On the first day of the 2024 NFL draft, the Washington Commanders had franchise legend Darrell Green film a video welcoming the class of 2024 to Washington.
Once that portion of the video was complete, someone told Green to read a bit more, in which he would introduce the next Washington player to have his number retired — until he realized it was him.
Yes, that’s right. The Commanders are doing the right thing by finally retiring Green’s No. 28 jersey.
Green became emotional once he realized he would have his jersey retired, and his family quickly joined him.
Joining Green’s family were minority owner Mitchell Rales—who grew up a Washington fan—former teammates and current team executives Martin Mayhew and Doug Williams, and team president Jason Wright. General manager Adam Peters and head coach Dan Quinn later embraced Green — all wearing his famed No. 28 jersey.
Green said he was humbled by the honor.
“It means a ton to me,” Green said via John Keim of ESPN. “I never thought about this, never dreamed about it, never asked about it, whatever. But when it was spoken to me, it blew me away. It caught me. It touched something down on the inside of me that I didn’t know was there. So now I’m very humbled by this, but this is huge. This is a big deal, and I’m grateful for that. And I’m that guy that played the whole career here, wasn’t chasing the money and stuff, and it just kind of, in many ways, it just validated, man, I made the right decision.”
Managing partner Josh Harris and minority owner Magic Johnson spoke to Green via video.
Harris released a statement via the team’s website:
All hail 28 🙌 pic.twitter.com/B3Nz4pIyGX
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) April 25, 2024
A first-round pick in the 1983 NFL draft, Green played 20 years for the Redskins, had 54 career interceptions, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Green is the fifth player in franchise history to have his number officially retired.
