ESPN the Weekend: Darrell Green

Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green took time during ESPN the Weekend at Disney's Hollywood Studios to talk with me.

BR: You ran a 4.43-second 40-yard dash on your 50th birthday. How do you manage to stay in such great shape?

DG: It's my lifestyle. It's my attitude. It's what I put in my body. I didn't run that 40 to do an interview with you. I ran it because I'm 50 years old, I'm glad to wake up being 50 years old and live that long, and I wanted to do something fun for me. Ultimately it got all the way out the world. I twittered just kind of having fun, but it's really taken on a life of its own. I'm Darrell Green. I didn't get to be who I am, [playing] in the nation's capital for 20 years, President [George W.] Bush appointed me [chairman of the president's council on service and civic participation], working with you, to come and be 50 years old and lie and say I've done something I didn't do. If I didn't really do it then it would have never been said. But no, I believe that a 50 year old and the idea of being 50 is not the new 40. Fifty is 50. I am 50. I feel 50. But 50 can still be booming, it can still be exciting and you can still do fun things. You can still achieve and ultimately, that's what I'm trying to turn it into a message of and begin to tell people because it sort of brought out a lot of questions to tell people, 'What are some of my secrets, what did you do Darrell and how did you do it," because people get scared to get old. You're a young man. People get, "Oh well, I'm 50, you're 50." 50 is booming man. 50 is fun. Now it's not the same as 40 or 30 or 20, but it's what it is and it's fun too. I'm not ashamed of being my age. And we're the biggest demographic in the country. People 50 and over, the baby boomers, we're the biggest demographic, so looking at that I'm like, "wow," you know. But when I did the 40, I didn't do it for some weird thing. But by the same token, the time was so out there I was like, "whoa," it kind of caught me like that, like, "wow, this is awesome." I think ultimately I'll be able to encourage a lot of people over time, you know, who are probably nervous about that.

BR: Jets CB Darrelle Revis is being called one of the best ever at his position. As a hall of famer, do you think he's earned it and how good is he?

DG: How many years has he been playing? I met him the other day and first of all, [he's a] quality person, solid and he's doing what he's doing. But I mean, talk to me later about that. Talk to me in five, six, seven, eight years, nine years. It's tough to do that. It's tough to do for a long time to be the guy. But he'll probably tell you this himself, "I haven't done anything yet, let me do it a little while longer. " But yes, he's definitely a solid kid and doing some pretty fascinating stuff out there.

BR: Talk about Tracy Porter's game-sealing interception of Peyton manning in the Super Bowl to give New Orleans the win. What was your take on that play and just how great of a play was it?

DG: First of all, I'm a big Peyton Manning fan, but I'm not going to take anything away from New Orleans or Porter. You just have to give him credit. He was on his game, he was thinking right and he had, from what it looked like, really gotten a beat on what they were trying to do. I think that he was smart. They play some smart football. When you make those kind of individual plays, you have to give the individual credit, but I think overall, like I said, I'm kind of apprehensive because that's Peyton Manning. But no, I thought it was great.

BR: You had a lot of memorable moments during your career, including the game-winning punt return for a touchdown against Chicago in the 1988 NFC Divisional round. Which moment, for you, was the most memorable, from a team standpoint and from an individual perspective?

DG: That punt return and then the following game, [we won] right at the last play on the Darrin Nelson play [where he dropped a pass at the goal line to end a potential Minnesota game-winning drive]. So that was kind of a combination of two games in a row. The one game, the punt return, put us in the championship game. Then we go to RFK. And if you followed during that time, the 49ers were supposed to beat Minnesota, so we we're to end up [playing] at the 49ers. So we ended up getting a home game. That Chicago game was big, but the bigger game was Minnesota beating the 49ers, thereby putting them at RFK. The RFK game was big in that it went down to the wire with a couple of seconds on the clock when they played that last play. There were so many great games, so many great memories. But probably, as you mentioned too, it more related to the whole team. We were an era, the Joe Gibbs era, where there wasn't free agency during that time so everybody was on the team together for years. We didn't trade people and we watched more babies born, more weddings in 11 years. I was with Joe Gibbs for 11 of I think his 13 at the beginning. So we were a strong team. We weren't a bunch of superstar prima donnas, just a bunch of hard-working, blue collar guys. All the wins were special for all of us and nobody outshined anybody else.

BR: Talk a little bit about ESPN the Weekend. Why do you love coming here?

DG: First of all, I was thinking to myself, "Why did they invite me again?" I've been here before and I love it. I love ESPN the Weekend. The other day they launched the ESPN Wide World of Sports and that, I don't think America really knows how big that's going to be. Having a little more inside conversation with people, that's going to be the bomb. SO I think, overall, for me personally and my family, we started coming here when my daughter was a baby. She's now 23, graduated college and we've been in Orlando every year since that year and we're on these rides. I love Mickey, I rode with Minnie [in the parade], but at this age I'm not rolling with them as much, but I'm a part of this. I'm here in the environment. This is an institution and it's where people are happy. It's where people are smiling when there are so many painful things going on around the country. This is the biggest fantasy land in the world. It's not so bad to fantasize in a right way every once in a while and I love it.

BR: Have you gotten a chance to speak with Chad Ochocinco this weekend and what positives has he brought to the game with his social media activities?

DG: I don't know if I can answer that. I do a little Twitter myself, but I'm not really clear if I could give you a good answer. But I will say this, my son is a wide receiver for the University of Virginia, Chad is one of his favorites and I consider [Ochocinco] probably the best receiver in the league from a technical standpoint. You have to know what I know to know what I'm saying, but he really is what's good about football. I know they have to control some of the antics. When I played, when you weren't even born, they had groups called "The Smurfs" and "The Fun Bunch," and this was before [Elbert] "Ickey" Woods and all of those guys. Billy "White Shoes" Johnson did his thing. There was the "Dirty Bird." I just think that if people cannot go overboard, you got to have guys like [Ochocinco]. I mean come on, the sombreros and all the fun things he did. I very seldom, in my eyes, am disappointed in the guys. I haven't seen anything that I agree with [in terms of fines and penalties]. Even when T.O. [Terrell Owens] had the ink pen, I didn't really see how that was degrading, demoralizing, you know what I'm saying? You got to have the Ochocincos in the league because football is fun. People love it. It's like here [Disney], people want to have fun. People want to be entertained, so I can't speak on the Twitter side, but I think from a football standpoint, shoot, he's what's good about football. Not only is he funny, but he's also good. He's compassionate about the game, he never dogs it, he never not shows up, so I like the guy. I like him a lot.