| Authored by Randolph Charlotin - 16th June, 2009 - 3:21 pm
 What a bad time to retire.
On the day Atlanta released Michael Vick and the continuing 'What Will Brett Favre Do' saga took another turn as a Minnesota delegation personally visits with the waffling quarterback, Trent Green decided to hang it up.
This proves a 15-year career can come to an end without making a sound because the networks are buzzing around the sexier, more controversial stories.
So has been the career of Trent Green, a good quarterback that won’t get the credit he deserves for a career that often turned against him.
Though he was drafted by San Diego in 1993, Green never saw the field until four years later. Green’s chance came with Washington when he performed well off the bench for the Redskins. No one can imagine Green was Gus Ferrotte’s back-up at the time.
Trent turned the relief performance (3,441 yards 23 touchdowns and eleven interceptions) with the ‘Skins into a rich free agent contract with the St. Louis Rams. The financial reward was nice, but he was finally entering a season as the starting quarterback.
And all signs pointed to a breakout 1999 season for Green and the Rams. In two preseason games the Rams offense looked explosive under Trent’s direction. It was the beginning of the Greatest Show on Turf and Green was going to be the ringmaster.
But then Green was mauled by a lion in the third preseason game. Precisely, it was hard-charging Rodney Harrison from the San Diego Chargers on a blitz that changed the course of Green’s career. Harrison landed a direct hit on Trent’s left knee as he released a pass. The hit shredded Green’s knee and he was placed on injured reserve.
In his place stepped Kurt Warner, a no-name from NFL Europe and former supermarket stock boy. Warner challenged the record books as he led the Rams to a Super Bowl XXXIV victory and was named league MVP.
Green did get a ring for being on the team, but how valuable is it to him? That’s like claiming the checkered flag when all you did was start the car.
Trent eventually played eight games for the Rams in 2000 when Warner was hurt. Green proved his 1999 preseason wasn’t a fluke by throwing 16 touchdowns against just five interceptions. That led to Green being traded to Kansas City and the opportunity to start that had eluded him for several years.
Finally, Green had an offense and the unit immediately caught fire. With running back Pries Holmes behind him and tight end Tony Gonzalez the primary target, Green and the Chiefs gained over 5,000 yards. While they didn’t immediately turn K.C. around in 2001, Green and the Chiefs put the AFC on notice.
Meanwhile, the Rams made a second trip to the Super Bowl, another reminder of what could had been. Green had his Chiefs, but would Trent be a two-time Super Bowl Champion if his knee was never destroyed? We will never know.
What the league did find out was Trent Green was a damn good quarterback. Between 2002-05 Green passed for 72 touchdowns against 52 interceptions, averaging over 4,000 yards per season. Twice he was selected to the Pro Bowl (he deserved more, but with the likes of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in the AFC, that leaves just one spot left for 13 other starting quarterbacks to fight over).
Green also led the Chiefs to the playoffs. Both times K.C was shown the door by Indianapolis, a 2003 38-31 divisional shootout and a 2006 23-8 humbling at the hands of the eventual Super Bowl Champions.
Maybe Green’s career would had continued at the pace he set in Kansas City, but concussions did him in. The first one was against Cincinnati in 2006 that cost him half his season. A year later, while playing for the Miami Dolphins, Green took a knee to the helmet as he tried to block a Houston Texan defensive lineman during a reverse. Adding insult to injury was Travis Johnson standing over an unconscious Green and taunting him. To top it off, Johnson took verbal shots at Green after the game, and said Green’s block attempt was malicious.
St. Louis’ native son returned home for one more year in 2008 to be Marc Bulger’s back-up. It’s not the way to go full circle in one’s career, but for the man born in St. Louis got to retire in his home city.
Green will turn his attention to a career in broadcasting. He was sharp as a guest analyst in several appearances and his productive career could help him land a job with a prominent network. But the job probably won’t be with NBC, as they added former coach Tony Dungy and Harrison, the man that changed the course of Green career, to their studio team. How ironic.
If we learned anything about Green, it’s to not count him out. He bounced back from a shredded knee and concussions people felt he should had retired from years ago.
Instead good guy Green quietly exits when Vick is monitored by an ankle bracelet and t.v. cameras and Favre basks in the glow of competing coverage of his possible second un-retirement.
For being a heck of a player, Green’s career should be celebrated, even though the press barely acknowledged it.
You may read more by Randolph Charlotin by visiting his blog at . He can be reached at talktome@randolphc.com. |
