Looking back on Dennis Green's 'They are who we thought they were' moment

In the wake of Green's passing, we look back on his inspired outburst

Dennis Green, who died on Friday morning at 67 after suffering cardiac arrest, gave us one of the greatest coaching outbursts in sports history.

First, let's set the stage.

Back in October 2006, the Arizona Cardinals were not a very good football team. Entering their Monday Night Football tilt with the Chicago Bears, they had a record of just 1-4, and those four losses had all come in a row after a season-opening win.

The Cardinals, though, jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter behind two touchdown passes from Matt Leinart, then extended that lead to 20-0 by halftime. With 8 seconds left in the third quarter, the Cardinals still led 23-3 and they had the ball on their own 15-yard line. And then everything went haywire.

Leinart was sacked on the next play, and his fumble was scooped up by Mike Brown and returned three yards for a touchdown. 23-10.

It still looked like the Cardinals' ballgame, and for the next 10 minutes, it pretty much stayed that way. Then, with 5:11 left in the fourth quarter, Edgerrin James fumbled, and that fumble was also returned (by Charles Tillman) for a touchdown. 23-17.

The Cardinals got the ball back and had 4:53 to kill. They picked up a first down, but then stalled out on the next set of downs and were forced to punt. Kicking to Devin Hester in 2006 ... not the greatest idea. Hester took Scott Player's kick 83 yards to the house and all of a sudden the Bears had a 24-23 lead with just south of three minutes to play.

The Cards had one last chance to salvage a victory, and Leinart drove them down the field and into range for a game-winning kick. Neil Rackers, though, shanked a 40-yard attempt and the Bears somehow stole a win in Arizona.

After the game, Cardinals head coach Dennis Green was not happy. Responding to a question about how his defense had shut down Chicago's offense and yet the team still lost the game, Green went ballistic.

The clip of Green immediately captured national attention and has since become one of the most famous coaching outbursts in NFL history. It was also memorialized in a Coors Light commercial a few years later.

The best part of Green's tirade was that it was so out of character for him. He was typically known as a fairly mild-mannered head coach, and here he was on national TV flipping out on his team, which was, as stated, not a good team. They just happened to blow a game in epic fashion, and that was enough to set Green off.