conversation comes up. So I gotta know,
who are your top three to four corners in the
NFL history.
Speaker 2 (56:37):
Top three or four corners in his say four, just
top three to top four? Well you can say three.
Speaker 4 (56:44):
Three, it's three three, Okay.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
This is this is a conversation that could go all
type of way.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
I thought about this the other day because I was like,
if I had to have a defensive back situation, who
would I be?
Speaker 4 (56:59):
Like?
Speaker 3 (56:59):
Who would I get? I think I got one corner,
I think I know then I think I know this corner.
But now I was like, man, I might need a nickel,
So who would be the third?
Speaker 2 (57:08):
And so this is I appreciate you putting me in
your top three.
Speaker 4 (57:17):
Keep in mind it's it's dated. It is it's Darryl.
It's not you, him or him. So this is Darryl.
And this is what I This is what I saw
when I came into the league. I saw Mike Haynes,
so he was one of my guys. Actually I had
him when I moved into my position. I saw me okay,
(57:41):
and then the guy that was the take the handoff,
Dion Sanders.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
He was in there for me.
Speaker 4 (57:46):
I'm not telling you one, two or three. I'm just
telling you this is how I saw it. He came
in Mike Haynes, then me as I grew into it.
Then Dion came in behind us. And then now you
may know this or may not know this, but I
trained because I was just with him. I don't take
credit for his career. But I was with Champbailey for
(58:08):
four years. I remember I watched film with him in
the mornings twice a week and on run on runky
days when they went to Runkys, Coach said, take him.
We went down the other end of field. We can
talk about airplanes, birds and chickens what we want to
talk about. But he was mine. Yeah, I don't take
credit for his career.
Speaker 2 (58:28):
That's beautiful, like, hey, I got the super guy here.
Speaker 4 (58:34):
Take got him. Well, the great thing is that his
humility and ability.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
He received it.
Speaker 4 (58:40):
Yeah, the first battle of Hall of Fame. I ain't
taking credit for him, but I'm saying, and this is
not before. He's not knocking my boys uh Anias and
and Rod and and Derel.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
And I hadn't, I might have put As at the slot.
Speaker 4 (58:55):
I was thinking, yeah, but they Whatever we say is
not to belittle agree. I'm just telling you me how
I came in. Man, Mike Kynes, that's my guy. Then
I felt like I moved right in. And then I
feel like DM moved right in. Now somebody can say, well, okay,
well put he's first, He's I don't really care it
doesn't matter. But that's me. But all a lot of
great corners, Well, I take that back. There's not a
(59:17):
lot of great corners in the history. There's not a
lot of great corners in the history that really play
because that position. That's why I said, and your unique position.
It is not a defensive back. It's a cornerback. It's
a real life job. And they can make it different.
If they just gonna play Cover two and three and four,
(59:38):
then okay, it is a little bit different. You know,
it's not the same. I don't feel the same pressure
I feel if you call Cover three, if you call
Cover zero zero, you're telling me zero it's zero, that
he's zero.
Speaker 3 (59:53):
I like Cover one and Cover zero because that means
you're gonna go hit the quarterback and I just got
my guys.
Speaker 4 (59:59):
I didn't like Cover one because sometime it's safe, they're
gonna knock the crap out of me. I didn't like that.
I didn't like that. Man, open your eyes.
Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Man, god.
Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
Man, you hit me in the back. And then a
lot of them used to steal my interceptions. I'm fighting
myself to death, and he come over and get the
tip I'm trying to I've got played with him. I
tipped it. I'm trying to go get boom me knocked
me out. He just like with my boy Mitch. Miss
got that pick. Now, I should have oppressed, you know,
approached the ball better. But I was forty. I was
(01:00:33):
thirty days from my forty third birthday when I walked.
When that last game, in that game, Champailey gave me
a reverse double reverse on punt and that's a record
of thirty five yards for the oldest punt return in
the NFL history.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
That is probably not going to change now.
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
That's also why you have the record tied with Jerry Rice.
Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
Because this is what we do, is teach on this
show as the most concessive years with a touch in
the NFL as well, because you got it for twenty
years because you had nineteen interceptions, but then you got
the reverse that counted as a touch.
Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
So that's how you have to it for twenty years
as well. There we go, so that it's all full
circle on this show, because this is what we do.
Another feather in the cat. Look at that there it is.
See we're teaching you something there. If y'all can see
his face writing, he is like well, I be dang,
I like that.
Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
I like, no, what thing that came to my mind,
which I appreciate now, like, hey, I can catch my
own punt. Why I got to run a reverse? But
I will say this is this true story. So after
the game later on, when I go into the locker room,
it's my last game, everybody we've been in staying for
a few hours saying goodbye. It was really neat of
(01:01:48):
course send off. And I'm watching it. I'm watching the
footage as I'm doing my interviews and I see the reverse.
I'm like, man, I'm retiring right on time because I
still play. But yeah, dude, that would have been a
touch And as you get older, what is eighty which
is satisfactory to play? But for you it's struck? You know, Yeah,
(01:02:13):
eighty is good? You you good? But I can't live
with myself. Yeah that's not If I hadn't saw that, fam,
I was like, oh my god, that should have been
a touchdown. Dude. They I jumped over that guy like
I was old man like, but it was good enough.
(01:02:34):
Thirty five yards thirty five should have.
Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Been And Darryl, I will be honest with you before
we get out here, I mean you were an old
man at the time, you were forty two playing football.
Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
I mean, you're one.
Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
You're the only cornerback that's done it that long. So
hats off to you, man, and thank you for blessing us.
Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
This is awesome, great. You know, I didn't know what
to expect and I was storoughly, thoroughly blown away with
your humility, your stories, your your ability to reference God
and how he's led you, how he's spoken to you,
how he's continued to lead you, your beautiful wife, your kids,
your family, the things that really are important to you,
(01:03:13):
the children in the communities that you serve. Like we
hear that, we felt that, and we appreciate that because
so often, this is why we talk about this on
this podcast and the NFL Player second Acts, is that man, like,
we only know you so much through what we've heard
through the TV, what we knew outside that helmet, but
really getting to sit sit down with you and let
(01:03:34):
you be in your own comfort zone. You got your
shirt tucked out, You're telling us great stories, you jigging
doing your thing.
Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
I appreciate that. Man. I got a brand new light
shining down on.
Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
You so, thank you. Appreciate that I've really seen I
haven't seen your show, but your show is going to
be a part of our life now. Thank you, man,
wife and family. So we're going to be watching d C,
d C, d mvuh. What's an the show?
Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
NFL Player Second Acts Podcast, NFL Players Acts Podcasts Podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
NFL Players Second Acts Podcast is my show from now.
So y'all let's check this out.
Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
We needed I like it.
Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
Hey, thank you for blessing us. Hey, thank y'all for
tuning in and listening. I'm Peanut. That's room the Ageless
wander Like, Share, Subscribe, Follow, Apple Radio, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcast.
Excuse me, I apologize. Hey, make sure y'all tune in. Hey,
this is the NFL player Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
I'm Peanut. Hey, that was it. That's a wrap, Franko,
that's it. Let's ride
Welcome to the NFL Player Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Peanuts Tillman.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Gandalf the Gray. What's up, baby, it's my guy, Romanhopper
right here.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Man, this is the name of the week, I guess,
and I appreciate it. So let's just get right into
this thing. First and foremost, let's thank all of our
listeners and all of our viewers out there. Wherever you
pick us up on your podcast, whether it's Apple Podcasts,
iHeartRadio app make sure you always give us a review,
five stars, thank you, review comment. Also hit that follow,
(00:34):
but leave a couple likes in there too. Man, appreciate it, man,
and peanup. And I'm really excited about this one. I
think it's all dbs, but clearly it's only one dB
on the show today. And then we got two corners,
So we're gonna separate this thing and we're gonna get
down to it. Let's tell you exactly why, because I
didn't know up until this point that corners are born
(00:56):
and DB's I guess, we just are made and later
on in life.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So here we go.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
He was once known as and probably still is as
the Ageless Wonder. He's one of the greatest cornerbacks to
ever play the game. He played twenty years in the NFL,
all with the team that is currently known as the
Washington Commanders. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall
of Fame in two thousand and eight. He's the associate
(01:21):
athletic director at George Mason University and he has impacted
thousands upon thousands of youth and young people through his
Darryl Green Youth Life Foundation. Everybody, let's give a warm
welcome to mister Darryll Green.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's why I wanted him to do the intro because
I wouldn't didn't know you did that was that was
so good. That's what DB's do. That's what DB's do.
Now quarters Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I didn't know what DB's do, but now I know.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
See there it is.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I'm glad I was able to get you guys to
understand you.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I appreciate we do.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I would like to know this before we go to
the real questions. All right, Daryl, you gotta explain to me.
All right, So how are corners born and DB's are
or not?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Because I like this.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
I like there's certain things that just are uniquely God given,
uh in their expression, and you can't just go and
make that. You know you just can't go. Oh, I
want to make Let me make one now, the real
cornerbacks with the footwork and the different Actually, i'll give
(02:34):
you one that people could probably identify with. You're in
New York, Oakland. They're all Oakland, Philadelphia. They are not
the city of brotherly love in that stadium, they're not.
They are the city of you. Better put your hat on,
you better stay away from these people. Okay. So when
(02:57):
you're dealing with with that and the guy caught the
touchdown in the end zone, spent the ball, everybody's screaming.
They send stuff to you, not nice stuff, and you
you you walking out of that and you have to
come back out on that field and then guess what
(03:18):
they might do it again. You have to be born.
There's something on the inside of you that just just
just it only lasts till I got to the sideline,
don't I don't remember that. You can't. I can't train
you for that. I can't train you for that. There's
something about they gonna kick your behind and you come
(03:38):
back and you kick theirs nine more times. But so
and then the footwork and the mentality, the real, the
real cornerbacks and my humble opinion, I'm five eight and
three quarters, thank you very much, and I do want
my three quarters. And uh, you know I was I
was drafted first round, twenty eight pick. It was twenty
eight teams back then, and so you know, they probably
(04:03):
wouldn't pick me today. You know, all you're too little,
you can't play. I don't know what they would say,
but they said a lot of that before when I
was a kid. But at the end of the day,
when I came out there and played, I didn't play
accord into their thinking. I didn't play according to what
the coach had in mind. I played what you call
result nique because I couldn't play the technique. What's the technique, coach,
(04:25):
ah Man, I tell you what. Let's just let's do this.
Let's go with what's the end result? Bible says, run
the race to win, running a card into the rules.
I'm not gonna hold his jersey, not gonna pull his
face mask. But I probably won't be doing it in
the technique that you say, but I'll do it in
the result nique that you want. And so that's why
I think that you know, for me, I knew that
(04:46):
I wasn't made by somebody. I wasn't a prototypical size
or whatever whatever, And so I think I was born
in a way that even if you do get me,
I'm still good. I'll see you the next play. Yeah,
I feel like I can get it done. I'll get
it done. If you beat me a thousand times, I'm
still gonna come back. And I'm not embarrassed and I'm
(05:08):
not scared. So that's a little bit of you know,
and I think that's for some other people in places
and different skills, and but that's how I've always kind
of been.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I think that's like the David and Goliath mentality to know.
And what I mean by that is if if David
fought Goliath like straight on, head up, David.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Probably would have lost. It's fair to say, right, but what.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
David did he did something completely outside the box. He
was thinking outside the boxes, like I got this.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Little slang thing.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
I'm a sling this thing really really hard in today's world.
That's like he shot him and he brought a knife
to a gunfight any one because he had he had
his gun right, So kind of like what you what
do you call it?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Result resultanti that's kind.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Of in my opinion, the five ay three quarters, Like
that's how you think, Like, I'm not gonna do it
your way. I'm gonna do it within the scheme. I'm
gonna do it my way and we're gonna get some results.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That's I think. That's I like that. I like that.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
And no, and it's not in a negative connotation. No, No,
I'm not gonna do it your way. It's just this
is how I do it. Yeah, this is how.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We do.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Shout out to my tell I love that guy. I
want to know about this though, because and I don't
want you to stay humble, Darryl.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Okay, this ain't the time to be humble. I don't
want you to be humble. Okay, I want it s
ain't humble. Yeah, yeah, hold on, yeah, I don't want
you to be Let's go.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Is it really true you ran a four four three
at fifty because you you.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
One hundred percent? And it's true. When I was in
my eighteen season at forty, I ran four four to
two for I ran for.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Two four for two four Yeah at eighteen season.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Yeah, I did all that at my eighteenth of twenty.
But you got to keep in mind, I mean you.
But you know something, I couldn't show up at four five.
I made three quarters.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
He was like Willie Maids, Willy Mays Hayes from Major League.
He just woke up and he woke up outside. They
was gonna cut him, and his bell was on the
lawn and then he woke up and he saw people running.
That's that's what your mommy and William mas hay just
running all the time, just straight speed.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Well that's also I think one of the the most
one of the more interesting facts. And I don't know
if you would know this because it's not going to
show up on Google or anything, but this is what
you knew if you knew Darryl Green's career, was that
you always played kickoff because you were the real safety.
You were like the first real safety on the kickoff team,
and you were out there just because.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
You were as fast all I was out there for you.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
So if anybody breaks, Darrell, go get him, you know what.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Then to have to credit Richie pettiball On, my defense coordinator,
and Joe Gibbs, of course I heard coach. They they
had the mindset like me. You know, I don't know
if I don't know if I've helped them with it,
but they had the mindset like me. We would we
would go and create stuff, you know, in the dirt,
like you know, I'll let you play what you can play,
and we can build that defense around that. So, in
other words, if I can actually truthfully shut this receiver
(07:58):
down who called eight last week two hundred and twelve
and two touchdowns or three touchdowns, if I can actually
hold him to three for seventy no touchdowns, and I
do it the way I want to do it. Yet,
in the context of our scheme, we're gonna win this game.
They wasn't stupid. We're gonna win this game. And so
(08:20):
you know, okay, let him Dodd. That's not how left
foot up, right foot up, coach, whatever, foot up? You know,
you know. And when I bumped and run, I didn't.
I didn't. I didn't. I wasn't trying to grab nobody. Yeah,
I was trying to move and so I worked my feet,
you know. And the other thing, too, is going back
to your speed thing. I don't hate this, but it
(08:42):
took me many years to overcome my own appreciation for
being fast because I my first game, I chased out
my good friend Today Tony Darcet and it made me famous.
I was riding on Tony death since fame that I
chased him down.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, he went nine to nine.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, And he and I are great friends and we
travel speak to youth all over the country and we
talk about that. How y'all saying you're trying to belittle him, Well,
I'm riding on his shoulders. If he ain't, if I
caught you, it wouldn't mean nothing. So we're good friends.
But for me being recognized as this fast guy, I
(09:20):
despised it in the early years. It's like, man, I'm
shutting receivers down. Y'all talk about how fast I am.
My speed is a part of it, and I'm grateful
for that, But dude, I'm moving my feet, I'm playing
the ball. Guys ain't not catching balls on me. I'm
not just a fast dude. I'm not going to Pro
Bowl to run one hundred meters. I want a pro
(09:41):
bowler to go and the coverties wide receivers. So but
it took me a long time to mature and realize. Man,
I thank God for that. I'm grateful for my speed,
but in reality, my speed and my technique and my
mind and all the scheme, everything was a part of
my success.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
How long do you think it took for the league
or for everyone else for fans to realize that, like
damn and he can shut this guy down.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
They still have Yeah, I don't think. I don't think
people really have. I don't think they really get it.
I agree with I was being fast. I mean, dude,
I chased down some guys. I won the fastest Man.
You know, I probably have most of the the majority
of the iconic rundowns in the NFL's Faster Man, the
old NFL's Fastest Man, and in uh in Palm Spring, California,
(10:25):
where it was eight guys and they broke off two
go to to two, then four dours two. I'm undefeated
and three Olympians was in that and some legitimate guys
that were in those races. And I never lost. And
these are one on one, these are mono in the backyard.
You y'all you know this was no eight guys. This
(10:47):
is this me and you. Then I beat you, then
I raised Johnny. You know, so I'm undefeated. Yeah, do
y'all know that I'm under.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
And what was the distance? Sixty sixty yards sixty like that.
That means you open up to your Yeah you got it.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Was good distance. Yeah, but you had to you know,
sometime I got out late sixty honest, you got to
do something.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I saw the well you and herschel.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
And that's also the forty. Sometimes guys get a not
as good of a start. The forty you don't get out,
but sixty you gotta hold it through the forty all
the way through.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
So I know I'm the reigning undefeated in the real
NFL's fastest man. I want them all. Everyone that I
went to, I won, and I chased down the iconic,
incredible athletes that I have great respect for. The guys
Eric Dixon, who's a great friend of mine. I don't
belittle him that I called him. He's he he's he
(11:42):
enhances me because he was great. Yeah, And so it
ran down a lot of guys and played a long time.
Ran for two at eighteen at my eighteen season, forty
years old, and ran for three at fifty.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's a big that's a big deal to be proud of.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
A lot of work, a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
We went outside right What you running me and you
was was racing what you think you do in Detroit.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
If we was a race, yeah, and this weather, yeah,
Cols it is.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, bro, I'm probably like Foe six eight because I
refuse to go to four seven. Refuse, refuse, I'll never
all right, but.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
I even I even show, I even lift you up
more and say i'd have y'all have to catch me
in July, so you win. I'll see you in July.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I went through.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I want to know this though, Darryl. And and this
is because I truly don't know. But I watched you
a lot of times in your career, and that is
because it was because all I remember them always talking
about was how fast you were. But what do you say,
technique wise? Is what made you better? Was it more
you more of a pressed the man guy. I know
(12:50):
you love shadowing guys because you you know, you whoop
them with your feet, catching with your hands. That's what
I was taught, especially pressed man and man coverage. If
I whoop you with your feet and I'm staying in front, dude,
I can catch him with the hands.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
That's easy.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Where a lot of people trying to be so quick handsy.
Now it's feet work first early or footwork footwork early?
You know, I got two feet though, so it or
were you more of an off man guy off coverage,
which one would you like?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
The key would be for me because you weren't the
biggest either.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Yeah, I problemself in being great in both. I don't
want to be a disadvantage. If I'm playing off on
the left side, on on the right side, off on
the right side, I want to play you because I
covered the man, so he can line up in the
slot left, slot, right, outside, left, outside right. It doesn't matter.
I got you all day, so whatever the route, wherever
(13:45):
you line up, so I'm prepared for that. From a
footwork standpoint, From a mental standpoint, speed quickness, mental toughness,
and conditioning. Speed quickness, mental toughness and conditioning is a
very important thing that I worked on. But my footwork.
I work my feet every day. I had a concept
about my arm, my arms. You say, well, what about
(14:07):
your arm? My arms had three jobs. Help me run
if he get really up on me too, clothes, hey,
push him off me, help me get away from him
because I don't want that much space, and then go
back and start running. And then when the ball comes,
try to play the ball. So if my arms grabbed
you or did something. I'm like, excuse me, I don't
(14:29):
think I asked you to do that. You don't grab him,
you don't push him, you don't just put yourself like
this young kid put his hands on the guy's shoulders.
For what why you put your hair? You should be
helping me run and move my feet, because really, at
the end of the day, you have to be where
you are in position to play the ball. You're not
(14:51):
just trying to you're out here just running and jacking around.
For example, if you line up in the press and
they throw the ball, you should make the play. I
mean if you're right there with So I want to
really be right there, thirty yards down the field. So
I may get I'm start off in position, I might
get out. How do I get back? My feet get
me back. I might get out again, my feet, get
(15:13):
me back, and then when the ball shows up, I'm
back where I wanted to be. But that was a
lot of work, a lot of technique, a lot of focus,
a lot of understanding, a lot of understanding. And I
will say this, I watched a lot of film, but
I watched seventy five, seventy five, twenty five, twenty five
him seventy five me because I got something that I'm
(15:37):
planning to do that I've been working on that is
important to me that i think will help me beat you.
And I'm going to focus on that a lot. I'll
get you. Okay, his routes, his speed, his quarterback, you
know that. I got that. That's what they do. Now
let's focus on what I do. All right, Dude, you're faster,
(15:58):
you're quicker, you mentally tell for arms, y'all know what
y'all got to do. Now, I don't do that. Now
if you, hey, you get get him off of me. Okay, good,
got you, come on, let's go back. So everything there's
a real technical I never really talked about that. But
I wasn't just some goofy fast guy running out there.
I can't do that play twenty years against these big
old guys quarterbacks throwing bbs. So now it was people
(16:20):
don't realize what it really was.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, I wanted to know that, That's why I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Yeah, it was definitely for me. I'm not I'm not
speaking for anybody else. Yeah, and I wasn't. I'm not
telling that. I'm not knocking. I wasn't a cover two corner. Yeah,
you know, you play cover three, I play cover four.
I can play cover one, cover zero. I like zero
and one, you know, And that's kind of what I did.
And I played some guys I played, you know. I
did this jokingly at the Hall of Fame last year,
(16:47):
like to some of the wife sayd y'all know why
I'm here because I covered all of y'all. I like
that they can see they can cover the second and
third get covered. I was the second, third and first,
second and third guy. I was only dealing with the
one guy.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
So, and I wasn't going to joke, but it was
kind of true, like in the Hall of Fame, because.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I covered against all y'all. Yeah, I appreciate you'll thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So twenty twelve, my number got retired when I went
to UH, I went to Losing a Life. Yet they
retire my number. And I remember my family being there
and it was this great, great ceremony, awesome, awesome deal.
The Washington commanders announced that they're going to retire Jersey.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So, first off, congratulations, right, no doubt, that's a huge honor.
Good job crowd in the background, good job on me. Wrong,
that's what I'm talking about because they don't. I don't.
I feel like they don't.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Do that a lot, you know, and that's rare. How
are you feeling that they're retiring your number? How does
that make you feel?
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Oh? Man, I've cried a lot of thousand people that
have texted me have cried. It's it's a real honor
and and I think that people appreciate. You know, I
was in one team for twenty seasons. Yeah, and I
was on the strike, and now God told me not
to go to another team. I don't know if a
lot of people even know that, but if you think
(18:04):
about it, I mean, people say, well, man, why don't
you go Reggie White? The guys who free agent free
agency and started playing bead You're like, why didn't dryl
Green ever go? Well, I didn't go and tell the word.
God told me not to go, you know, like yeah, right, yeah,
but he did, and so he protected me. I didn't
(18:24):
get hurt, it didn't break my neck, and the people
didn't get rid of me. But I was really impacting
that city. Trying to impact the city. Part of my church,
part of my learning centers, faithful marriage. Thirty nine years.
My kids raised up there. All my kids are married now,
my grandkids and stuff. So I tried to live a
right I tried to live a right life.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
The way I positioned myself is oh, and by the
way I played football. The primary is, man, I'm a
great dad, a great husband, a great man, you know, brother, friend,
love God. And by the way, I'm an NFL player.
So I think the people that know me reason while
we cried because we appreciate that. The people appreciated it.
(19:06):
And I think it's more than football. And maybe I'm wrong,
but I'm humbled by that. I came there and gave
my whole life there, met my wife there my rookie year,
and been faithfully married all those years, and didn't chase
the women, didn't chase the money, went out there hoarding
around and crap. I went to work, brought my butt home,
cut the yard, ride the bikes and served and did
(19:30):
what I was supposed to do. And to come back
and they say, man, you're one of the greatest players
and community guys. Dude, I mean, it's not just that
I played corner. Yeah, I don't see this as that.
I think it's more, and I believe it's more and
I'm humbled by that. This team was the last team
(19:51):
to get African American player Bobby Mitchell. I met him.
He's the Jackie Robinson. When I came there and sat
down with him, it was a real to come to Washington,
d C. And play in this shadow of his beginning
the story team. And then as we went on, we
(20:12):
had Doug Willis, Winner's super old Wiseman. You know, we
went to Super Bowls. Joe Gibbs was a great man,
great community. We had some very special so I'm very
I'm humbled by this new ownership. You know, Josh, Josh
Harris and Mitch Rail's got we right in his backyard.
Maggie Johnson, you know these guys and people don't know.
(20:36):
I've had nothing to do with the Commander's Redskin Commanders
since I retired. So these new guys come in and said, hey,
wait a minute. Darryl Green and fortunately they were from
that area. Josh moved to Philadelphia in that area, but
the other guys are local. I know, all the guys
have been doing magic thirty five years. So these guys
(20:58):
appreciated Daryl Green and and here I am, I'm disconnected
from the team and not in a bad way. I mean,
I work with youth, so I'm all over the country.
I'm everywhere, So I mean, I got a life. They
have a life. But to bring me back and acknowledge that, man, I'm.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
You're one of the core faces of the franchise. Are like,
that's that's gotta that's got to mean something. I know
you might not.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Affiliated with them, probably since retirement, but.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
True hall of famer you you know, like you you
you're a pillar in the community, like you represent them well.
So I think that's that speaks for itself, like you're
you are only.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Different, is only in your one hundred percent right. I'm
not gonna go and tell you if you don't acknowledge it,
I keep rolling, I keep rolling. But I am. I'm humbled,
and I am grateful that that they do. They just
got here. They say, man, look what about first things
we're gonna do. We're gonna acknowledge you. I mean, so
I'm very grateful.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
For Where were you at when when you cut when
you heard the news?
Speaker 4 (21:59):
So y'all don't know the whole story. So my wife
and my son was interacting with them for the last
three months, so they were in on it was yeah,
and we almost got divorced though talking on the phone.
And then the day I was supposed to go over
(22:20):
to the facility, Uh, I was like, hey, I got
something I'm going on. She said, no, you gotta go
over here, Like I ain't going nowhere. I gotta go.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I got a meeting to go to.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
So so thank god she didn't let me break her
and say, don't forget this. We're trying to surprise you,
you know, like dad, forget it Dan. We were trying
to surprise you any can you.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Miss it all?
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Oh my gosh, man, I was so glad. I say, Honey,
I love you to depth. You're the best. It was
the greatest moment. All my kids were there, Oh that's awesome.
And so they came and the grandkids were there, and
it was it was special's and I say all my
kids just in case my daughter in Houston is listening
(23:05):
to this, It wasn't all my kids. Her and their
husband and their kids weren't there and and so but anyway, yeah,
it was That's how they told me. But they worked
for months working on this and then uh, it was
just yeah, I was totally hummed.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So they tell you at the stadium or.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Was it we were at the facility. So I'll tell
you how they did it, and you can find it
because it's probably out there. I went and they were
telling me to present to do a video for these
draftees draft, and so I'm going to do. I'm going
to say to them, you know, the Lords, the Redskins,
the commanders, Washington, d C. You know, just say, hey,
(23:42):
this is a big deal that you worked all your
life for this. And so I'm reading through it. How
is that you know you're reading the tailor prompt?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Then they prompt.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Then they said, okay, that's good. He just got one
last one, hit, this hit, this next one, and we
should be good. And I read that.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I'm going to be and I did you finish reading?
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Or yeah? It was really I have to give them credit.
It was And again, dude, they put a lot of thought, yeah,
and energy and a lot of people. So I was humble.
I was. I was. It brings me to tears in
a lot of people as well, and I appreciate that
because people know who I am, they'll know what I'm about.
(24:22):
I'm not I'm not that dude, you know, I'm just
a guy down the street. It's grateful to be alive,
have a family, and and you know, just to digress football.
I started football eleventh grade on JB. I made divarsity.
I walked on that Texas are and in AI. I
left after one semester. After started the last game. My
buddy got killed. In correct. I was supposed to be
(24:44):
in that car. I left, went home, no grade, zero grades.
A year and a half later, I came back, but
I got twelve hours in community college. New coach let
me walk on again. Three years later, I was the
first round draft pick that weekend. I got drafted. The
next weekend, Clem Greenwood hung itself. The guy that got
in the car that was my second best friend. His
(25:04):
name was Connelle Green. Clem Greenwood with my second best
When my parents got divorced in sixth grade, I met
them at the new school and knew them all my life.
One gets killed, I was supposed to be in the car.
One dies and hangs itself when I hung itself when
I got drafted, So my life wasn't all just peachy cream.
And we grew up in the project, food stamps all
that stuff, and so I came from that broken home
(25:25):
all that stuff. And so next thing, no, I'm in Washington,
Like you think you surprised, I'm surprised. How did we'll
I get to be in the NFL draft. Yeah, I
didn't even I wasn't all that, you know. Now, we
won the state in the MA relay my senior year.
I ran tracking the eleventh twelfth grade and I ran
track in the tenth grade. I played football eleventh grade JV,
and I played football my senior year. So we won
(25:46):
the state. So I had some success in that. I
think I made all district at corner even as a
one year player. But I wasn't somebody's you know hot,
you know hot hot item. So but I walked on
and had fun. But that tragically, tragic happened, and I
just went back. I had no clue I was gonna
be in the NFL. I didn't dream about it. I
(26:08):
didn't dream about it, think about it. It's not even real.
I never even thought about it. Wasn't real or not.
It wasn't real. I didn't thought about it. So next thing,
you know, I was in the NFL. And then as
a Christian, I could hear God speak, and then when
he told me not to go to another team. Fine,
I'm gonna stay here. Next thing. I know it's twenty years,
(26:29):
but it's pretty crazy, man. And then, but I got
a great family, great marriage, great wife. So I'm humble
by that.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
We're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
About those twenty years. I want to know if you're
aware that, which I think you may be, that you're
on hold the record for the seasons with an interception
at nineteen Yeah. Yeah, and the only one you didn't
get was your very last one. How close were you
getting one or your last year?
Speaker 2 (27:10):
And how much do you still hold on to this?
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Oh? No, I hold on to it. And what's funny
about it is a guy named Mitchell. He was a
linebacker and I seen my last game. I wasn't starting,
but I was. I was playing there. I was in there,
I remember, and I got an interception and here it comes,
knocked the crap out of me, and he caught it.
Here's a bad part about it. He died a little
(27:35):
bit after that. I was at his house with his family.
That painted ball was on the on the thing and
I looked, oh my god, that's my Yeah. Yeah, that
was crazy, crazy story, man, that's the crazy story. But yeah,
I would have got it. I would have got an interception.
(27:56):
One interception for twenty years. But even nineteen it's still
it's still a great Is that a record?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah? Yeah, okay, yeah, Corners ain't playing twenty years.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Yeah, so that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Manty, he played twenty years when the NFL was real. Yeah,
probably you probably would have played about you to play longer.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
How long the time twenty something, but I think I
think probably just the way they don't practice and don't
hit and stuff.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
He knocked out twenty I think you could have not
because I quit.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I didn't get cut. Yeah, I didn't, you know, I
was still playing. Here's what I want to know. The
very first game I ever started, it's my fourth game
of the season. We played Oakland. My coach comes over
to me. It was like, Peanut, that was my rookie year.
He goes, Peanut, you starting this week. You're going against
two future Hall of famers. You're going against Jay Rice
and Tim Brown. Now don't be in there fing up.
(28:53):
And he walked away and I was like, all right.
And then as soon as he walked away, I was
like and it was this great feeling for me, right,
what I want to know, Give us a story about
some of the greatest battles you had with Jerry Rice
and some of the you know, the Michael Irvin's and
some of these all the.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Big time receivers that I grew up watching. Andre Reid.
Philadelphia had two of the boys back in the day.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Quick.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Number one Michael six eight taller than me and started
off against him. Uh, well, it started off Monday night.
I'm from Texas.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
We planned the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night. My Redskins
at the time had just won the Super Bowl. They
beat Dallas in the championship game. Just you know, a
few months before, and we're gonna kick off. I'm the
new guy. I'm on the field. I'm thinking that week now.
They told me on Monday that I was starting. We
(29:57):
had a training camp. Hey were starting on Monday night.
You starting, So the previous Monday they telling me, oh
my gosh, I'm starting the Cowboys. I want to get
Drew Pearson's autograph, the receiver that I'm matching up with him.
Tony Hill was on the other side, Drew Piers. Tony
Hill was a number one.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
That's so funny y'all having these heroes and all of
a sudden we play them.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Dude, it's crazy. It's crazy. So I'm thinking Monday, I
want to get this autograph. Tuesday, I want to get
his autograph Wednesday. I hate him. They didn't. They didn't.
Don't see. This is back and this is where we're
going to get back to Commanders. We are going to
get back to that where the Cowboys beating the Cowboys
(30:42):
mean something, where half the team, half the fans are
not Cowboy fans in our stadium, half the players are
not from Philadelphia, in the stands, half the Giant. It's
gonna be us in our own stands. I'm telling my
people that I hope they listen to y'all show. Y'all
better be DMB. I hope you will. Yeah, we're gonna
(31:02):
be taking our place back anyway. The Cowboys I didn't know.
I knew nothing about a rivalry. I'm from Texas. I
don't know anything, so they baptized me in this. I
don't want to get nothing from this. Dude. Forget him.
You know he got in the Hall of Fame about
three years ago. Yeah, yeah, I told him. The Stewart
(31:23):
and got an autographed from him. Oh, I had never
talked to him.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
That was gonna be my next question Hall of Fame. Now,
so did you did you ever? You held this for
thirty years?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
I told him, I told him the whole story.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
What was this reaction.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Well, he told me that I busted his lip of
nose in the game. I don't remember that. And he
also told me something this is bad to say. I'm
say it anyway because we all love if you all
anybody have to do with the NFL, you love Tom Landry.
But he said Tom Landry kind of blamed him for
me chasing down Tony dar Sat wouldn't get the block.
Come on, man, you couldn't block. I'm going I'm not
(32:04):
running everybody on the field. So I don't know, I
don't know you did tell me that, but but yeah,
that was a really unique thing. We went fourteen and
two that year, my rookie year, and we lost in
the Super Bowl. But it was a fun year. But
I got introduced to the Cowboys receivers Philadelphia, as I said,
(32:25):
Mike Quick, Roy Green, and because Arizona St. Louis, Yeah, St.
Louis Cardinals was in our league at that time. So
I don't know if they draft me for these guys,
but I messed up on all these guys, Roy, Mike Quick,
Tony Well. I ultimately went to Tony here, but I
(32:45):
was on Drew John's didn't have anybody. They didn't have
they didn't have a premier receiver. But I started off
pretty much early on matching up with people. Definitely the
second year matching up with the guys, and so, you know,
was a lot to me. I had a tough I
had a lot of fun when I played. I had
I was a fun guy. I didn't I wasn't cussing
(33:08):
and screaming. And let me just tell you this, Jared Rice.
You mentioned, Jared Rice, the attributes of wide receiver, rot, running, hands, heart, speed.
You know, those are the things that are important. And
you start to say, well, who has the highest number
calculated number of you know, I got it. He's a ten,
(33:29):
he's a seven, he's a six, he's a four, and
then oh well he's a seven and nine and nine
and a six. So the numbers add up. So Jared
Rice equals out the highest numbers. To me, he's a
low speed, but rot running, he's high hands, he's high
uh and uh and hard he's high, Mike girvs his
hands heart way up here, speed he's low. Uh. And
(33:53):
then you got to add their quarterbacks to So that's
how I looked at him, you know, And I say so,
I would give him the odd for that, but just
the privilege of being able to say, uh, that I
played against these guys and maybe have you ever had
Jared Rice on the show. We have no, Okay, So
I'm gonna get him to come on the show to
rebuttle this. So so so Jared right, So I'm really,
(34:18):
I'm really, I'm just a dude. I mean, if I'm
playing against you, hey, man, what's up? What how you doing? Man?
Your mama and Nail and everybody good. When we get
in the game, trust me, we're gonna be competing. We
ain't competing right now, and I know how to go
into competition and separate that from Hey, what's up? Bro?
I ain't I ain't mad at nobody. I don't hate nobody.
(34:39):
I ain't screaming at nobody. When we competing, it's competition
and skill against skilled. If you did it good, hey, dude,
good man, dude, those a route. That's how I played
the game like, you know, if you did it, you
did it. If you did it and got me, you
really did something. I ain't mad. I'm really like, man, dude,
I gotta give it to you. J Rice wouldn't speak
(35:01):
to me before the game, would't speak to me during
the game, won't speak to me after the game. So
one day I did something that was out of my character.
I said to the media. I said, you know what
burns me up. I've been you know it's green on Rice.
You know, all these years, y'all won't shake my hand,
say what's up? Boom boom boom. So I said that
(35:23):
to them there, I said that to them, and you
remember this story. So we get to the Pro Bowl
in Hawaii. I'm coming off you name it, he coming
off America. You know, we meet. Hey, damn, I knew
what he was talking about. Yeah, man, what up? Man? You?
I said, Man, huh? I actually I ain't know what
he was talking about. And then I said, man, you
(35:44):
know what, Yeah, you're right, I said, man, But one
day we're not gonna be in the NFL and you
can't shake my hand, you don't say hi, you don't, dude.
We donna compete either way, I'm gonna compete hard against
you rather I like you or not like you. You
say nice things, but we should be able to be Hey, man,
what's up, how you doing, how your mamae? And whatever?
(36:06):
And he said he was superstitious, and he gave some
answers for it, and I just I never liked that, dude.
I want to be friends with my quick when the
game is over. That ain't gonna take nothing off It
ain't gonna take nothing off me. I'm gonna hit you
hard and try to you know, Michael or whoever it is.
That's just the way I am. I don't hate my team,
(36:28):
my opponent. I don't you know. I'm not gonna try
to kill dude. This is a skill. You got a
quarterback throwing these balls, You running precise routes, and I'm
trying to stop you. That's a competition, for sure. That's
not something for us to be mad and fighting about.
It's like either you can or you can't. When you're
playing me, you can either beat me or you can't.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
I think it's interesting because you probably played in the
wrong era. Because nowadays everybody knows each other because of
social media.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Most of these players are.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Friends with others and they try to get the jerseys
and then take the jersey and they're doing all the
other When you were playing nobody talk to nobody.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
You ain't know nobody else on the other team. You
usually hated that person.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Ye're different.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
I probably have a couple more dollars in my pocket
if I played in this era. Hunh you will. That's
interesting you saying that, because I truthfully, I don't. I
don't know if I'm agree with you with everybody after
the game with the with the jerseys that I don't
know if I would go that far every week. I look,
we're doing that, yeah, but there's a level of causal
(37:35):
respect and hey, what up, dude? Are you doing? Man?
Good to see you. You know, dude, we've been around.
We played eight years together, nine years, but you're in
the NFC. He some I'm playing you every year. You
don't have to invite me to your house and be
my best friend. But you got to be causial and
I'm not cussing and fighting and stuff because at the
end of the day, like I said, you awesome if
(37:56):
you can beat me, because I put in a lot
of work and I want to see my skills against
your skills. And I'm fortunate too because I'm probably one
of the only guys got the match up in an
era and the deal came later. But a lot of
the other greats they didn't match up. No, I don't
think Woodson matched up, and I don't Nias may have
matched up a little bits.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Also transitioned to the slot too.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Yeah, went to safety as well as you went to
safety in this that's my guy. But but no, you know,
it was a unique It was kind of you know,
as I played, and I'm you know, I'm kind of
a guy. I'm not I'm not really famous since I
don't I'm not out there. I'm not as popular a
lot of people. But uh, you know, people don't really
(38:41):
know what I how and you guys are getting a
little bit of it out of me. But yeah, the
way I thought about the game, where I approached it,
what I thought about the players and the companies that
I had. You know, when I played Randy Moss, you know,
I was scared of Randy Moss. You know, he was
that's back when he's Moss and people, you know, Randy
is incredible. But I'm pretty good too.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
You gotta play the man. You gotta guard the man,
not his reputation.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Exactly exactly of something, Gil Bird gil Bert, that's that's
my draft class. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Gil Gill coach me in Chicago, and that's one thing
he used to always say, you gotta you gotta guard
the man, not his reputation. Don't be scared to play anybody.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Gills, that's my guy.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Was a good player San Diego too. Yeah, you used
to drop those those gyms San Diego.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Speaking of the draft, San Diego had like three first
round draft picks, Gary Anderson I think his last name
was Anderson, Billy Ray Smith linebacker, and Gil in nineteen
eighty three draft and you can look that up. I
think I'm right. Three first round picks in the draft
when I came out of and Gil. I think Gil
was one of those. Yeah, that's my guy.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
That was Yeah. Gil was a good dude.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
I want to answer a question real quick though, So
I know you had a George Mason University assistant athletic director.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
I'm so sociated. I thought, excuse me, apologize.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
What's been one of the most gratifying feelings you've had
having that job, being around the youth and other young athletes.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
That's really all I'm really interested in, you know, as
young people. That's what I do have my life. But
I'm more you know, I'm a really from elementary school
through college. But unfortunately it's a lot of business trying
to raise money and so forth. But I do get
a chance to participate and interact with young people. That's
(40:31):
my life. That's what I love, you know. And it's
really tough because everybody wants you to be the next
this and next that, and I'm gonna be this, I'm
gonna be that, and sometimes people forget about just really
living just how do you live? What is it like
to be a man, just to be a friend, be
a son, you know. And so I enjoy it from
(40:54):
that bandness point the other parts of it, you know,
people like me can have, you know, but but I
do enjoy that. And you get with young people and
you and they want to know, you know, how a man,
how can you do it? What do I have to do?
And then sometimes they don't want to know you know it,
and it can create a lot of problems for people.
(41:16):
And and sometimes the problem not my brother, you know,
I had a brother who I think he died a
drug overdose. I'm not sure, but you know, my father
was an alcoholic and all that stuff. They got divorced.
I lived in all that stuff. And so I'm really
more passionate about young people of all all types of
young people having a chance to be successful. Give him
(41:37):
a shot, give him a chance, give him a chance
to win, you know, and you know, don't lock him up,
don't kick him out, give him a shot. Let's talk
to him. So I'd like to be the guy that
I that they talk to.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Do you feel that you're you're a wisdom that you
have this, you've got life experience. Do you feel that
the youth and what you give them their receptive to receiving?
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Yeah? I think so. Now what I do as a
company I work with called centen CE and T and E.
They're a large managed care in the company in this
country and we partner with the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
and so we're we're all over the United States every
week every month. You know, I just got back from
Ohio with youth and so I call my gold jacket
a key. And what do you do with your key?
(42:26):
You open your door and then as you walk into
your house, what do you do? You throw your key?
So I take my jacket off, I throw it down.
So I'm here, I'm here home. So when i'm when,
i'm when my key gets me in front of them.
And what's unique about it? Rather it's media. Rather it's
that gold jacket. I'm not sure. But it's not like
I have a generation gap. I'm in once I get in,
(42:47):
and then now when I start talking my story, they
find familiarity in it, because really there's nothing new under
the sign. Oh I grew up over here. I grew
up man, we did too, you know, So come on,
trust me. I don't care if you rich or poor, black, yellow,
trust me. If you're breathing the human you got the
same experiences.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah, we all. We all got some struggles in there.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
We got some struggles. I don't care how rich you were,
how great you were where you went to school. If
you're alive, your headache is just like my headache. You
need and an aspirin just like I do. You got
you get stump your toe just like I can stump mind.
So that's the privilege that I get, is that I
get to use that key, this childhood game that I played,
(43:30):
that gave me this level of recognition to access these
young people and adults on many levels. And then from there,
if you got something to say and some wisdom, then
it works.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
We're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
All right.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Tell me this key that you keep talking about. I
think it's opened up and it's continued to pour into
so many others, and that is through your Darryl Green's
Youth Life Foundation. How did you come up with it
first and foremost? And then what was your initial goal
or thoughts that you thought you'd do? And then tell
me one thing that you're like, I know, but like
(44:19):
I'm trying to build the whole pressure. But it's like
I want to know how you know, how it came about,
what you initially wanted it to be, and then what
it's turned into.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
All right, So I got to Washington, d C. I
would drive over to DC. We live in Virginia. I
drive into d C. What I learned through through time
and knowledge is that if you support and volunteer and
help people as a child, you'll do it as an adult.
So we did it. I did it cause my mama,
grab my ear, take that food over that of these people,
(44:50):
we will pour it too, like take that over that,
like you get over that here. But even if you're
forced to do it, you'll do it as an adult.
It's just it's in you. So I'm indeed, you see,
I'm trying to work with kids. I actually joined the
recreation department. They didn't pay me. I just I'm on
the team. We're doing all this stuff, Christmas events, all
these different things, and you're getting to meet all these
(45:11):
little kids. Man, he needs a diaper, he needs a jacket. Man,
he you know that ladies man like she's been drinking,
you know. So you I'm out there, yeah, out there,
even though I came from it. You don't see it
when you're in it. But I'm out there, like, wow,
this is crazy. So one night I drove home a
road called George Washington Parkway. I just started crying. It
(45:34):
was Christmas time. That kid didn't have the right clothes on.
He needed to dipeer, you know, all these you know,
And we got a little Hey, did you get a
piece of cake? Did you get a little toy? And
so God said to me, he said, Daryl, I mean,
what are you doing. I'm going out here. I wouldn't.
(45:55):
I knew I wasn't doing nothing. I ain't doing nothing.
Ain't no real I'm going back to the suburbs. That
kid ain't he met Darryl Green. I just not changed
his life, not one bit in reality. I called an attorney, said, man,
I want to start the foundation. I can't spell foundation.
I'm gonna do something. I don't know what. If I
started a foundation and I started doing food, clothes and
(46:18):
paying light bills. I had an office and I had
a little those you know the cassette tape beeph mister Green,
this missus Johnson. You know that I would try to
fix it if I could. Can I pay her bill?
Can I help us some get out of prison? Can I,
you know, buy this food? And we just did that
over and over there. I bought a van, we delivered
food edenberg bread. I remember now we able to get
(46:41):
food from bread from them. And then ultimately I had
a teammate named Dexter Manley, and Dexter was reported and
this is public that he couldn't read. It's my teammate.
Like man, so I'm thinking when I was in school,
kid couldn't read. Go up to the blackboard that day
the teacher is going to put us to the blackboard.
(47:02):
That kid start screaming in creating a problem, throwing spitballs,
kicking pull of girls hair. Because if they say that
you're so silly, it's better than you so dumb. Because
when I go up there, see Mike Man, you dumb,
(47:23):
but you being something silly that's cute. So I start
thinking about the academic side. Then I thought about the
fact that we want food stamps, free lunch, free housing.
So I'm thinking about academics, education, I'm thinking about provision.
Now I'm thinking about morals. I'm Christian. I understand biblical
(47:46):
processes and principles, so now I understand how to live.
And so at the end of the day, you think
about homeschool, church and government. The home really can do
it all. You can teach your kids, don't even go
to school. They can be homeschool, they can provide for them.
You can either and then you can go to church
or you can do church at home. And then so
(48:09):
when I looked at that, I saw the deficiencies in
these children where the government is saying, you know, I
remember I think it was George Bush, you know, welfare
of work, you know, But I grew up where people
lived in the projects for three generations, poor generations, and
so I was on food stamps, and my mom and
(48:33):
them provided the love and nurture. So that's what it is,
is love and nurture provision. That's government school, that school,
and in the church. That's really the four institutions that
support pretty much human beings in American soul. And when
there's a deficiency, then one take more than it came.
The government take over more, the church might do more. Well.
(48:56):
I am with the learning centers. Now I create these centers,
say I want to get the kids in here, and
I want to be able to manage that. So I'll
try to. I'm gonna marry mom and be the other
provision that she give the love and nurture. We'll give
the provision. We'll give the academics. We'll teach them. We'll
teach them biblical principles and will help raise this generation
(49:17):
back up. So that's how I created the Youth Life
Learning Centers. Presently, the learning centers are in Richmond, Virginia,
not in the DC area, which I'm sad to say, uh,
and in some parts of North Carolina. Uh. Maybe one
still left in Tennessee used to be Florida. But the
other other bad part about it is it's very hard
(49:39):
to raise resources for poor people because they're trying to say,
what do I get out of it? What do I
get out of it? Sometimes the sponsors won't help you,
and they will very hard on me, just say and
scrutinize me about how I gave or if I spent
too much money on them. I won't spend the money
(50:00):
on them. All of these people need this, they need that.
And then well, you went across the budget, so you're
not gonna give it to me. I'm not putting it
in my pocket. I'm just trying to help these people.
So I live with a lot of frustration. But I
did that my whole adult life, So yeah, you know,
I just I just took advantage of the revelation of
respond to the revelation that I had going down GW Parkway.
(50:23):
Didn't really know what I was doing. But then when
I pull it all together with this concept, it's a
human concept. Mom and dad for love and nurture, government
for food and provision, roof over your head, church help
you learn morals, and the school support you academically. That's
like alphabets ABC. That ain't no brain surgery stuff. That
(50:44):
was a revelation that I had. That's how I created
a learning centers.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
Who would you say would be on your personal amount
rushmore of success? So you've had this amazing life, marriage, kids, grandkids,
amazing football career, hall of fame, seen some stuff, you know,
I don't want say a rough childhood, but you saw
some things. You know, You've had some friends, things like that,
(51:10):
You've had a very blessed life. Who would be who
would be the four people that would be on your
personal amount rushmore of helping you become the person you
are today?
Speaker 4 (51:23):
And not saying, of course, obviously the Lord has done
it all God, but I'd say my dad, my dad
didn't know his dad he was. He became an alcoholic
through his childhood trauma. Yeah, married, my mama, had seven kids,
and just you know, in the Arab born in nineteen
(51:44):
thirty three in America and all the stuff he faced.
So that was that was. But I always loved him
and I always appreciated him. I always and I've been
pretty good at this my whole ad dope life. I
can stand in your shoe, you know, you come in
in a restaurant and you want to get an autograph
(52:04):
or whatever whatever, I can stand in your shoe. I
don't feel like it, but you know, as a professional athlete,
you should be able to be really good at standing
another person's shoes. Now, because you always stay from your band,
well you believe him, Well, won't you stand in his
shoes and see it from his vantished point. So I've
been good at that. So my dad loved him. He
was he was the best, really sharp dude, really highly intelligent,
(52:30):
highly intelligent. Uh, so he'd be first. And then any
people who have really helped me for what we call
in christiandom discipled me. Helped me become more like God,
help me to learn to follow Jesus. You know, Uh,
Colonel Melendez and uh and his wife Jeanie invited me
(52:50):
to their home in college. Doug Taff was the one
that introduced me to them. I got to Washington, d C.
I met Brett Fuller, who's a pastor and a bishop
and the every nation church world. And then even I
go beyond that and say that that my my son,
and my wife and my girls have helped me really material,
(53:15):
you know, really kind of realize, realize my life, you know.
In other words, I'm out here working and and all that.
I appreciate all the fans. Fans love me. I've been
respected and they have a role. But but my my
thing with them is I'm more trying to serve them
in terms of a model of goodness. And I didn't know. Man,
(53:38):
come on, you think I knew I was gonna play
twenty years.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
Well, no, you didn't even know you're gonna go to
the NFL.
Speaker 4 (53:43):
So so I think that for me, I never really
kind of weirded out on that. I just felt like, Okay, man,
this is a great opportunity. This is a It's not
only an opportunity, but it's a responsibility. So I've had
a good sober of my sober kind of a sober
mindset about stuff. But primarily my dad and the people
will have helped me because at the end of the day,
(54:05):
what has really made me great is God and the
revelation of who he is. I would have never been
faithfully married. I mean, I'm not from that world. You know.
I had all of the eight kids my dad had,
we all had kids out of wedlock. We're from the projects,
you know, we don't do good. It's not my history,
and so I would have been changed, not by football,
(54:28):
the money or people screaming my name. I've been changed
by God. So I'm faithfully married to one woman thirty
nine years and that ain't my history. My dad don't
even know his dad and they would divorced. So I'm
more grateful for that. I'm more humble by that. And
those are those that's what affected me, you know, that's
what mold me, should I say, and mold my decision
(54:51):
making to marry her. I only knew her for I
met her on Christmas Eve. We got engaged in June,
so you know, you know, for me to the faith
in God, the confidence, and you know, and people said, hey,
you're gonna get a prenup. You know, I can't even
spell that, you know, so I'm trying to. You know,
I'm really I'm grateful because my real whole me is
(55:15):
my faith in God and he is really he leads me,
not so much some other hero that did something. Because
when I was ten, I knew what I wanted to be.
I still don't know what I want to do. And
that's what we get it mixed up at We think
that I do is our bee? For example, if I'm
covering this guy, I'm doing this move, that move is
(55:38):
not my bee. That's what I did. But we get
celebrated for what we did, and everybody just looks right
over the bee. Well who is he? Though you ain't
see that movie made? Now? I said, who is he?
Is he somebody you want to go to dinner with?
Are somebody you want to get to just get an
autograph from and go to dinner with. I'm more interested
(56:01):
in that guy, and I appreciate that move he did.
Who is he? Who is he being? What does he do?
And we get really clouded with that.
Speaker 2 (56:12):
Yeah, yeah, that dope.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
I got one question that's completely off topic because I
don't know how many times I'm going to have Darryl
Green here to actually hear his opinion. And this is
something This is almost like being in the bottle shot
and the goat conversation comes up. So I gotta know,
who are your top three to four corners in the
NFL history.
Speaker 2 (56:37):
Top three or four corners in his say four, just
top three to top four? Well you can say three.
Speaker 4 (56:44):
Three, it's three three, Okay.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
This is this is a conversation that could go all
type of way.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
I thought about this the other day because I was like,
if I had to have a defensive back situation, who
would I be?
Speaker 4 (56:59):
Like?
Speaker 3 (56:59):
Who would I get? I think I got one corner,
I think I know then I think I know this corner.
But now I was like, man, I might need a nickel,
So who would be the third?
Speaker 2 (57:08):
And so this is I appreciate you putting me in
your top three.
Speaker 4 (57:17):
Keep in mind it's it's dated. It is it's Darryl.
It's not you, him or him. So this is Darryl.
And this is what I This is what I saw
when I came into the league. I saw Mike Haynes,
so he was one of my guys. Actually I had
him when I moved into my position. I saw me okay,
(57:41):
and then the guy that was the take the handoff,
Dion Sanders.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
He was in there for me.
Speaker 4 (57:46):
I'm not telling you one, two or three. I'm just
telling you this is how I saw it. He came
in Mike Haynes, then me as I grew into it.
Then Dion came in behind us. And then now you
may know this or may not know this, but I
trained because I was just with him. I don't take
credit for his career. But I was with Champbailey for
(58:08):
four years. I remember I watched film with him in
the mornings twice a week and on run on runky
days when they went to Runkys, Coach said, take him.
We went down the other end of field. We can
talk about airplanes, birds and chickens what we want to
talk about. But he was mine. Yeah, I don't take
credit for his career.
Speaker 2 (58:28):
That's beautiful, like, hey, I got the super guy here.
Speaker 4 (58:34):
Take got him. Well, the great thing is that his
humility and ability.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
He received it.
Speaker 4 (58:40):
Yeah, the first battle of Hall of Fame. I ain't
taking credit for him, but I'm saying, and this is
not before. He's not knocking my boys uh Anias and
and Rod and and Derel.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
And I hadn't, I might have put As at the slot.
Speaker 4 (58:55):
I was thinking, yeah, but they Whatever we say is
not to belittle agree. I'm just telling you me how
I came in. Man, Mike Kynes, that's my guy. Then
I felt like I moved right in. And then I
feel like DM moved right in. Now somebody can say, well, okay,
well put he's first, He's I don't really care it
doesn't matter. But that's me. But all a lot of
great corners, Well, I take that back. There's not a
(59:17):
lot of great corners in the history. There's not a
lot of great corners in the history that really play
because that position. That's why I said, and your unique position.
It is not a defensive back. It's a cornerback. It's
a real life job. And they can make it different.
If they just gonna play Cover two and three and four,
(59:38):
then okay, it is a little bit different. You know,
it's not the same. I don't feel the same pressure
I feel if you call Cover three, if you call
Cover zero zero, you're telling me zero it's zero, that
he's zero.
Speaker 3 (59:53):
I like Cover one and Cover zero because that means
you're gonna go hit the quarterback and I just got
my guys.
Speaker 4 (59:59):
I didn't like Cover one because sometime it's safe, they're
gonna knock the crap out of me. I didn't like that.
I didn't like that. Man, open your eyes.
Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Man, god.
Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
Man, you hit me in the back. And then a
lot of them used to steal my interceptions. I'm fighting
myself to death, and he come over and get the
tip I'm trying to I've got played with him. I
tipped it. I'm trying to go get boom me knocked
me out. He just like with my boy Mitch. Miss
got that pick. Now, I should have oppressed, you know,
approached the ball better. But I was forty. I was
(01:00:33):
thirty days from my forty third birthday when I walked.
When that last game, in that game, Champailey gave me
a reverse double reverse on punt and that's a record
of thirty five yards for the oldest punt return in
the NFL history.
Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
That is probably not going to change now.
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
That's also why you have the record tied with Jerry Rice.
Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
Because this is what we do, is teach on this
show as the most concessive years with a touch in
the NFL as well, because you got it for twenty
years because you had nineteen interceptions, but then you got
the reverse that counted as a touch.
Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
So that's how you have to it for twenty years
as well. There we go, so that it's all full
circle on this show, because this is what we do.
Another feather in the cat. Look at that there it is.
See we're teaching you something there. If y'all can see
his face writing, he is like well, I be dang,
I like that.
Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
I like, no, what thing that came to my mind,
which I appreciate now, like, hey, I can catch my
own punt. Why I got to run a reverse? But
I will say this is this true story. So after
the game later on, when I go into the locker room,
it's my last game, everybody we've been in staying for
a few hours saying goodbye. It was really neat of
(01:01:48):
course send off. And I'm watching it. I'm watching the
footage as I'm doing my interviews and I see the reverse.
I'm like, man, I'm retiring right on time because I
still play. But yeah, dude, that would have been a
touch And as you get older, what is eighty which
is satisfactory to play? But for you it's struck? You know, Yeah,
(01:02:13):
eighty is good? You you good? But I can't live
with myself. Yeah that's not If I hadn't saw that, fam,
I was like, oh my god, that should have been
a touchdown. Dude. They I jumped over that guy like
I was old man like, but it was good enough.
(01:02:34):
Thirty five yards thirty five should have.
Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Been And Darryl, I will be honest with you before
we get out here, I mean you were an old
man at the time, you were forty two playing football.
Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
I mean, you're one.
Speaker 3 (01:02:45):
You're the only cornerback that's done it that long. So
hats off to you, man, and thank you for blessing us.
Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
This is awesome, great. You know, I didn't know what
to expect and I was storoughly, thoroughly blown away with
your humility, your stories, your your ability to reference God
and how he's led you, how he's spoken to you,
how he's continued to lead you, your beautiful wife, your kids,
your family, the things that really are important to you,
(01:03:13):
the children in the communities that you serve. Like we
hear that, we felt that, and we appreciate that because
so often, this is why we talk about this on
this podcast and the NFL Player second Acts, is that man, like,
we only know you so much through what we've heard
through the TV, what we knew outside that helmet, but
really getting to sit sit down with you and let
(01:03:34):
you be in your own comfort zone. You got your
shirt tucked out, You're telling us great stories, you jigging
doing your thing.
Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
Man.
Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
I appreciate that. Man. I got a brand new light
shining down on.
Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
You so, thank you. Appreciate that I've really seen I
haven't seen your show, but your show is going to
be a part of our life now. Thank you, man,
wife and family. So we're going to be watching d C,
d C, d mvuh. What's an the show?
Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
NFL Player Second Acts Podcast, NFL Players Acts Podcasts Podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
NFL Players Second Acts Podcast is my show from now.
So y'all let's check this out.
Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
We needed I like it.
Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
Hey, thank you for blessing us. Hey, thank y'all for
tuning in and listening. I'm Peanut. That's room the Ageless
wander Like, Share, Subscribe, Follow, Apple Radio, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcast.
Excuse me, I apologize. Hey, make sure y'all tune in. Hey,
this is the NFL player Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
I'm Peanut. Hey, that was it. That's a wrap, Franko,
that's it. Let's ride
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