Cowboys' Jones talks to Green

Dennis Green left the Vikings in 2001 after reaching a contract settlement with one game left in the regular season. Ronald Martinez/Allsport

By Don Banks, Sports Illustrated

While Bill Parcells remains the front-runner to land the Dallas Cowboys head coaching job, former Vikings head coach Dennis Green has surfaced as a potential second candidate for the position, a league source confirmed Friday night.

The Cowboys don't have a coaching vacancy yet, but third-year head coach Dave Campo is expected to be fired sometime next week after Dallas concludes its season at Washington on Sunday.

Green, who works as an NFL analyst for ESPN, declined comment Friday night. But a source said he and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones have been in contact this week and Green is interested in pursuing the job, as long as he feels he is a serious candidate and not merely window-dressing in Parcells' coronation.

If Green does interview with Dallas, it would satisfy the NFL's new guidelines stipulating that at least one minority candidate must be interviewed before a new coach can be hired. With reports surfacing last Saturday that Jones had met with Parcells in New Jersey, the former Giants-Patriots-Jets head coach was presumed to be Jones' top choice from the outset. But Jones this week has repeatedly assured the league that he intends to comply with the new guidelines concerning diversity within the hiring process.

As a longtime member of the coaching fraternity, Green is sensitive to the appearance of chasing a job that still belongs -- for the moment at least -- to Campo. Green has also been keeping an eye on developments in Detroit for weeks now, and a league source said the Lions' coaching job would remain his No. 1 priority if Detroit fired Marty Mornhinweg after two seasons.

Jones and Green are friends and talk occasionally, so their contact this week is not all that unusual, a league source said. Green, who took his Vikings teams to the playoffs in eight of his 10 seasons, is easily the most qualified minority candidate available this offseason. He ended his tenure in Minnesota with one game remaining in the 2001 season after he and Vikings owner Red McCombs agreed on a contract settlement.

 

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