H. Green: From Captain to Cousin vs. Cousin
Friday, September 18, 2009
By Randy Lange


09/18 — It's been easy being green — not just as a Jet but as Howard Green — the first two weeks of this season.

The night before the Jets' season opener against the Texans, Green found out he was going to be one of Rex Ryan's four game captains in Ryan's first game as an NFL head coach.

"That was maybe my second time being a captain," Green told me today in the locker room at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. "I appreciate the honor and the opportunity from Coach Rex and everybody."

Ryan introduced Green along with Alan Faneca, Kris Jenkins and James Dearth as his game captains during the team meeting at the Jets' Houston hotel. The veteran nose tackle said he never saw it coming.

"I was like OK," he said, illustrating his reaction with a raised eyebrow. "I appreciate it, but it made me think about it, what was the reason."

The reason was a Rex Ryan special. The coach has a great grasp of his players' situations and backgrounds. Howard, who grew up not too far from Houston in Donaldsonville, La., was actually a sixth-round choice by the Texans in the first draft of their existence in 2002.

"It felt good to be back in town — that was my first time actually playing there since then," he recalled. "I really forgot all about being drafted by them. I wasn't thinking too deep into it.

But after he got his honor, Green said, "I wanted to go out and represent my team well. We came out of the game with a win, and that was enough for me."

Enough, that is, until this week, which isn't a surprise at all. Green gets to go up his cousin, Patriots D-lineman Jarvis Green, on the Meadowlands turf on Sunday.

"I played him before, last year when he came out to Seattle," said Howard, a Seahawk in 2007-08. "It's a good thing for the family to get a chance to visit, spend time together and see everybody."

And when he says family, he's not talking about a foursome. Howard (who's also got another second cousin, Skyler Green, who's played in the league) has some 17 family members and friends coming to the Meadowlands on Sunday from Louisiana and other parts of the country.

The two talked Tuesday, not so much trash as tickets. After those negotiations were concluded, "We said a few words, kind of kept it brief. I told him I'd see him Sunday."

And may the cousin with the better team win.

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