Well-traveled Green arrived just in time for Packers defense
Dallas - Ted Thompson likes to qualify most everything that he says, stays clear of absolutes and seldom tells you what he's really thinking.
But the taciturn general manager of the Green Bay Packers couldn't have been more definitive Thursday when the Oct. 27 waiver acquisition of defensive lineman Howard Green was brought up.
"We were desperate for a defensive lineman," Thompson recalled. "It was perfect timing for us. It was a stroke of luck."
A barrel-chested bear of a man, Green has produced for the Packers in much the same roundabout fashion that another thirty-something retread, left tackle Bruce Wilkerson, did during their last championship season of 1996.
"Well, I haven't thought of it in those terms," said Thompson. "(Wilkerson) was a godsend, but (Green) has helped us. He's got instincts and he knows how to play."
Green hasn't had the impact of Wilkerson, who was inserted to protect Brett Favre's blind side in the final four games and did the job. Green has been on the field for 191 snaps in 11 games (17.4 average), registering 20 tackles (1 for loss) and one-half sack.
"He's done exactly what we asked him to do," defensive line coach Mike Trgovac said. "Just stay in your gap and keep the linebackers free."
If that sounds simple, it isn't. God didn't make many people big enough and strong enough to hold their ground against what at times can be double-team blocks of almost 700 pounds.
Ryan Pickett couldn't play Oct. 31 against the New York Jets, Mike Neal had just been placed on injured reserve and Cullen Jenkins was nursing a pulled calf.
Cut by the Jets that Monday partially because of weight-related issues, Green was playing 34 solid snaps against them six days later. The Packers shut out the Jets, 9-0, and Green turned in the first of his many useful performances.
"There's been some games, who knows what would have happened if we didn't have him," said Trgovac.
Weight hasn't been an issue for Green in Green Bay. The Packers saw a lot of value in a man with a 22-inch neck who wears a size 56 long coat. A sawed-off 6 feet 2 inches, Green good-naturedly says he will weigh "closer to 350 than 360" come Sunday.
After watching the wide-body wearing No. 95 for a week and a half, first-year Pittsburgh offensive line coach Sean Kugler said, "Hard to move a guy that's 360."
That would be especially true for one that's conscientious, assignment-sound and accepting of his sacrificial role.
"Toot my horn?" said Green, surprised by the question. "Well, I'm a consistent, solid guy. I will be where I need to be. In the 3-4 defense you do your job, and when your play comes to you, you make it."
On Sunday, Green will start at right end on base downs, lifting the run-game burden from Cullen Jenkins so he can do some serious slashing in the nickel.
It isn't that Jenkins can't play the run. It's that Green can play it better, and a fresh Jenkins gives the Packers one of the NFL's premier inside rushers.
It's remarkable enough that the 32-year-old Green is starting in the Super Bowl. What's stunning is his career has lasted this long.
Green could run coming out of Louisiana State in 2002, clocking a 5.03-second 40 before being drafted by Dom Capers and the Houston Texans in the sixth round. That September, Green was released on the final cut, the first of six times it has happened to him.
In all, Green has played for nine different teams and nine different head coaches. He has been waived 10 times by a total of eight clubs, including twice by the Texans and Jets.
Green thought he had earned a home with New Orleans in 2004, starting 12 games and playing 44.3% of the snaps. So he never saw the Turk coming in early September 2005.
"I had worked so hard in the off-season and training camp," Green remembered. "Then I got cut. I'm, like, 'What?' Had a great camp, too. That depressed me."
Green never got a call the rest of 2005. Miami coach Nick Saban signed him in January 2006 but cut him in late August. Nobody called the rest of that season, either.
The Vikings signed Green as a post-draft camp body in May 2007 but that didn't work out. Mike Holmgren finally resurrected Green's career in Seattle, where he played five games and then 13 more in 2008.
Rex Ryan and the Jets paid Green a $25,000 signing bonus as an unrestricted free agent in March 2009. The only other signing bonus he ever had was the $64,000 for being drafted.
Green never would take no for an answer, partially because of family responsibilities. He and his wife are the parents of four children, and Trgovac and several of Green's teammates suggested he was a doting father.
"What matters most to me is how you take care of your family," said Green. "If my family's good, then I'm good."
Green, a native of Perryville, La., graduated with a business management degree from LSU. Before putting on a suit, however, he wanted to exhaust every opportunity in football.
"As a young kid I told my mom I was going to be a football player," he said. "She told me, if that's what you want, put everything into it and do it right. She told me there would be good and bad times. That's why I don't get down anymore when something happens."
Green admits he didn't used to be the dependable player that he is now. He referred to himself in his early NFL years as a "kamikaze-type guy who was just lining up and going forward."
The game has become so much clearer, he says, because experience has allowed him to recognize plays by formation. The Packers even got a mentor.
"Howard Green is a good man," coach Mike McCarthy said. "I'll bet you he's a great father. Just the way he interacts with our younger players. I really like the guy's professionalism."
Green has another year on his minimum-salary contract but has no interest in even considering the future. "Big Green," as rookie C.J. Wilson calls him, finally is a somebody after being a nobody for so many years.
"It would mean everything to me," Green says of a Super Bowl ring. "You would have accomplished every goal that you set out to meet in your life."