The game and date for Green’s jersey retirement will be announced after the NFL releases its schedule in early May.
“For 20 years, Darrell Green gave everything he had to this organization and fan base,” team owner Josh Harris said in a release from the team. “Even after retiring from the burgundy and gold, he remained committed to giving back to this community, which to this day holds him in the highest regard. No one on our team will ever again wear No. 28.”
Nicknamed the “Ageless Wonder,” Green defied his size (5-foot-8, 170 pounds) as a true shutdown corner. His speed alone was otherworldly (he reportedly ran a 4.09-second 40-yard dash in training camp), but he matched his rare talent with a commitment to work off the field, which earned him the NFL’s coveted Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 1996.
“I was very conscious of how if I’m successful how it would help my team,” Green told The Post in a recent Zoom interview. “… I was getting the work done because I took it very seriously. So, to be rewarded, it just says that, man, I did it right.”
Drafted in the first round in 1983 out of what is now Texas A&M Kingsville, a Division II program, Green set a slew of records and was widely regarded as one of the best cornerbacks in the game during his two decades in Washington. He helped the franchise to two of its three Super Bowl wins (XXII and XXVI) and set team records for the most career interceptions (54), game starts (258) and games played (295), pick-sixes (six) and longest fumble return (78 yards). He also set a number of NFL records, including most consecutive seasons with an interception (19). He was a four-time all-pro and earned seven Pro Bowl selections before retiring in 2003.
In a coordinated effort with Green’s wife and son, the Commanders surprised him with news of their plans to retire his jersey earlier this month. Green was filming a video for this year’s draft candidates and just when taping was about to wrap, he was asked to read one last item off the teleprompter.
“I read this whole story that they were honoring me with this, and it was one of those — I dropped the mic and was just in tears,” Green said. “It was the most thrilling surprise of my life.”
That it didn’t happen sooner was the true surprise.
For decades, Washington’s NFL team had only one retired jersey (Baugh). It wasn’t until 2020 did it add Mitchell and continue in the following seasons with Taylor and Jurgensen.
Since July, when a group led by Josh Harris purchased the team, the Commanders’ ownership set out to rebuild relations with former players, many of whom chose to stay away during Daniel Snyder’s ownership.
Among Harris’s first calls when the sale was approved last summer was Green.
Green spoke to Harris as well as limited partners Mitchell Rales and Magic Johnson and was especially impressed, and touched, that they acknowledged his work off the field.
“They were speaking to me friend to friend,” Green said. “That to me is what most impressed me in an attempt to touch me.”
He added: “I never thought about [my jersey being retired]. Never dreamed of it, never asked for it. Didn’t think it would be weird if they didn’t do it. But they did it and it was pretty overwhelming.”
Last October, Green attended his first Washington home game in 20 years, taking him back to where he capped his career in 2002.
“It’s been a great ride, but there is no way I could be where I am without all of you,” he told fans in pregame ceremony before that final meeting with the Dallas Cowboys.
This week, as he looked ahead to his jersey retirement ceremony and the start of a new regime in Washington, he offered a different message to fans.
“I would say to all of my fans: ‘Hey guys, even those guys who went away for some negative reason. What I’m going to ask you to come on back. Come on back with me. … I’m not worrying about the name. Not worried about yesterday. I’m not worried about anything. We’re all back right now.”