Vikings to honor late coach Green

Late Minnesota Vikings coach Dennis Green will be inducted into the team's ring of honor in September.

Green, head coach of the Vikings from 1992-2001, was 101-70 (including playoffs) and won Sports Illustrated and Maxwell Club NFL Coach of the Year honors in 1998 as the conductor of one of the best offenses in league history. The Vikings established an NFL record that season with 556 points -- 34.8 per game (New England broke the record in 2007).

"Dennis Green's impact on the Minnesota Vikings, and really the entire NFL, is still felt to this day," Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf said in a statement Monday. "In addition to being widely regarded as one of the NFL's top coaches, Denny was also known as a great mentor and leader by all who had the fortune of being in his presence. We're extremely honored to forever memorialize Denny and his family in the Vikings Ring of Honor and we're looking forward to the induction in September."

Mark, Zygi and Lenny Wilf, along with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, notified Green's wife Marie of the upcoming honor at team headquarters. The ceremony will be held at halftime of the Vikings' game against the Buffalo Bills at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sept. 23.

Green, who also served as head coach in Arizona for three seasons, died of a heart attack at age 67 in July 2016.

Green, who began his coaching career as an assistant to Bill Walsh with the San Francisco 49ers, has his own impressive coaching tree. It includes Hall of Famer Tony Dungy and Mike Tomlin of the Steelers. Dungy, Green's defensive coordinator in Minnesota for four seasons, became the first black coach to win a Super Bowl in 2007, and Tomlin -- a Dungy assistant in Tampa Bay -- became the second two years later.

--Field Level Media