| ATLANTA — Injured Rams QB Trent Green should change his
name. It is reasonable to suggest that he should go by the name Trent Green-With-Envy.
Had he not been knocked out for the season by injury, he very well could be the toast
of professional football. Everything good that has happened to Kurt Warner this season
very likely would have happened to Green had he not gotten hurt during the preseason. It
is as though Warner has taken Green’s success away from him.
Of course, this is not to suggest that Warner has done anything wrong. Quite to the
contrary, he is to be hailed as the miraculous conquering hero who answered the door and
raced outside to glory when opportunity knocked.
Nonetheless, it would not smack of selfishness if Green were to feel as though the
success that was meant to be his has been stolen away. Alas, how does one file a police
report when the charge is nothing more that bad luck?
This is not to suggest that Green wishes the Rams’ season had gone up in flames
after he got hurt, but he wouldn’t be human if he did not feel some pangs of sorrow
with every miraculous, sensational step his team has taken from the bottom of the heap to
the sky’s the limit in one short season.
"Every game has been hard," Green said. "After getting hurt, the home
opener two weeks later, here I was supposed to be the hometown guy coming back, and
opening day is spectacular in the NFL — that was hard. Beating Carolina to clinch the
division, that was hard. I’m happy for the organization, but from a personal
standpoint, it does get tough to deal with those situations. I was very emotional last
week. I’m part of the celebration, hugging everybody, but emotionally it was tough
not being more a part of it. It’s tough to be the one who got it started and not get
to finish it."
It is only human for Green to see every one of Warner’s TD passes, and we’re
talking a lot of touchdown passes, and think, "That should be mine. That should go on
my stats sheet." After all, during the preseason, Green’s passer rating was an
out-of-this-world 126.6. He completed 28-of-32 passes, which a quarterback should only
accomplish in practice when there are no defenders.
"You go through the whole ‘what if’ game," Green said. "Would
I have gone to the Pro Bowl? Would I have the numbers he has? Would I have been MVP? You
go through all of the scenarios, and it gets frustrating at times."
There is one other question. Would the Rams have gone to the Super Bowl had Green
stayed healthy? We’ll never know the answer. It could be that his injury was the
luckiest thing that ever happened to the Rams. Or it could be that he would have done
every single thing Warner did and maybe even more.
So, does Green think the Rams would have gone to the Super Bowl had he stayed healthy?
"I think so," Green said. "And that’s not to take anything away
from Kurt. (It’s) because of the level I was playing at when I got hurt, the
offensive weapons that we have on this team, from the wide receivers to Marshall (Faulk),
and we’ve been really fortunate because of our health. I know that’s kind of odd
for me to say because I’m the one who got knocked out for the year. But other than
myself, our starting five offensive linemen have pretty much stayed the same all season,
our receivers have stayed healthy, and Marshall has been healthy. When you look at the
Super Bowl teams that have had success over the last few years, they’ve had that luck
of keeping guys healthy."
I hope that Green doesn’t play the same lottery numbers every week, because if he
does, you just know that the first time he forgets to buy tickets, all of his numbers will
come up.
"I don’t feel sorry for myself," Green said. "I’m just going
to continue to work hard and get back on the field."
On Super Sunday, though, he won’t be on the field. He’ll be watching Warner
live the life that could have been his this season.
If the Rams win the Super Bowl, the way this season has gone, one of the diamonds will
fall out of the championship ring Green will receive. He won’t notice. Warner (alias:
Johnny-on-the-spot) will come walking by later in the day, find the diamond and, not
knowing where it came from, will give it to charity, earning him more media superlatives
at the expense of poor, luckless Trent Green.
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