Missing from the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Cornell Green

By: Jeff Barnes

Last week, we lost an icon as the great Bill Russell passed away at 88.  Before Russell was dominating with the Celtics in Boston or swatting shots at the University of San Francisco, he was battling a future Dallas Cowboy for state championships in high school.  That future Cowboy was Cornell Green.  Cornell played 13 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys starting games at both cornerback and safety.  A force at both positions, Green was a 5-time Pro Bowler and 4-time All-Pro with trips to the Pro Bowl at both cornerback and safety.  Green wasn’t the only talented member of his family as his brother Pumpsie Green was the first African American to play for the Boston Red Sox.

Cornell Green’s career is different for many reasons.  He is one of the few that has made the Pro Bowl as both a cornerback and safety, but his football career began and ended with the Dallas Cowboys.  His route to the NFL was unconventional, to say the least.  Green did not play a down of football prior to his tryout with the Cowboys.  He was a basketball player in high school who as a sophomore averaged over 20 points a game on the varsity level.  While going on to win state championships at El Cerrito High School in Richmond, CA.  There he would face the likes of Bill Russell and Paul Silas.  He would go on to play college basketball at Utah State where he was an All-American.  His fortunes and life were about to change as Cowboys scout Gil Brandt would happen by.  Brandt was on campus looking at the football team with players like Merlin Olson.  Green would boast that “I could start for them” as Brandt walked by.  Gil Brandt was intrigued.  He offered Green a proposal.  “I’ll give you $1000 if you could last the week in Dallas.”  Green was intrigued, because he was already drafted to play in the NBA for the now Chicago Bulls.  Green agreed and within a few weeks, he was already a first-team cornerback.

“I had my stuff packed by the last day, I expected to be cut” Green said.  “They didn’t have to cut me, all they had to do was open the door and let me out” he laughed.  Instead, Green was the starting cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys.  A role that he would not relinquish for over 8 seasons.  When I asked him what made him so successful as a cornerback after playing basketball, he said “it was not any different from playing basketball.  I just had to stay with my man.”  That is what he did as he led the Cowboys in interceptions four times.  In his first season with the Cowboys, he corralled 7 interceptions to lead the team.  In 1970, he would move to safety where he would go on to make two more Pro Bowls and win a Super Bowl with Dallas in 1972.

After his playing career ended, Cornell would again allow Gil Brandt to influence his next career, scouting.  Green would join the Cowboys scouting department on a part-time basis until his retirement in 1975, then he became a full-time scout.  He would follow his friend Dan Reeves to Denver and join their scouting department in 1987.  In 2010, he was named the AFC Scout of the Year by the Fritz Pollard Alliance.  After 35 years of scouting for the Cowboys and Broncos, he would retire from football altogether.  When I asked him how he handled retirement, he simply said ” it was hard at first.  I was always trying to figure out what to do.  I always had things to do.”

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is supposed to have players that you can’t talk about the game of football without mentioning.  While younger generations may not know his name, the way to make sure a special player like this is remembered is by putting him in the hall where he belongs.  To go from the hardwood to covering wide received in a week is a supernatural feat.  One that has not been replicated.  Then to go from Bro Bowl corner to Pro Bowl safety is rarified air.  There are few opportunities to give people their flowers while they are here.  It is about time to give Cornell Green his.