Former college and pro football coach Denny Green dies at 67Dennis Green was one of many assistants who served under the coaching tree of Bill Walsh; Green started his own head coaching career at Northwestern unimpressively, averaging only two games a year at the struggling college, but would get a second chance at Stanford a few years later. In 1992, Green was hired as coach of the Minnesota Vikings; he was one of only two NFL head coaches between 1926 and 2000 (the other being Art Shell) to be black.
Green coached the Vikings for ten seasons, with a .500 or better record in all but his last season there; his high point as coach was in 1998, when the Vikings went 15–1 in the regular season. However, despite strong regular season success, Green never made it to the Super Bowl and lost both of his NFC Championship Game appearances.
After two years out of football, Green was hired to coach the Arizona Cardinals, where he was unable to replicate the success he had in Minnesota; all three seasons there had the Cardinals tallying double-digit losses; after one particular loss, Green uttered the memorable outburst "they are who we thought they were!" His last stint in coaching was in the United Football League, where he led the Sacramento Mountain Lions to three middling seasons before quitting and suing the league for unpaid salary; despite winning the lawsuit, Green was believed to have not been paid at the time of his death.
Green died from a heart attack. It was implied that Green may have been in poor health at the time of his death, as his family was by his side at the time of his passing.
Obituary from KMSPWikipedia
