Big Red Rage - The Bears Are Who We Thought They Were!

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All red scenes, rising up, temperaturizing vision, flurring rage, take you over.

Here's Paul Calvic.

A'mready, I'm one hundred percent ready. I'm telling you ab ready.

And Ron Wolfleeve.

It doesn't get any better than that leash the field.

You know, it's not every day, not every postgame, where a press conference turns into a bona fide fear commercial. And that is why we are gathered here tonight on this very special Cardinals Folk Tales edition of The Big Red Rage presented by santan Ford in Gilbert. Paul Calvic joined by Darren Rban. He was right there front and center. Thanks Coach is the title of this edition Cardinals Folktales. This is where you can't spell the word history without

I mean in terms of memories, just memorable moments, it's probably I would it wouldn't be number one because this team did go to the Super Bowl, true, but it would probably number two.

And it was Monday night football, yeah, and it was a potential big time win that slowly but surely unraveled. You thought the game was a meltdown. Then you got to the postgame press conference and there was Danny Green addressing the media and we're gonna hear it all for ourselves. We're gonna go into the background. What led up to that memorable moment? And really it was a week dare I say several months in the making, because it went back to the preseason in a lot of ways, did it not?

It did? I mean.

Living through it in real time, and it was something that I realized later that the things he was saying absolutely came from playing the Bears in the preseason and some of the things that happened, so which makes sense with what he said. It's funny I go back and look at my story and that wasn't even the lead

And look, it really has been. I mean, some of those sayings from that press conference have lived. I mean they're all timers. You know, they are who we thought they were, crown them. I mean, those are like all time quotes from Dennis Green, who would later literally turn it into a beer commercial and he would benefit from that. And look, it wasn't the first time that Dennis Green, shall we say, got emotional at the mic. I mean he was known for being involved all on that way

No.

I remember one time in training camp that year, right before Matt Lioner signed his contract, there was a question about player injury. It might have been Carlos Dansby's injury. That was the question, how is Carlos Dansby doing or something like that, and he turned it into a soliloquy

Yeah, he'd do that stuff.

And you wonder, like, okay, what led up to Danny Greens ran. Well, not only was it a blown halftime lead where you were shutting out arguably the best team in the league in the Chicago Bears, but it was how Rex Grossman beat you with a half dozen turnovers in that game? It is passer rating at halftime wasn't even twenty. He was playing some epically bad football. And then the Cardinals, to their own demise, well, they changed

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 Santanford 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 sourts.

It's one of those things that's gonna go down. I mean, everyone's gonna remember.

You know, I mean, we just said, Wait, 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 hutchdown 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, Danny Green did say that a postgame press Courfrence that beer commercials are made up?

Literally, who do they.

Think they are?

They are who we thought they were, They are who you thought they were.

Ran with a life of its own that still has legs today.

Oh I was.

I was next up on the podium, and I was like, oh what am I walking into?

Woodell takes a third game in a preseason.

Like his book book, It was beautiful from the beginning to the end to the MIC's laugh.

If you want to crown him, you crowned her 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 was an oh what the moment to be sure. Welcome into Cardinals Folk Tales, Thanks Coach, presented by Seki, where we go in depth into Cardinals 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 Swanny to nothing at the half. You had, 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 Denny, and I don't think he ever recovered.

He did it in a special way that only dentist screen could do it.

But they are who we thought they were, and we let about the hook.

Thanks Coach.

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. Heck, he made People Magazine's one hundred most Beautiful list, and as host of Matt Liner'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 QB brought out the stars as well. Here's Darren Urban from Azcardinals dot Com.

Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore were at the game on the sideline before the game.

Matt how excited he is Monday night flight. You might be excited too, though, if you had Ashton Coocher at Demi Moore cheered for you, David might be fired out. That's kind of cool, you know, yeah, yeah, Demie, I had done.

Charles Barkley showed up and he ended up making a 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 Liner was going to be the next great quarterback. There was just so much involved.

It was the first round draft pick, Matt Lionert, who was making a second star up now on national TV against a very formidable and vaunted Chicago defense.

So yeah, it was.

There was a lot on display, a lot of unique variables that went into that game.

That's Cardinal's VP of media relations, Mark Dalton, and he's right. All the pregame talk all week was all about the five and zero 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.

Nope, But if you talk to everybody associated with the NFL, including ESPN's Joe Thaisman, 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 Bertrand Barry, who wanted the world to know that the az played some DP.

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 wanted to go out and show that Chicago Bears had a really good defense, but we were no slouds, which is either and we felt like this is our opportunity to make a big statement.

Yeah, you really can't understand the postgame or the game without broadening the 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 Lovey 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 got under Denny's 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 Lioner had two touchdown passes in the first quarter. Cardinals beat writer Ken Summers covered the game for the Arizona Republic.

The Cardinals dominated them in the first half. I mean dominant. Matt Lionert was so sharp, and you could tell the Cardinals had a game plan that put the Bears on their heels. I mean, Whinert was hitting short passes everywhere, and they were moving the 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,

The Cardinals defense, you had a young Garnell dock At, a young Carlos Stansby a young entre role. You had Bertram Barry 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 Bears offense 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 hitting the balls out.

He got sacked, but the ball was loose at the thirty two yard line. It was bertrand Barry that came around against his first sack of the year and a forced fumble.

Again, there's still wrestling for it.

It's cardinal ball.

Berry comes up with a fumble recovery as well. He did it all on that plot.

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 went home. And it almost worked.

Almost as mentioned. The defense did its part. Rex Grossman finished with six turnovers, four picks, two lost fumbles, his passer rating 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. Fig 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 Leonard 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 Carrie after Carrie 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 offensive coordinator Keith Rowing and said back off, run the ball, run, drain the clock, and that's what they did. Brian Urlacker finished with like one hundred and nineteen tackles in that game. He hit Edgrin James so often it was an unbelieve I've never seen one player hit another player so often in any.

Game they ought to name Erlacker Skycamp because he's everywhere. He is, making plays sideline to sideline.

Even though the Cardinals got conservative and stunk, the Bear 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 the line of three step drop, here comes Anderson of the balls babble that's loose on the far side of the Bears. Mike Brown picks it up and he walks in for a 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 turned the ball over in that situation, and that's exactly what happens. Given the Bears life.

Wolf gives me grief all the time that somehow I'm the human Jinks for 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 fumbler.

The Cardinals really protecting the football right now, And that's the great thing about having edgrin James too. The guy's not a fumbler, David. He doesn't put it on the ground very often.

Five twenty five to go on 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 ball's loose.

It's fumbled and picked up by the Bears farside Tilmot at the twenty to ten to five touchdown Chicago.

Did I just say that, Oh my goodness.

A thirty six yard bumb I'm recovery for the touchdown by the Chicago Bears, and with five minutes to go there within one touchdown.

Another unforgettable, regrettable 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 puntword I'll never forget. As soon as he caught the ball on the return, like he made one move in it. You saw it Hestro waits for it at the eighteenyard line, backs up, and I runs right into the twenty twenty five log out thirty near side, forty at midfield forty five, forty with a kicker to be thirty twenty fifteen to 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 twenty four to twenty three, with one last chance at redemption.

What everybody forgets is that they fell behind after the partner turn by Devin Hester and Matt Lioner played like the quarterback of the future came on the field. He led them down the field into field goal range for a game winning field goal through forty yards that's completely doable, and then Neil Rackers blows it.

The snap's good, balls down, Rackers kick is up, but has the lack.

Rackers kick is no good.

Rackers fucked it and he just missed it to the laft 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 of 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 fuse? 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

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.

Denny A Ton.

I mean, he's he's a professional, he's he's 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 fumbles what do you see about the Bears would shut him down that way?

Now, you know?

I mean, we just wait, the Bears are what we thought they were, what we thought they were.

The question was nothing about that. It was Mark freelancer asking him about Rex Grosswinth'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 a third game in a preseason like us both book, We played him a 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, then crown their 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 to me, who asked the question, or any other of the media

It's interesting the way it started 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 is 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 let them off the hook.

We played them in preseason.

Who the hell takes a third game in a preseason like us.

The rare use of both back to back was just you don't see that in a press conference very often.

Frankly the way the game was trending for three quarters 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 to this Chicago Bears team even another five and zero, 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.

The Bears or who we thought they were.

That's why we took the damn field.

Now, if you want to crown them, they crown 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 to 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

They are who we thought they were and we're not about the hook.

Thanks coach.

H.

Yeah, that that did generate a little bit of attention.

It was beautiful, from the beginning to the end, to the Mike's lap to Mark Dalton coming in and breaking it up.

It was a thing of beauty. When I close 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 Calvac and Paul had to interview him right after that. Not having a clue what 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 jumbo tron Denny hit the microphone say what he said, and Jim Omhundra, 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.

So the last question, head coach Dennis Screen, what do you think will stick with your moss from this one?

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 ours for 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 Screen obviously fired up. As a matter of fact, that before Paul 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, Truant, 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 was and he said, as he always does. You know, Hey, how was coach? And I pause and I thought, I'm not sure 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 Moore playoffs and those things, and I remember thinking, Denny just got himself a Coors like commercial.

Hey, Coach, those guys just took off with all your cold refreshing cors like, 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, well if you knew who they were, why didn't you stop them? But get about the hook.

I think there's 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 it a little bit before he went in there? I mean, that's what Hollywood's all about. You know, Denny could have made it in Hollywood.

Yeah, Dave pat is onto something there, because, as we learn years later, Dennis Green had a post game plan. In fact, we'll hear from Gabe Watson and Matt Lioner, But first, here's bertrand Barry 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,

Came there, heated, and the first thing he said was, I don't want anyone saying anything to the media because when Mike, I can't say the next word going there, I'm gonna go eight.

You can't say the next word. Yeah, so you called it.

He said he was gonna go off.

Yeah, just 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, oh 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 Dinny and I don't think he ever recovered.

Everybody remembers where they were when it went down when Danny Green went off, you were where Oh 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 to up Matt Lioner and I and I was like, oh, Mike, what am I walking into?

You know?

And I was.

I was upset obviously the loss too. But I mean it's it's one of those one of those things that's gonna go down in history, is I mean, everyone's gonna remember. You know, there's there's more Coach Mora playoffs.

Don't talk about playoffs.

Oklahoma State coach.

I'm a man, I'm forty. There's a Denny, the Bears or who we thought they were.

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 and how to go?

They are who we thought they were. He lesn't about the hook.

Players would joke about it in the locker room. I was one of the guys joke about 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 were and we let them out the hook.

Players like, man, what are you doing? And I'm like, what's wrong? I'm just me and me, you know, I'm a clown.

Sometimes, you know, they were without they were they were we thought they were. I mean, you know, and that's how we took the dawn field. And if they want to crown them and crown they're at they were we thought they were, and we lot them off the hook.

The Bears who who we thought they were.

They were who we thought they were.

The Bears are who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook. You want to crown them crownham to.

Watch the third preseason game.

In the third preseason game during 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 can like laugh and joke with guy's a body.

And the impersonations definitely weren't limited to the Cardinals locker room. On Fox NFL Sunday, for instance, Hall of famers Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson channeled their inner Denny.

And the Cardinals recover from a lost like, well, I think they can't.

I'll share it. I think they can't. You truly are who we think we are. You just cry all you.

Can do it, Jimmy Crowlem crowd you have, I don't care.

I don't think they can a couple of shut up.

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 wizinon 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 An Kwan. But when you study him on tape and you and you see him, it's pretty apparent that he's a good football player. So he is what we thought he was.

I couldn't decide whether I could go with that.

That was that was great. I've been I've been waiting for so long for that.

Okay, honestly, that's probably the most or at least the hardest we ever heard. Ken wizen On laugh as the Cardinals head coach from two thousand and seven to twenty 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 felt like sometimes I needed a Danny 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 oh boy, did we get an answer. I know during training camp some of the offensive line incited, you know, just the constant media discussion of the offensive line, you know, as the weak link, and just saying, oh, they need to.

Click lineus so much. Those half those guys are making over three million dollars a year. They need to just get off their butts and start doing a job. You know what, I don't like to feel sorry for guys. There's no room for cry babies, no no room for soft side. When you're offensive lineman, you're getting paid big money, then do your job. You can go watch Mason High School play and you can tell if the linemen are doing their job.

I'm not.

A seventy five year old woman in the stands can tell if you're doing a job. I'm 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 came Matti start next week match done.

Yeah, that was a real time. Alrighty then moment for sure, But for all we heard Danny Green had an eye for talent his two thousand and four draft class, Larry Fitzgerald, Carlos Dawn, Darnell Dockett 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 Dockett could become, maybe even before he did.

Everybody will always remember him because of the they were who we thought they were.

Everybody 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 Dan and work like thata'sh my speech from Dad day on, I never look 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 Seki for producer Jim A.

Mahundro.

I'm Paul calvic As we leave you with a final word from Cardinals VP Mark Dalton, who spent as much time as anyone with Dennis Green.

Sadly, Danny passed away in 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 had, had his picture on the front and the program and the songs and the scripture ratings, 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 at his funeral was, they are who we thought they were?

And how about that?

A look back at Denny Green's memorable meltdown Cardinals Folktales Thanks coach and bora head coach who won a one hundred and thirteen regular season games in his career plus four playoff games. H'd zoom out here. Even Denny Green knew that's what he'd be remembered for. In fact, his reports said late he tried unsuccessfully to trademark that phrase,

That is next.

This is a special Cardinals Folktales edition of The Big Red Rage, presented by Santan Ford in Gilbert, and we're wrapping up this Cardinals Folktales edition of The Big Red Rage Presentavius San tan Ford in Gilbert. Thanks coaches. The title. The coach was Dennis Green. The year was two thousand and six. It was the Monday Night meltdown. Darren urban is with us Paul Kelvis here. Darren was in the press conference room. I was behind the door that was

Oh, there's no question about it.

Some of the things that we've seen, as big as it turned out to be, it would have been just epic, truly truly epic on social media.

Just being in that room. Take us back into that room. I mean, was there disbelief when it was unfolding and he's pounding the podium literally? What would you think was the reaction of most of the media members in there.

I mean, I just think ultimately you're I mean, these things happen in press conferences. Again, one of the things people forget about is the fact that he had answered a bunch of questions. It's not like this was the first thing that was and he'd answered a lot of

And one of the intriguing aspects bertrand Barry and others talked about it. It was premeditated. He called his shot with the team in the postgame locker room. I'm gonna go out there and I'm going to create a stir and I'm gonna make it known we're none too happy. And in some ways I think he was trying to take ownership and some of the spotlight away from the team and the players have to answer questions about how they just lost to Rex Grossman, who finished with six turnovers, four picks.

Two loss fumbles.

Why was the ball kicked off to Devin Hester with the game hanging in the balance. Neil Rackers missing a forty yard field goal attempt that would have resolved all this at the very end of the game. So there were plenty of culpable party But sometimes what a head coach does is he owns it in the moment and tries to save his team.

He did.

Now now again, you know, the Cardinals were off to an awful start and that continued after this.

It didn't really help the team.

It really was the end of the season realistically, any playoff chances that loss. With the win, they get back into the mix and there's a viable chance. And I guess what, they went on a losing streak. They ended up starting one to eight, and Denny was done at the end of the year. So in a lot of ways, you know, now thereafter Denny owned it and leaned into it.

The room, it's definitely something that is gonna be stuck in my memory bank of.

Big moments that I've been around.

And you know, every big moment that you cover, it's not always just a touchdown or what it's things like this. It's it's sitting next to Pat Tillman watching the towers burning on television, that kind of thing. And I think in this case, I mean, it worked out okay. Like you said, I think Denny leaned into it. I think he kind of enjoyed the notoriety to a certain extent. Obviously in the moment, he didn't that that team, the

Well, that was my second season as a Cardinal sideline reporter. I was on the other side of that door. Denny came in and he said almost the exact same thing as we've heard. I don't think it's gotten that crazy in my eighteen years since put it that way. For Darren Irvan and Jim Almhandro, I'm Paul Calvic. Thanks to everyone involved. That is Cardinals' Folktales. Thanks coach on this special edition to The Big Red Rage presented by santan Ford in Gilbert Number one, Tylo.

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