By Doug Ireland, Sports Information Director
For the first time in nine NFL seasons, former Demon All-American Mike Green is not in a training camp to start the preseason.
Green, an All-American in 1999 and a key member of Northwestern's 1998 Southland Conference championship team that was one quarter shy of the national championship game, was released over the weekend by the Seattle Seahawks.
The softspoken Ruston native bucked the odds in his college and pro careers, and if he's going to keep playing football, he'll have to follow suit.
He came to Northwestern as a "non-predictor" out of high school, yet graduated with a criminal justice degree.
He began his Demon football career wearing No. 12, but had to give that up when Bobby Hebert's jersey was retired in 1997. Switching to No. 5 might have provided a spark -- he had great seasons in 1998 and 1999.
A couple of his hits won Compaq Plays of the Week awards, ultimately earning the NSU sports information office a complimentary laptop computer. They weren't unusual and that earned Green attention from NFL scouts.
But on Draft Day in 2000, he was almost overlooked. Not quite. Green was the last player drafted, earning the "Mr. Irrelevant" honor which brought with it a trip to the California coast community of Newport Beach, where he was the guest of honor for a parade, a banquet and other activities.
(Ironically, that makes Northwestern State the answer to a trivia question: which Division I college football program has seen two of its players be the last selection in the NFL Draft, earning them Mr. Irrelevant honors? In 1979, Bossier City native Mike Almond, a receiver, was picked by the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, and made it to the last cut, no small achievement considering the Steelers started two Pro Football Hall of Fame receivers, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth.)
What kind of competitor is Mike Green? Ask legendary Demon track coach Leon Johnson. After Green was picked in the NFL Draft, he didn't stop running sprints for NSU's track team. At the Southland Conference championships in May, the Demons had to beat Sam Houston in the final event of the meet, the 4x400 relay, to win the team championship. Mike Green wasn't the Demons' fastest 400 meter runner, but he was the one Johnson put on the anchor leg, where most teams put their top quarter-miler. Johnson banked on Green because there wasn't a tougher competitor on the team.
True to form, Green overcame the odds. He held off a spririted charge from his counterpart from Sam Houston by a couple of meters and the Demons won the conference championship.
When he arrived in Chicago Bears' training camp, Green went about the business of showing he was no afterthought. In six seasons in the Windy City, Green was the Bears' second-leading tackler from his safety position, behind only future Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher.
In 2002, Green was the top tackler among all NFL defensive backs.
He was traded to Seattle before the 2006 season, and suffered a season-ending and career-threatening injury in preseason, a lisfranc fracture of his foot. That sidelined him for 2006, but Green came back and was a reliable reserve in 2007. He was reportedly scheduled to make $1.3 million in 2008, which surely affected the Seahawks' decision to release him and may keep some safety-seeking teams from signing him, some pro football experts speculate.
So the odds are against Mike Green continuing his pro career -- which may be the best indicator that he's not done playing in the NFL.
If it doesn't turn out that Green has any more plays to make as a pro, he's had an amazing career for somebody who was a longshot again and again along the way.
