The man who won more games than all but one coach in Vikings history — and who helped turn the Metrodome into one of the NFL's most raucous environments — will be honored this fall in the building that now stands in place of the one where he coached.
The Vikings announced Monday that coach Dennis Green, who led the team to the playoffs eight times and won 97 regular-season games in 10 seasons, will be the lone inductee to the team's Ring of Honor in 2018.
Green, who died of a heart attack in July 2016, will be recognized at halftime of the Vikings' Sept. 23 game against the Buffalo Bills.
"Dennis Green's impact on the Minnesota Vikings, and really the entire NFL, is still felt to this day," Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf said in a statement. "In addition to being widely regarded as one of the NFL's top coaches, Denny was also known as a great mentor and leader by all who had the fortune of being in his presence. We're extremely honored to forever memorialize Denny and his family in the Vikings Ring of Honor and we're looking forward to the induction in September."
Green, who coached the Vikings from 1992-2001, became the second African-American head coach in the modern NFL era. He led the Vikings to the playoffs eight times in 10 years, taking them to the NFC Championship Game after the 1998 and 2000 seasons. When Randy Moss — whom Green pushed to draft in 1998 after the receiver fell to the 21st spot — was announced as a Ring of Honor inductee last year, he was asked what he'd say to Green if he could still talk to him. Moss responded with a tearful eulogy that underscored what Green had meant to his career.
"I really don't know why I was treated the way I was treated on draft day," Moss said on June 14, 2017. "But, Coach Green gave me an opportunity, man. I told him, 'Coach, you're not going to regret this.' So, you ask me what I would say to him? Man, I'd probably just fall in his arms and give him a hug. Man, it's no words that I could tell him. The man passed away without me really, really giving him my love and thanks for what he was able to do for me and my family, man. There was a lot of teams out there that passed on me for wrong reasons. Coach Green gave me that opportunity."
Green will be the Vikings' only Ring of Honor inductee in 2018, the team announced. The Vikings informed the late coach's wife Marie of the honor Friday.
PR staff honored
The Vikings' public relations team was named on Monday the 2018 winner of the Pete Rozelle Award, given by the Pro Football Writers of America to a PR department that "consistently strives for excellence in its dealings and relationships with the media."
