Trent Green Joins the Miami Dolphins...
Trent Green Joins the Miami Dolphins; Daunte Culpepper Resistant to Team's Plans for Trade http://southeastkansas.cox.net/cci/a...6acd691b4b.jpgMiami Dolphins quarterback Trent Green smiles as he answers questions during a news conference Wednesday, June 6, 2007, in Davie, Fla., after the announcement of a deal in which Miami acquired him from the Kansas City Chiefs for a fifth-round draft pick in 2008. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)06-06-2007 11:41 PM
By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Sports Writer
http://southeastkansas.cox.net/cci/p...es/speaker.gif Listen to audio DAVIE, Fla. (Associated Press) -- Trent Green swallowed hard, then tried to list every Miami Dolphins starting quarterback since Dan Marino's retirement seven seasons ago. It took him a minute, but he eventually got most of the 10 names right. "You're not going to find anyone to replace Dan Marino," Green said.
Fortunately for Green, the Dolphins aren't asking him to replace Marino. They're merely asking him to replace Daunte Culpepper.
Green's long-awaited trade to Miami finally got done Wednesday, after he passed a physical and was acquired from the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick in 2008. The deal was finished hours after Dolphins general manager Randy Mueller and coach Cam Cameron told Culpepper they would try to trade him, essentially ending his one-year stint in South Florida.
Culpepper wasn't happy with that development, saying he is "not interested in being traded." But the 36-year-old Green was ecstatic that the move he'd waited weeks for finally became reality.
"I do feel for his situation," Green said. "It's no fun. I went through it, obviously, in Kansas City this past few months. ... Hopefully things will get cleared up quickly for him, because I know it's no fun. The whole hanging-in-limbo thing, that's not fun for anybody."
Green agreed to a new contract with the Dolphins weeks ago, once he became convinced that Kansas City, for whom he spent 5 1/2 seasons as a starter, wouldn't give him a fair chance to compete with Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard _ one of those other Dolphins starters besides Marino since 1999 _ for the starting job in 2007.
Green threw for 21,459 yards and 118 touchdowns in Kansas City, but missed eight games last season because of a concussion suffered in the season opener.
"They wanted to get younger," said Green, who had three years left on his deal in Kansas City and cannot enter into a new arrangement with Miami until the existing contract is on the Dolphins' books for 24 hours, under league rules. "I understand that."
So he set his sights on the Dolphins, who traded for Culpepper before the 2006 season.
Culpepper, though, was hobbled in his four-game on-field stint, getting sacked 21 times before Miami shut him down for the remainder of the year. And when Mueller and Cameron learned Green was available earlier this offseason, they didn't hesitate beginning pursuit.
"It was a matter of getting it done," Cameron said. "And now it's done."
Culpepper is due to make $5.5 million this season and is still trying to recover from surgery to repair three torn right knee ligaments, an injury suffered in 2005 when he was with the Minnesota Vikings. He'd been largely a spectator for most Miami offseason practices, but received clearance from orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews and members of the Dolphins' medical staff to resume football activity earlier this week.
"It will be up to them to either keep me under contract or release me," Culpepper said in an e-mail. "In the meantime I will continue to work out at the facility with the team and prepare myself for training camp, wherever it may be."
Cameron said he and Mueller are "working through some things" concerning Culpepper's future.
"By Friday we can probably shed a little more light on that subject," Cameron said. "But today is about Trent Green. ... We're thrilled that Trent is here."
It's clear Miami wouldn't have kept both Culpepper and Green. The Dolphins recently re-signed backup Cleo Lemon to a one-year deal, and chose Brigham Young quarterback John Beck in the second round of this year's draft after passing on Notre Dame's Brady Quinn with the ninth overall pick _ which the Dolphins used on receiver-returner Ted Ginn Jr., of Ohio State.
Green would have made $7.2 million this season with the Chiefs. The Dolphins offered the Chiefs a sixth-round pick long before April's draft, but Kansas City reportedly insisted on a fourth-round selection.
"Trent has been a major contributor to the Kansas City Chiefs these past six years," Chiefs president Carl Peterson said. "We wish Trent and his family much success in Miami."
Green and Cameron have a long relationship. Both are former Indiana quarterbacks, and Cameron was Washington Redskins quarterbacks coach when Green was a third-stringer there in 1995 and 1996. Cameron even was the person whom Green credits for rescuing his NFL career; the 222nd overall pick in the 1993 draft was languishing in the CFL when Cameron convinced then-Redskins coach Norv Turner to sign him in 1995.
"I definitely feel a connection with Cam," Green said. "And I owe him a lot."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
