Hugh Green, Defensive End SEPTEMBER 1, 1980
Twenty-two years ago Hugh Green, a three-time All-America
defensive end at Pittsburgh, arrived in Tampa as the first-round
draft pick of the Buccaneers, marking the start of his 11-year
NFL career. Now the two-time Pro Bowl player is back in Tampa,
hoping to start a second pro football career. He is one of 18
members of the inaugural class of the NFL Coaching Internship
Program. Among Green's classmates are former players Barry
Foster, Amp Lee and Pete Metzelaars, plus active pros such as
Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Mike Maslowski and Chicago Bears
special teams player Larry Whigam. This month they are all
working in NFL Europe training camps throughout Florida.
Converted to linebacker by the Bucs, Green played 4 1/3 seasons
with Tampa Bay and 6 2/3 seasons with the Miami Dolphins. He was
released by Miami after the 1991 season and retired to his farm
in Fayette, Miss. Then, in 2000, he was asked to be the defensive
coordinator for the Miami Tropics of the ill-fated Spring
Football League, which dissolved two weeks into a planned
six-week inaugural season. However, in that short time Green
caught the coaching bug and soon asked his wife, Guy, and his
four children how they would feel about his returning to
football. He started to school himself in the profession by
visiting with the staffs at Grambling, where his former Bucs
teammate Doug Williams is coach, and Mississippi State, where
Green's coach at Pitt, Jackie Sherrill, is in charge.
Green's goal, though, is to coach in the pros, because, he says,
he doesn't have the temperament for college recruiting. "I'm not
going to spend time with a kid, and then on the last day he tells
me, 'I'm going somewhere else,'" says Green, who finished second
in the 1980 Heisman Trophy balloting. "I'd be out on his lawn,
waiting for him."
As for whether he feels as if minorities are getting a fair shot
at coaching positions, Green says, "Right now, that's a loaded
question. I know what all the intentions are, and everything
looks good. This business is all networking. You can run into
someone and get a job in a day, or get a job in 20 years. Until I
have that job, I can't give a direct answer, because I really
don't know."
At least in the short run, Green, 43, will have more
opportunities to network and develop his coaching skills than he
first expected. He arrived in Tampa planning only to work the
Barcelona Dragons' training camp, but after a defensive assistant
left, Green got the job. For Green, who grew up in Natchez,
Miss., before settling in nearby Fayette, the 10-game season will
be his first extended stay in Europe. (He played in one NFL
preseason game in London.) But don't count on him seeing many of
the sights. "I'm going over there to work," says Green, who when
he returns will intern at an NFL training camp under the league's
Minority Coaching Fellowship Programs. "I'm not going over there
to be a tourist." --Bill Syken
COLOR PHOTO: LANE STEWART COACH CLASS Green is on the Barcelona Dragons' staff.
COLOR PHOTO: CHUCK SOLOMON [See caption above]
A Heisman runner-up and a Pro Bowl performer, Green is a rookie
again--in the NFL's Coaching Internship Program.