In 1970, the Dallas Cowboys moved an accomplished cornerback to safety. Cornell Green had already earned three Pro Bowl selections and two Associated Press All-Pro honors. Changing his position meant asking an established player to produce a different kind of second act.
The honors followed him. Green reached the Pro Bowl at safety in 1971 and again in 1972, giving the Cowboys another valuable use for a defender whose first eight seasons had been spent at cornerback.
Dallas announced Wednesday that Green had died at 86. Remembering his career through that position change gives the familiar five-time Pro Bowler description some needed detail. Those selections were earned across two jobs, rather than collected during a single unchanging assignment.
A roster position is convenient shorthand. It tells an observer where to begin understanding a player without describing every responsibility he handles. Green's career shows why the shorthand can also conceal something important: an organization's ability to keep using an experienced player when the job changes.
The evidence here is the sequence of recognition. His All-Pro selections from the AP came in 1966 and 1967, before the move. The safety Pro Bowls came afterward. One set of honors did not automatically earn the other, and the second phase gave Dallas something beyond a longer version of the first.
That matters because a position switch can be discussed as if it were a polite arrangement for keeping a familiar veteran around. Green's subsequent recognition supports a more substantial interpretation. Dallas was receiving work worthy of selection at safety, as it previously had at cornerback.
The move also coincided with a consequential stretch for the franchise. Green played in Super Bowl V and then on the team that won the Cowboys' first Super Bowl championship after the 1971 season. Miami managed three points in that January 1972 title game; Dallas scored 24.
That is team history, and it should stay team history. A championship does not establish that one positional decision caused the result. Green's presence in that secondary is significant without making his move the explanation for the entire defense. The more defensible point is that his new role remained useful as the team's ambitions were being realized.
His 34 career interceptions provide another measure of production across the playing years. The figure belongs beside the honors because it records possessions won for Dallas, rather than recognition alone. Green's career combined the regard of award selectors with tangible defensive returns. Keeping both measures in view gives the move to safety more substance than a simple story about extending someone's employment.
The continuity of his appearances strengthens the case. Across thirteen seasons with Dallas, Green never missed a regular-season contest. He appeared 182 times, then added fifteen postseason games. After starting three games in his rookie season, he started 167 of the next 168 available regular-season dates.
