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Nice if you can get it Green won't be defined by Super Bowl berth
Updated: Friday January 12, 2001 6:42 PM
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Dennis Green watched fellow coaches Bill Walsh, George Seifert and Bill Parcells walk away from the NFL. He notes that they always seem to return. But the boss of the Minnesota Vikings calls himself a career coach and cannot imagine doing anything else. He was given a three-year contract extension AT midseason. He turns 52 next month, and hopes to still be coaching at 62. He's in this for the long haul, not to be judged on one game. Green has led the Vikings to the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons, but never the Super Bowl. A victory over the New York Giants in Sunday's NFC championship game would be great, but he said it isn't necessary to validate his career. "I don't gauge myself on Super Bowls," Green said. "I have two small kids. I have a family. That's what I base my happiness and worth on. "As a career coach, I can't worry about my legacy because real coaches don't do that. I worry about winning games, but I don't worry about winning Super Bowls. I want to win a Super Bowl. I desire it very much. But it won't change my life." Green's coaching career began humbly, with an 0-11 season at Northwestern in 1981. That's where he learned to deal with criticism and adversity. Green tasted success with the San Francisco 49ers, where he earned a Super Bowl ring in 1989 as an assistant coach. Then he turned around a struggling Stanford program. From those experiences came a "system" that turned the Vikings into one of the NFL's most consistent franchises of the 1990s. They have been to the playoffs more than any team since Green took over in 1992. The Vikings' five-season playoff streak is the longest in the league. "We've been doing things the same way since '92," Green said. "We put in an offense and a defense that we still use now. We put in a system of doing business every single day that still works for us now, and we've been competitive. "We have not won a world championship, which is something that we wanted, something that all of the Minnesota Vikings' coaches before us wanted, something that every coach in the league wants." He still directs scout teams and gets involved in the development of younger players. He had a big hand in the progress of Pro Bowl players such as quarterback Daunte Culpepper and center Matt Birk, who were reserves last season. Green's system has taken the Vikings to the playoffs with a different quarterback under center nearly every time. Culpepper is the seventh in eight appearances. "Coach Green has done a great job with what he's had to work with," said wide receiver Cris Carter. "He did a good job and never along the way made any types of excuses." The passion still runs deep, Green said, and will for years to come. No matter what happens Sunday.
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