Big Red Rage - Thanks, Coach

State Farm and buy Arizona Cardinals podcasts. Visit Hacy Cardinals dot com, Slash podcasts, The Red Scenes, rising ard, temperaturizing vision, flurring, rage taking over. Here's Paul Calvci. I'm ready. I'm one

hundred percent ready. I'm telling you I'm ready. And Ron Wolflee, it doesn't get any better than that horn unleash the far A very special edition of The Big Red Rage Tonight Paul Calvc, Darren Urban from ac Cardinals dot Com sitting in for a vacationing Ron Wolfully and you know what, Darren, I don't think you're gonna have any problem hitting the way back button and recollecting the particulars of this one.

If you missed it last week, we have busted out Cardinals Folk Tales, and we're gonna revisit Cardinals Folk Tales, the award winning documentary series that was unveiled this past season during the season during a seven and oh tenant to start by the Arizona Cardinals. In case you missed it, or even if you didn't, there's some really good stories

and anecdotes. As we say, you can't spell history without the words story, and this one goes by the words thanks Coach, which refers to Darren going to reverse engineer this for us exactly, so thanks Coach is a reference to Dennis Green's infamous postgame speech after the Monday night meltdown against the Bears in two thousands six and after he had his monologue as well, I guess we'll call it that everybody remembers and you can still see on

YouTube and has been immortalized on commercials and the like and repeated many many times in different ways and forms. Cardinals Vice president of Media Relations Mark Dalton kind of waited a beat after Denny finished, and before anybody had a chance to say anything, kind of clasped his hands together and said, thanks coach. Matt Leiner will be out next, and it just it was quite the finish to a

very surreal kind of moment. And by the way, as he went behind that door and left the press commence room, there was a certain sideline reporter waiting to do the radio version in the interview on the other side of that door, which we'll get into once we launch into Cardinals Folk Tales. Thanks coach. But yes, you thought the game was a meltdown until you got to the post game, right, and then all of a sudden it literally turned into a beer commercial. Yeah, it was. It was kind of

The game itself was crazy. I at the time was working for the East Valley Tribute newspaper and covering it, and like you said, the game itself was was crazy how it played out. The Cardinals had a twenty to nothing lead and ended up losing the game and missing a field goal on the like right at the end of the game that would have won it for them. After all that and that was it would have been

interesting enough. And then we went in there and then Dennis Green started having a press conference, which started pretty normal until the one answer. But you know what, Denny Green with the media was an event itself. Yes, it was almost performance art in some ways. You know, just a week before that, maybe two weeks before that, we were in Atlanta and he had declared Matt Liner at the starting quarterback by ripping the microphone out of my hand as I was doing a live postgame interview with

rookie Matt Liners. So those are the sort of things you had to keep your head on a swivel for

the head coach, Dennis. But in that particular moment, everyone in that take us into the press room, because you were bracing right, I mean, you were anticipating, man, there could be one angry and agitated head coach potentially when it first got in there, and I was literally in the in the front row right in front of him, probably like three feet in front of Denny, and I was expecting either something very sullen and maybe one word answers or anger, and it was really neither. At first.

It was he got asked questions and he was very matter of fact about how they blew the game. But he was matter of fact about it until he got the one that set him off. And then we got the famous they are who we thought they were, which well, I mean, honestly, that is firmly entrenched in NFL history is if not pulp pop culture. I would absolutely agree with that. I mean, there's there's so many there's a couple different parts that people remember. They are who we

thought they were, and you can crown them. You can crown them who takes the third game of the preseason like it's blank black. I mean this that it's hard to not remember it. But again, one of the things I loved about doing this folk tale and I was I was the director of the video and helped get a lot of the sound for it and the and the video, and I just enjoyed kind of going behind the scenes of hearing people how as it played out,

what was kind of going through their heads. And when we come back, we'll hit the Big Red way back button and we're talking the most memorable moments in Cardinals history. When you're talking about Cardinals folk tales and on this various special edition of The Big Red Rage presenta by santan Ford and Gilbert, we'll get into it next and hit rewind on. Thanks Coach on the Arizona Cardinals Radio Network.

Welcome back everyone into this special edition of The Big Red Rage presenta by santan Ford and Gilbert on Paul Calves as we go back through Cardinals folk tales, import ticular the Denny Green Meltdown two thousand and six. And if you remember that season, it started with a win and then the Cardinals lost four in a row, two of those buy a combined five points. But the bright lights and the big stage were still to come on Monday Night football. And you know how we talk about

sports is the original reality TV? Well, how about a game where the Cardinals defense forced the opposing quarterback into six turnovers? Right? A game the Cardinals led twenty to nothing at the half, yet it's still wound up with the pounding of the podium. And it was well after the game that we learned that the Denny Green meltdown might have been as premeditated as it was spontaneous. So here on the Big Red Rage, presented by Satan Bord and Gilbert, Here we go with an encore presentation of

Cardinals folk tales. Thanks coach. Do you believe this is happening? No? I cannot remember Denny ever being that out of sorts. It's one of those things that's going to go down in history. I mean, everyone's gonna remember, you know, what I mean. We just the Bears are what we thought they were. I said to my wife on the drive home, what the hell did he mean by that? It was going really really well for us. Boy, the Cardinals are

flying around on defense until it wasn't touchdown Chicago. Unbelievable. There are no words. It was deflating. We felt like we had done enough to win. The meltdown is complete for the Cardinal or was it? Because the most memorable meltdown was still to come after the game. Coach Dennis Green has got to be absolutely beside himself. You could say that. Then again, Denny Green did say that a postgame press conrence that beer commercials are made up? Literally,

what do they think they are? They are who we done they were, They are who you thought they were. A rand with a life of its own that's still has legs today. I was I was next up on the podium, and I was like, oh my god, what am I walking into? Who the hell takes a third game in a preseason It was beautiful from the beginning to the end to the MIC's lap. If you want to crown them, crowned your ass. It was a thing

of beauty. It started before you all even saw it though, Like it started off in the locker room, because when my ass gets in there, I'm gonna go eight, and I was like, WHOA what it wasn't oh what the moment to be sure. Welcome in to Cardinal's Folk Tales, Thanks Coach, presented by Ziki, where we go in depth into Cardinal's history all time anecdotes through the recollections and memories of those who lived it or, in my case, those who covered it. My name is Paul Calvic, Cardinal's

sideline reporter. It was October two thousand and six, Monday Night football where the Cardinals led the undefeated Bears Swanty to nothing at the half. Yet Coach Green had good reason to be angry, frustrated, exasperated, Mount Saint Denny. I'm telling you, when that clock went triple zero, something snapped in Denian. I don't think he ever recovered. He did it in a special way that only Dennis beIN could do it. But they are what we thought they were,

and we led him out the hook. Thanks question. Now, before we get to the pounding of the podium, it's important to understand the stage and the stakes. Two thousand and six was the debut season for University of Phoenix Stadium state of the art. In fact, the roof was open and the lights were bright for the building's first regular season game in primetime, and the cameras loved themselves some. Matt Liner, the Cardinals rookie quarterback, transcended sports Hack. He

made People Magazines one hundred most Beautiful list. And as most of Matt Leiner's weekly radio show, I used to marvel at how USC fans would make the drive to Phoenix just to hang out in the sports bar for a one hour radio show. And the star qube brought out the stars as well. Here's Darren Urban from Azy Cardinals dot Com. Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore were at the game on the sideline before the game, Matt, how

excited he is Monday Night for you? He might be excited too, though, if you had Ashton Kutcher at Demi Moore chared for you, David might be fired up. That's kind of cool, you know that? Yeah, Demmi? How you done? Charles Barkley showed up and he ended up making an appearance in the booth during Monday Night football, and there was just there was a vibe to it. Everything involved just seemed like a height level. People were thinking Matt Leiner was going to be the next great quarterback. There

was just so much involved. It was the first round draft pick, Matt Leinert, who was making a second star up and now on national TV against a very formidable and vaunted Chicago defense. So yeah, it was. There was a lot on display and a lot of unique variables that went into that game. That's Cardinals VP of Media Relations Marked and he's right. All the pregame talk all week was all about the five and oh Bears. The

Chicago Bears are going to the super Bowl. It's the best defense in the NFL in the history of this league. Oh wait, it's Week six. But if you talk to everybody associated with the NFL, including ESPN's Joe Tisman, the Chicago Bears are on their way to the super Bowl. That's voice of the Cardinals Dave Pass, who certainly was not ready to crown the Bears. Not in Week six.

Neither was Cardinals Pro Bowl pass rusher Bertram Barry, who wanted the world to know that the a Z played some d Everybody was talking about how this is going to be a non competitive Monday night football game, and we took that to heart. And I know from a defense this perspective, we want to go out and show that Chicago Bears had a really good defense, but we would no slouches either, and we felt like this is

our opportunity to make a big statement. Yeah, you really can't understand the post game or the game without broadening lens a little bit to the season and the preseason as a whole. The backstory is we played Chicago in Chicago in the third preseason game and the Ones versus Ones held our own and outplayed the Bears first team. That was in the back of Denny's mind the whole time coming up into that game. And then we got Lovey Smith on our conference call that week and love

Smith said, it was a glorified practice. We haven't really played them yet. They were able to have some success against us back then, but it's a totally different mindset. The preseason games are important. They're glorified practices to me, and I think that God under Denny skin a little bit. I think that's important to know and to understand that Denny was probably a little disappointed when coach Smith said, yeah, that preseason game didn't mean as much to us as

it seemingly did to you. The game started, and it started well. Matt Leiner had two touchdown passes in the first quarter. Cardinals beat writer Kent Summers covered the game for the Arizona Republic. The Cardinals dominated them in the first half, I mean dominant. Matt Leiner was so sharp, and you could tell the Cardinals had a game plan

that put the Bears on their heels. I mean Lyoner was hitting short passes everywhere, and they were moving a ball and the Bears, you know, Rex Grossman was turning the ball over all the time, and I thought they're going to win this game, you know, and I think everybody did at halftime. That's how good they were in the first half and how bad the Bears were. The Cardinals defense, you had a young Darnell Docket, a young Carlos Stansby, a young entre role. You had bertram Berry

playing really well. You had Adrian Wilson in the prime of his career. It was a pretty good defense that was starting to find its way, and they just made the Bear's offense look like a disaster. They had Rex Grossman at quarterback and Rex wasn't the most talented quarterback. He didn't have the best arm, he didn't make the

best decisions. So we felt like we could get a few balls from him, like he would throw us a few and maybe we could get some turnovers and go for the ball because he was a guy that was pretty loose with the ball. He had really small hands. Play fake. Grossman steps up, hit the balls out, he got sack of the balls loose at the thirty two yard line. It was bertrand Berry that came around against his first sack of the year and a forced fumble.

Again they're still wrestling board. It's cardinal ball. Berry comes up with the former recovery as well. He did it all on that play. We felt like if we could get him the turn the ball over more than what he had, that we could as an offense score enough points in order to get that win home. And it almost worked. Almost as mentioned, the defense did its part. Rex Grossman finished was six turnovers, four picks, two lost bumbles,

his passer rating and a halftime seventeen point two. In fact, it was twenty to nothing Cardinals getting ready for the second half and Dave Pash was still uneasy when the Cardinals were up big. Yeah, we were surprised, but I think just because we had been snake bitten before. I think there was a little concern, like, you got another half and then it all started to unravel. Denny kind of got a little cautious, didn't want Matt Lennert making

any any mistakes. They started handing the ball off to Edrin James time after time after time, and he wasn't going anywhere. He ended up with fifty five yards on thirty six carries. That was ridiculous. That's one point five yards per carry, and it was carry after carry thirty six times. Edrin James ran the ball and got nowhere. And it was by design a halftime adjustment to make darn sure the rookie QB didn't throw the game away

literally once again, Ken Summers. I think Denny Green went to offensive coordinator Keith Rowan and said, back off, run the ball, drained the clock, and that's what they did. Bryan or Lacker finished with like one hundred nineteen tackles in that game. He hit Edgar and James so often it was an unbelieving I've never seen one player hit another player so often in any game. They ought to name er Lacker Skycamp because he's everywhere. He is making

plays sideline to sideline. Even though the Cardinals got conservative and stunk, the Bears still had to have four things go exactly right for him to win that game. Commencing countdown to meltdown, ignition to implosion. In three two one high formation behind line of three step dropper comes Anderson of the Ball's ball, but that's loose on the far

side of the Bears. Mike Brown picks it up and he walks in fresh Chicago touchdown, and the Bears have new life with two seconds to go in the third quarter. The one thing they can't do is turn the ball over in that situation, and that's exactly what happens given the Bears. Light Wolf gives me grief all the time that somehow I'm the human Jinks with the Cardinals. He calls it the pash factor. I say something and the next play the opposite happens. Well, he did it to

Edrin Edrin James, Thank goodness, he's not a fumbler. Very next play fumbling. The Cardinals really protecting the football right now. And that's the great thing about having Eder and James too. The guy's not a fumbler, David. He doesn't put it on the ground very often. Five twenty five to go in the fort twenty three to ten Arizona, they're out of the eye with James the deep man. He gets it off the right side, cut it back to the left, and he gets stuck right in the legs at the

forty one yard line and the balls loose. It's fumbled to pick up by the Bears far side Tilmot at the twenty to ten to five touchdown Chicago. Did I just say that? Oh my goodness, a thirty six yard fumble recovery for the touchdown by the Chicago Bears, and with five minutes to go there within one touchdown, another unforgettable, regretable moment. Forget the pash factor, the wolf factor. Jing seemingly spoke the fumble into existence. But wait, there's more now,

time for the Bears special teams to score. Devin Hester. When Devin Hester caught the punt work, I'll never forget as soon as he caught the ball on the return, like he made one move in and you saw it pastor waits for it at the eighteen yard line, backs up and now runs right into twenty twenty five look out thirty nearside, forty at midfield, forty five, forty with a kicker to be thirty twenty fifteen ten five touchdown Chicago and the Bears unbelievably have tied this football game.

You gotta be kidding me. No way, no way, unbelievable. There are no works. The meltdown is complete for the Cardinals offensively and in transition hunting the ball straight to Devin Hester. That that wasn't the best idea. So it just it was deflating. It really was, because we felt like we had done enough to win, and to see him return that punt for a touchdown, it just it

took a lot to win out of ourselves. But as devastating as that may have been, rookie Devin Hester with his second career return for touchdown, the Cardinals still had two fifty eight left down one twenty four twenty three, with one last chance at redemption. What everybody forgets is that they fell behind after the part return by Devin Hester, and Matt Leiner played like the quarterback of the future he came on the field. He led them down the field into field goal range for a game winning field

goal from forty yards. I mean, that's completely doable. And then Neil Rackers blows it. The snap's good, balls down, Rackers kick is up, it has the lack. Rackers kick is no good. Rockers hooked it and he just missed it to the left, and the Bears takeover, leading by one. Unbelievable. Never ever seen anything like it. We don't make it. Had we made it, history would judge the next half hour forty five minutes much differently than than it does now.

And as the Cardinals VP and media relations Mark Dalton there hinted, the drama did not end with the end of the game. The most memorable moments were still to come, and when we come back, we'll learn how Denny Green's meltdown came to be, including what was the question that lit the few? And did the question even matter? What did Denny Green say right before and after the rant That actually explains a lot in hindsight, not to mention

how Denny eventually embraced and even monetized that moment. As we continue with this special Cardinals Folk Tales edition of The Big Red Rage, presented by Santan Ford and Gilbert, we are santan Ford and welcome back everyone into a Big Red Rage presented by santan Ford in Gilbert. I'm Paul CALVISI Tonight a special Cardinals Folk Tales edition. This is where we say, look, you can't spell the word

history without the words story. And we have documented memorable moments all time in Cardinals history, and tonight we're focusing on Denny Green's Monday Night meltdown circa two thousand and six that, as we know, we'll live on forever as an all time rant. And we're gonna pick up here where we left off. Denny Green about to meet the media after the Cardinals blew that twenty to nothing halftime lead against the Bears, eventually losing twenty four twenty three.

About as excruciating as it yet it's two words in fact, brew toll. Believe me. I was a sidelined reporter for that game. I did the coach Green radio interview after the game, after the rant, which we'll get to. But what about right before the meltdown, right before the media session. We're gonna hear from beat writers Darren Urban and Ken Summers and Cardinals VP of Media Relations Marked Dalton. As we continue with our encore presentation of Cardinals Folk Tales.

Thanks coach. Coach Dennis Green has got to be absolutely beside himself. So your team just lost in gut wrenching fashion, a Shakespearean tragedy on national TV. You're the VP of media relations. What do you do? What do you say to your head coach Danny? We didn't talk a ton um. I mean, he's he's a professional's he's he knows, he knows what he's got to do. And but no, there was no harbinger of overwhelming sentiment that was any different

than you would have expected in that situation. So yeah, we made our way to the interview room and proceeded to address the media. I was literally in the first row right in front of the podium. I mean I was bracing myself because I'm thinking, here's a guy who's going to give us two word answers. He's going to be super ticked off. And he wasn't. He came out and people started asking questions about hard stuff, and he answered like it was any other game. And then came

the question and things changed. Four picks against Grossman and two funnels. What do you see about the Bears of we shut them down that way, now, you know, I mean, we just the Bears are what we thought they were, but what he thought they were. The question was nothing about that. It was Mark Brown, a freelancer, asking him about Rex Grossmith's turnovers. It's like, that's what I remember. It's like, what questions set him off? And it was typical Denny. It's like, yeah, it had nothing to do

with That's not what set him off. He had what he was going to say, and it was coming out. By god, we played him in preseason. Who the hell takes the third game in the preseason, like us both book, We played him in the third game. Everybody played three quarters the Bears or who we thought they were. That's why we took the damn field. Now, if you want to crown him, they crowned her ass. But they are who we thought they were, and we let him out

the hook. And again the media member who set him off was freelance writer Mark Brown, who that evening was writing for the Chicago Sun Times. In this particular case, I was surprised by Dennis's response because coaches are normally much more professional and much more subdued in answering questions, but his comments were toward the nature of the game itself and not directed toward me, who asked the question, or any other of the media representives who were in

the room that day. It was just venting in just a level of frustration that he probably felt that he had to exhibit at a certain time, and it was delivered to the moment, and it wasn't delivered specifically to an individual. It's interesting the way it started. It was fairly calm, and when it was over, it was over. It was just that minute and a half in between that it was not what was interesting to me about

that whole moment, as if you covered that team. His rant made sense because they had played the Bears in the third preseason game. The Cardinals had played their starters into the third quarter, The Cardinals had played well against the Bears. They were very confident. That's where the whole The Bears are who we thought they were. You know, we lewed him off the hook. We played them in preseason.

Who the hell takes a third game in a preseason his book, The rare use of both back to back was just you don't see that in a press conference. Very off. Frankly, the way the game was trending. For three quarters, was was bearing out what Denny was preaching, which was, hey, don't let don't listen to anybody else. You're every bit the equal of this Chicago Bears team, even the other five and old. And for three quarters he was one hundred percent right and should have been

standing in that podium with great pride. And I think that is probably all the things happening with him and what led to what it led to their bears or who we thought they were. That's why we took the damn field. Now, if you want to crown them, they've crowned your ass. You know. You decide, all right, I better get in there and cut this off so we

don't have another question and keep this going. And there's different ways you can do that, right, So one of the ones is just okay, I'll interject and thank the coach for his time. As I think back, we probably weren't going to get another question because he's just looking around the room. There are a lot of jaws on the floor, and people were a little like okay. So as you read the room, I thought it would be appropriate, in hindsight, perhaps not to just pay nothing to see here.

We're moving on with the rest of our program here. Thank you, Coach Green. They are when we thought they were, and we let him out the hook. Thanks coach. Yeah, that that that did generate a little bit of attention. It was beautiful, from the beginning to the end, to the mic slap to Mark Dalton coming in and breaking it up. It was a thing of beauty. When I closed my eyes and I think about it, I always think of Mark Dalton because Mark was the one that

had to say thank you, Denny. And you know, at that point, I think Mark was literally afraid to say anything, and you know, Denny heard him, and he just walked off and he walked straight to Paul Calls becall had to interview him right after that. Not having a clue

what did it happened. We were waiting, as we normally do for the postgame interview with Paul, so we're waiting for Denny and we see on the JumboTron Denny hit the microphone say what he said, and Jim Momahundro, the producer, gets in Paul's ear and goes, Paul, here comes coach, and he's pissed. And then I think Denny said the exact same thing to Paul the whole third preseason game. They are who we thought they were. The last question me, head coach Dennis Green, what do you think we'll stick

with your most from this one? Well, I just think that we you know, the Bears are what we thought they were. We played in the third preseason the game they played their first team for three quarters. We played arts the first three quarters. They are what we thought they were. If you want to make them more than that, everybody can. The Bears are exactly like we thought they were. And if they're the consensus number one coach, was it say about the potential of the Cardinals number ones at

the end of the year. Not Now there you go, head coach Dennis Screen. Guys, we will throw it back to you. Thanks a lot. Paul and Dennis Green obviously fired up. As a matter of fact, before Paul spoke with him, he had his press conference which was played here in the stadium, and well, let's put it this way, he was a lot more calm with Paul than he was with the media, as he was very upset visibly. What I always tell people is that if you remember

when Dennis Green exits the press conference, room. He goes through that door right well, on the other side of that door was yours. Truly totally unaware I was of what had just gone down, what was about to go viral. In fact, the wheels were already in motion. Press conference ended and I walked into the locker room where another member of our staff, Chris Melvin, was and he said, as he always does, you know, hey, how was coach?

I pause, and I thought, I'm not sure how how to succinctly describe it, and he goes, what do you mean. I'm like, I think you'll you'll see it soon enough, and as it turns out, often enough. The immediate aftermath was you know, all over the place. I mean ESPN was playing it like every six seconds. I felt like that night, you know today that those moments, you know, as soon as they happened, it's like going to be iconic.

But even back then, I just knew, you know, they had those famous Coors Light commercials back then where they took real moments in history, the Jim Mora Playoffs and those things, and I remember thinking, Denny just got himself a Coors Light commercial. Hey, cos those guys just took off with all your cold refreshing Coors light. Who do they think they are? They are who we thought they were. They are who you thought they were? Well, who do

you think they were? They are who we thought they were. Okay, if you knew who they were, why didn't you stop them? But yet am about the hook? I think there are some people that felt that that was a little staged, like it was coming the whole. They are who we thought they were. But who cares? Right, it didn't have to be completely off the cuff. So what if he thought about a little bit before we went in there? I mean, that's what Hollywood's all about, then he could

have made it knowledge with her. Yeah, Dave Pash is onto something there, because, as we learned years later, Dennis Green had a post game plan. In fact, we're here from Gabe Watson and Matt Leiner. But first, here's Bertrand Berry taking us back inside that Monday night locker room where coach Green called his shot. His shirt was untucked, he didn't have a hat on, and those were two things that you never saw with Denny. You never saw him without a hat and you never saw his shirt untucked.

And he was kicking this green gatorade cup, you know those green Gatorade paper cups. He just was kicking this one, you know, on the ground. Wasn't saying anything. It was just it was early quiet, like I'll never forget it. And I can't even repeat all the things that he said, but the basic crux of the matter was he said, I don't want anybody saying anything to the media because when I get in there, I'm going off. He didn't see it quite like that, but you can kind of

guess how colorful it got. He came in there, heated, and the first thing he said was, I don't want anyone saying anything to the media because when my I can't say the next word going there, I'm gonna go eight. I can't say the next word. Yeah, so you called it. He said he was gonna go off. Yeah, this a little pre premeditated. I can't quite get up that high. Men. I don't want anybody saying anything to the media when I get in there, because when my ass gets in there,

I'm gonna go eight. And I was like, whoa what. It just was the weirdest thing that I could ever remember. I cannot remember Denny ever being that out of sorts like it just something snapped. I'm telling you, when that clock went triple zero, something snapped in Denny and I don't think he ever recovered. Everybody remembers where they were when it went down. When Danny Green went off, you were were I was. I was next up on the podium, so I remember, I was just kind of standing there.

I actually caught the tail end of it and then uh and then Mark comes up and says, Okay, next up, Matt Liner and I and I was like, oh my god, what am I walking into? You know? And I was. I was upset obviously the last two. But I mean it's it's one of those one of those things that's gonna go down to history. Is I mean, everyone's gonna remember. You know, there's there's more coach, more playoffs. Don't talk about the playoffs, Oklahoma State coach. I'm a man, I'm forty.

There's a Denny Bears who we thought they were. There's there's a handful of guys you know that are forever gonna be a go down in history as some of the best one liners. I guess, you know, so to speak, Come on, give me a few lines. What do you remember from it? How to go. They are who we thought they were. It doesn't about the hook. Players would joke about it in the locker room. I was one of the guys to joke abroad, and sometimes I'll say, you know, do the voice and whatever to the media.

Give us a dramatic reenactment, if you will. They were who we thought they weren't, and we let him off the hook. Players like, man, what are you doing? And I'm like, what's wrong. I'm just being me, you know, I'm a clown sometimes, you know. And then they were here, were they were? They? They were here, we talked they were I mean, you know, and that's how we took

the damn field. And if they want to crown them and crown there at they were we thought they were, and we allowed them off the Bears who we thought they were. They were who we thought they weren't. The Bears are who we thought they were, and we led them off the hook. Do you want to crown them? Crown him? Do you watch the third preseason game, in the third preseason game, barring that to a regular season game,

Oh my goodness, it wasn't funny. After the loss, after a few years being removed and like seeing this commercial pop up and it's you know, the same deal, and it's like, man, it's hilarious. You know you didn't like laugh and joke with guy's body and the impersonations definitely weren't limited to the Cardinals locker room. On Fox NFL Sunday, for instance, Hall of Famers too, Mary Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson channeled there enter Denny. Can the Cardinals recover from

a lost like, well, I think they can't. H I think they can't. We are who we think we are. You just cry all you can do it, Jimmy crowd him. I don't care. I don't think they can. They got a good quarterback all right now. Not even a year later, even the cardinals next head coach waited for the perfect opportunity to drop his own Denny inspired quote. Here's Ken

Wizzenot cracking himself up. I mean, I think a lot of people outside of the team or outside maybe at this conference, don't really know a lot about Ankuin, But when you study him on taping you and you see him, it's pretty apparent that he's a good football player. So he is what we thought he was just kind of just I couldn't decide whether I could go with that. That was great. I've been I've been waiting for so long for that one. Okay, honestly, that's probably the most

or at least the hardest we ever heard. Ken wizzon ont laugh as the Cardinals head coach from two thousand and seven to two twelve, because no doubt, Dennis Green was a tough act to follow. In more ways than one. Every day was an adventure. You never knew what you were going to get. I always I always felt like sometimes I needed a Denny Green interpreter. You felt like you were covering maybe one of the last true characters

in the NFL. And in some ways maybe we should have seen the Monday night meltdown coming because, for example, on his radio show one week, we asked about the old line and the whole boy, did we get an answer? I know during training camp some of the offensive linemensighted, you know, just the constant media discussion of the offensive line, you know, as the week lank and just saying all pointed flick line as so much those and half those guys are making a with three million dollars a year.

They need to just get off their butts and start doing a job. You know, And I don't like to feel sorry for guys. There's no rum for cry baby's no no rum for soft side. When your offensive a linement, you're getting paid big money, didn't do your job. You can go watch Mason High School play and you can tell if the lineman or doing a job or not. A seventy five year old woman in the stands can tell if you're doing a job not because what happens is the guy got blocked or he didn't. All right,

that was a doozy. And then a couple of weeks before the Monday night meltdown in Atlanta, after Coach Green had pulled starting quarterback Kurt Warner for rookie Matt Liner, we had one last question in the locker room for Liner when Coach Green blitzed us from behind and answered in person, what do you know about the quarterback situation going forward? Now? Oh, I don't know anything. I'm just gonna be ready to play whenever I can Matt to

start next week. Mattch done. Yeah, that was a real time. Alrighty then moment for sure. But for all we heard Danny Green had an eye for talent. He's two thousand and four draft class, Larry Fitzgerald, Carlos Stansby, Darnell Docket in the first three rounds in all timer. In fact, Denny's players formed the backbone of that two thousand and eight Super Bowl team. Former third round pick Darnell Dockett will always remember the man who saw what Docket could become,

maybe even before he did. Everybody will always remember him because of the they were, who we thought they were. Everybody that speech will be forever him. But the thing that stands out to me was I brought you here not to be a backup. I brought you here to be a starter. Now get out, dann working like dash. My speech from that day on, I never looked back, and that's our look back at Dennis Green and who we thought he was in that very memorable moment. We

hope you enjoyed. Cardinals Folk Tales, Thanks Coach, presented by Sky for producer Jim Almahundro. I'm Paul calvc as we leave you with a final word from Cardinals VP Mark Dalton,

who spent as much time as any one with Dennis Green. Sadly, Danny passed away in twenty sixteen, and a number of us went to San Diego to his funeral service, and the program of the funeral service was really well done, and like many, it had his picture on the front and the program and the songs and the scripture readings.

But on the back page of the program it had famous Denny Green quotations and I think there were eight to ten, but the very first one in the program his funeral was they are who we thought they were? And about that A look back at Denny Green's memorable meltdown Cardinals folk Tales. Thanks coach and four A head coach who won one hundred and thirteen regular season games in his career plus four playoff games. It's zoom out here. Even Denny Green knew that's what he'd be remembered for.

In fact, as reports said later, he tried unsuccessfully to trademark that phrase Danny Green. Now when we come back, we'll bring back Darren Urman on how that moment that rant has lived on and still resonates today and what's coming this fall when it comes to Cardinal's Folk Tales. That is next. This is the Big Red Rage presenta by santan Ford and Gilbert. We are santan Ford Welcome back into this very special edition of The Big Red Rage,

presenta by santan Ford and Gilbert. We are santan Ford, We are Paul Calvec Darren Urban from ac Cardinals dot com. This is our Cardinals Folk Tales edition. We just heard, thanks coach, the story of the Denny Green meltdown and some of the quotes that will live forever. They are

who we thought they were, which we just learned. Denny Green actually tried to trademark about a year afterwards, and as Mark Alton, the VP of Media Relations, told us at Denny Green's funeral, it was the first quote listed on the funeral card. So it was something that he did come to embrace it and it did define him in a lot of ways, and he was able to monetize it via beer commercials. I mean, I think it's kind of cool that Denny eventually understood what it really

meant in the grand scheme of things. I think it's funny. I think back to Denny and that year before Matt Leiner signed his contract in training camp, somebody had told me that going into a press conference after one of the training camp practices that Denny's Denny was going to have a little something to say about Matt Leiner not signing his contract, and it kind of came up in the same way. And this is what I always think

about when I think of the Monday Night meltdown. Was the somebody asked a question about it somebody's injury, Antonio Smith's toe or Carlos Dansby's toe or something, and somehow that Cardinals were playing in New England for preseason game that week, and somehow Denny turned that question into a soliloquy about how Tom Brady was going to be playing in the preseason game and Kurt Warner was going to be playing in the preseason game and how come Matt

Liner it was? And that whole thing kind of reminded me the same way he played off the question for the Thanks coach, Yeah, the question didn't really matter now, it was gonna happen. It was gonna happen. It was just a matter of time before all. Right. So look, the offseason, we know in the NFL is all about lists, right, Everybody likes to formulate these lists, and they fill time and content and all that. Where does that moment rank in your journalism career? Where where does that moment rank,

it's just an all time WTH moment. Well, I mean, I think for a press conference that's number one. That's pretty obvious, and just in general that game. I mean, I know it's it's a tough one for a lot

of Cardinals fans and that's understandable. But the package of that how that game played out, I mean, the Cardinals were the better team that night and there was no question about that, and somehow they lost the game and then to have it kind of topped off and really that kind of sent everything in a tail spin that game, did you know, because you entered one in four, Yeah, you would have been two and four and you would have beaten the undefeated Bears, right, but now you're one

in five. And in fact, the offensive coordinator lost his job the next day, Keith Rowan, who to this day claims that Danny told him to take the air out of the ball and just run the ball in the second half, which Edgerrin James did like thirty something times for less than two yards of carry. Thirty six carries fifty five yards. Jeez. But but to your point about how it was premeditated, we hear we heard bertrand Barry and Gay Watson say, how you know he did come

in and tell the players, don't say anything. I'm gonna do the speaking on this one. Yeah, And and sure enough he did. And look, it was just it was sort of the way Danny Green went about things back in that day. You just had more of the personality, You had more emotion, you know. Now a lot of

these head coaches are more like CEOs. Yeah, but he got out there and not only was he an expert on personnel, and he had a great eye for talent, and we all know about the two thousand and four draft class, but he didn't hesitate to take to e put heat on his own locker room or in cases where a team lost, take heat off a locker room. And that was always, I think a sign of a great coach right where you would deflect and defend your

own locker room. I think there was a lot of expectations for that team too, going into the year, drafting Matt Liner, signing edgarn James. They had some really young talent fits doc at Dansby, and for them to kind of flounder out of the box, that really that was tough and ended up being Danny Green's last year coaching him. It was you know what to me, that was the epitome of infotainment. It was entertaining, it was informational. Danny Green,

the singular personality and head coach. Special thanks not only did Darren for sitting in here tonight, but our Jim Almahandro not only fine producer of The Big Red Rage, but the Cardinals Folk Tales podcast which you can find at Acy Cardinals dot com. Special thanks Zach Larson for tonight. We're going to continue. We have a two for next week, a couple of Cardinals Folk Tales as we continue during the summer. Here, I'm Paul KELDC. This has been The

Big Red Rage presented by Santanford and Gilbert. We are Santanford Number one kil You've been listening to The Big Red Rage presented by Santanford in Gilbert. Are you Santanford State Farm? Talk to an agent today at eight hundred State Farm and buy Arizona Cardinals podcasts. Visit Acy Cardinals dot com Slash podcasts. This has been an exclusive presentation of the Arizona Cardinals Football Club.