Q&A QB Trent Green

Dec 02, 2004, 4:50:51 PM

Q: How are you feeling?

GREEN: “Good. The progress that we’ve made day-to-day, if that continues, everything will be fine. I probably won’t do much today, just rehab and rest and then plan on practicing tomorrow and be ready to go by Sunday, that’s my agenda.”

Q: Is the team being overly cautious with your injury?

GREEN: “I don’t know about being overly cautious. We’re just trying to pay attention and listen to what the doctors have advised. From a coaching standpoint, we just try to keep the communication open; continually talk to Coach Vermeil and Al Saunders about what’s going on and the progress. I feel good about the progress we’ve made at this point. Like I said, if it all continues I anticipate practicing tomorrow.”

Q: At this point of the season, is one day of practice enough to get you prepared to play?

GREEN: “Well, definitely from a mental standpoint it is, just because I’ve been in the system. From a physical standpoint it just depends how sore I feel going into the practice and then coming out of the practice. If we keep making progress like we have the last couple of days, I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be able to play.”

Q: What are you calling your injury?

GREEN: “It’s really bruised ribs, bruised hip and it’s causing muscle tightness because it’s trying to protect those areas. There’s really not a whole lot you can do with that – wear a wrap, take it easy and try and keep those muscles loose. I’ve always worn a rib protector since I was in high school, so that won’t be anything different. In terms of having to wear extra padding, I don’t anticipate any of that. I’d hate to know what would have happened if I didn’t have (rib padding) on.”

Q: Have you given any thought to resting it this weekend?

GREEN: “No. I’m a little too hard-headed for that. I’ve had a few people ask me about it. That would probably be the easy thing to do, but it’s really not in my nature. Especially with the team struggling the way we are, it would be the easy thing to do, but the wrong thing to do. I’m going to do everything I can to play.”

Q: What does your starting streak mean to you?

GREEN: “I’m glad you asked about it because that’s the one thing I don’t want misunderstood. I’m not going to play just to keep the streak alive, go in for a series or two and say ‘I can’t do it; Todd (Collins) go in and take over.’ If I don’t feel I can be effective and my communication with Coach Vermeil or Al (Saunders) doesn’t prove to them or to me that I can go out and perform at the level I’ve been performing all season, then I won’t do it. It’s not going to be a token start just to keep the streak alive. If I don’t feel I can finish the whole game then it’s not fair to them. It’s not fair to my teammates.”

Q: But the streak itself, when you came back from a knee injury was it important to prove your durability?

GREEN: “That has been important. Like you said, when I first got here that was the major question mark. I was just coming off my fourth surgery. I was actually in Birmingham rehabbing when the trade was worked out. So it does mean a lot, especially when you look around the league and see how many other quarterbacks have played. Obviously Brett Favre and Peyton Manning are unbelievable but when you look around at the other quarterbacks, it’s tough. And it’s not just the quarterback position, it’s every position – to be able to for a four or five-week preseason, for regular season, playoffs – there’s a lot of wear and tear at every position.”

Q: Can you imagine the streak G Will Shields has put together?

GREEN: “That’s even more amazing because on every play he’s getting hit. He knows that every play he’s getting hit. The difference is, and I’ve tried to explain it to people, from a quarterback standpoint a lot of the time you’re getting hit in an awkward position. You’re either off-balance or your arm is up in a throwing motion or you’re exposed in different ways. That’s the only difference in that regard. From a lineman standpoint just to stay healthy having people fall into the back of your legs, running backs run into the back of you. It’s really remarkable that he’s been able to do what he has.”

Q: If it wasn’t for Norv Turner would you be here today?

GREEN: “No, I wouldn’t be. Norv Turner and Cam Cameron. In 1995 I went and worked out in a little barn. There was a little indoor soccer field that was near the Redskins practice facility because they didn’t have an indoor facility. We went over to this barn in the middle of February, had a little workout there and right then and there they offered me a contract. They’re the ones that gave me an opportunity number one to get back in to the league and then also an opportunity to start my fourth year that I was there. If it wasn’t for Norv I wouldn’t be here today.”

Q: They kept you around a long time before they let you play, what did they like in you?

GREEN: “I think there were a couple different things. I had developed a good relationship with Cam. The thing is that I had two guys younger than me and two guys that had more experience than me, Gus Frerotte and Heath Shuler both. So I knew coming in that it was going to be tough to get playing time. At that point in time I had intentions of wanting to be a coach. I really enjoyed the mental part of it. With Norv coming off the two Super Bowls in Dallas and knowing Cam, he played football and basketball at Indiana. He knew Coach (Bobby) Knight. I never knew him (Cameron) but he was at Michigan when I was at Indiana and I knew I had played against him when he was on the other side. It was two guys that were an incredible opportunity for me to learn from. Like I said, I wanted to play football, but the way things were shaping up it wasn’t a sure bet. For me I just learned as much as I could. I studied film as much as I could. I just listened to those two as much as I could. Then Cam left after a couple years and Mike Martz came in and he picked up from there. From that standpoint, yeah I would have liked to have played a lot sooner, but after the second year Heath Shuler was traded to the Saints and I thought I’d be given an opportunity to be the backup then. The organization decided to get Jeff Hostetler and go with more of a veteran stability in terms of the backup role. I understood where they were coming from. I was frustrated by it and disappointed by it, but I just took that as another opportunity to learn from somebody. He had already won a Super Bowl in New York and he had gone through experiences with the Raiders. So he had been in two big city environments both, L.A. and New York learning to deal with media and learning to deal with family. He had three boys so there were a lot of things that I learned from him as well.”

Q: Did you get you chance to play when Frerotte rammed his head into the wall?

GREEN: “That was ‘97 and Jeff was the backup then. Then in ‘98 in the third preseason game that was when Hostetler hurt his knee. It was kind of up in the air whether or not he’d have to have surgery and he’d be back. So I went into the opener against the Giants and I had moved up to the backup spot because of his knee injury and they hadn’t decided whether or not they were going to do surgery and those sorts of things. Then Gus struggled a little bit in the first half and then he got dinged a little bit in the third quarter. So Norv decided to go ahead and give me a shot.”

Q: Wins and losses aside, was that your favorite season?

GREEN: “No last year was. But you know what was great about that year (’98) is just because it had all paid off. It was very rewarding for me my first start with the Rams, in 2000 against the 49ers. Because of all that hard work and everything I’d gone through in terms of the surgeries and the rehab that paid off. But to go through the number of years that I went through as the third string and being out of the league a year and going to Canada for a couple weeks, yeah that was a very rewarding year. It just proved that all that time I had spent studying film and listening to the things that I did. I was on the headset with the Norv for two years because I was the coach of the quarterbacks intercom. So being able to listen to that communication he had with the coaches there was a lot that I learned from that and I think that it benefited me once I got on the field.”

Q: Was it hard to leave that staff in Washington when you went to St. Louis? Did the Redskins want you back?

GREEN: “Yeah, it was very hard. You have to remember that Mr. (Jack Kent) Cooke pass away in ‘97 and his son took over. But it was set up in the will that the Cooke Foundation would take ownership of the organization after the first year. They could then sell the team and all the money would do to the Cooke Foundation to use for scholarships for underprivileged kids. So it was really kind of up in the air as to who the owner would be and at the time there were three prospective owners. All three owners had said, ‘we’re going to keep Norv Turner but we’re not going to keep Charley Casserly’ or ‘we’re going to keep Charley Casserly but we’re not going to keep Norv Turner’ or we’re going to fire both. So there was no direction and it was very frustrating for me because with my ties with Norv I really wanted to stay. I enjoyed my four years there and I enjoyed playing for him. Trying to get contract negotiations done because every time we talked to Charley, Charley would have to talk to the Cooke Foundation Board of Directors, then the Board of Directors would have to talk about proposals and they’re not football people, so it was just this long drawn out thing. We could never really get anything in concrete before free agency started and then with Mike going to St. Louis and it just all kind of unfolded that way. There was just so much uncertainty. But from Norv’s standpoint, I would love to have stayed with him.”

Q: Is it true that you still have some of Norv’s tapes of Troy Aikman?

GREEN: “I do. When I first got there, trying to learn the offense, the best way to do that was to study the guy who had been the most efficient in it, or at least in my mind was the most efficient in it, and had won Super Bowls in it. Norv coming from Dallas had a lot of tapes on the offense and the different pass plays and protections and running game. So I would just take home like seven or eight tapes at a time and study those. Then I’d go back to the video guys and say, ‘Can you make me a copy of tapes one, two, four and seven?’ Then I’d kind of have that in file and I’ve accumulated a number of them that I’ve studied over the years.”

Q: What do think of the Raiders defense adding new players, but not seeing the results they hoped?

GREEN: “They look very similar to us. You look at them and say, ‘How in the world is this team 4-7?’ Which when I look at us I say ‘How are we sitting at 3-8?’ Their defense is very good. They play very well. Where they got in trouble early on is they turned the ball over a lot offensively and put their defense in bad positions. They’ve been playing a lot smarter the last couple weeks in terms of turnovers. Their defense has been playing very aggressive and very well. They’ve also put in a new scheme defensively so maybe it took them a few weeks to get adjusted to that. It’s definitely a defense that we’re concerned with and we know we’re going to have to play our best to do well.”