This week, Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway announced his retirement from the game that he loved. His press conference was yesterday. It doesn't feel like 11 years have passed since the Vikings selected him with the 17th pick of the 2006 NFL Draft. Sometimes we take our football players for granted. Chad Greenway was always going to be playing linebacker for the Vikings because he did the rare thing of playing his entire career with the team that drafted him. He wanted it that way and fortunately so did the Vikings. Retirement was the only thing that could end his playing days with the team. I miss him already.
Chad Greenway was one of my favorites the moment that the Vikings drafted him. There was just something about him, something about how he played the game at Iowa, something about his approach to the game. He simply looked like a kid playing a game for the sheer joy of it. His rookie season was a wash as the unthinkable happened. He suffered a torn ACL covering a kickoff in his first preseason game. He returned for his second season like he'd never been hurt and assumed the outside linebacker spot that he'd make his own for his entire career. It was a treat to watch every one of his games. He was a terrific football player. He was annually the Vikings leading tackler and among the league leaders. He had difficulty getting Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors because those nods usually went to the often one-dimensional 3-4 outside linebackers that racked up sack totals. When Greenway finally made it to his first Pro Bowl in 2011 it really should have been his third. He returned to the Pro Bowl in 2012.
Chad Greenway was the sort of football player that you want all of them to be. He clearly loved playing the game and he was very good at it. He was a team leader on and off the field. He just did everything the right way. It's often been said that football is the ultimate team game. That's because it often takes all eleven players on the field for one play to work. One of my favorite moments of the 2015 season occurred in the game against the San Diego Chargers. With the Chargers offense threatening to score Greenway caught a tipped pass on his own nine-yard line. He returned that tipped pass 91 yards for a game-sealing touchdown. All ten of his teammates on the field, all of his teammates on the sideline, and many of his coaches and Vikings team staff escorted him up the sideline to the endzone. The joy that his friends felt in his great play was beautiful to witness. It was all because of the man and player that Chad Greenway is. As great as he was on the field he might've been even better off of it. Chad and Jenni Greenway's "Lead the Way" foundation has raised more than $1.5 million to support chronically and critically children and their families throughout the Upper Midwest. For the last three years he's been selected as the Vikings Community Man of the Year and the team's nominee for the NFL's Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
It was great to see Chad Greenway play his entire career with the Vikings. That doesn't happen often. None of the Vikings eleven players that have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame played their entire career in Minnesota. It never felt right to see those greats in uniforms that didn't fit. Geenway watched Jim Kleinsasser retire as a Viking a few years ago. Kleinsasser was in attendance to see Greenway do the same yesterday. There were other Vikings greats present to welcome the newest former player. Hall of Famers Bud Grant, Paul Krause, and Carl Eller. Former linebacker-mate Ben Leber was there as well. It's tough to think of Greenway as a former Vikings player. Vikings safety Harrison Smith was also in attendance at the press conference. He's another player that clearly loves to play the game and another favorite of mine. As Kleinsasser passed the Vikings torch to Greenway. Greenway passes it to Smith.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Noll used to stress to his players that whatever they do after football is their life's work. Football is just something that they do until they get to what they're supposed to do. Greenway's life's work is before him now and he won't be lacking for things to do. His family comes first. Jenni and their four daughters. He has his foundation. He's also been tapped to be the captain of volunteer efforts for Super Bowl LII. Maybe coaching is in his future. As it was for Noll.
I'm going to miss #52.
No comments:
Post a Comment