WASHINGTON — George Mason University is adding a Washington Redskins legend and NFL Hall of Fame honoree to its athletics department this fall.
Former cornerback Darrell Green will join the athletics department at George Mason as an associate athletics director, Brad Edwards, the university’s assistant vice president and director of athletics, said in a statement Monday.
Green will engage in fundraising initiatives and collaborate and communicate with constituents, the university said in the statement.
“You would be hard pressed to find a more accomplished athlete and role model, an advocate for education and a community and civic leader all rolled into one individual than Darrell Green,” said Edwards, who played with Green in the defensive backfield for the Redskins for four years. The pair played vital roles in Washington’s victory over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI, combining for three interceptions.
Green’s leadership didn’t stop on the field. In 1988, he founded the Darrell Green Youth Life Foundation, a nonprofit that provides a wide range of academic-development and values-based education programs.
In 1996, Green was named the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year; the following year, he received the Athletes in Action/Bart Starr Award for leadership on and off the field.
“For more than 30 years I have stood as a personal witness to George Mason’s journey to the top of its class in local, national and international prominence in the world of academics and sports,” Green said in the statement.
“Throughout my 20-year career with the Washington Redskins, Mason served as my primary home for offseason training,” he added. “I look forward to giving my own personal brand of excellence in integrity, service and ethics toward increasing the resource base of George Mason athletics and to continuing the great tradition of leadership and success that we have all come to experience and expect in the Patriots family,” he said.
This isn’t his first college gig. Green formerly served as special assistant to the director of athletics at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg.
Green was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008. He won two Super Bowls, made it to seven Pro Bowls, was named to the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade Team and won four NFL Fastest Man competitions.
He also set NFL records for most games played by a defensive player (295) and most consecutive seasons with an interception (19). He holds Redskins records in interceptions (54), interceptions returned for touchdowns (6), starts (258) and games played (295).
Green retired from the NFL in 2002, establishing the marketing company Darrell Green Enterprises.
