InsideCounsel » February 2008
Strong Defense
Ex-Dallas Cowboy calls CareerBuilder’s legal plays.
A lot of NFL players have careers after football—many in the insurance or real estate industries. Once in a while you will hear about an NFL player who becomes a lawyer. You never hear about one becoming a general counsel of a major company. But it has happened—at least once.
After playing football at Indiana University from 1983 to 1987, 22-year-old Alex Green signed with the Dallas Cowboys as a free agent in June 1987. He made it to the last day of training camp before the Cowboys cut him. However, a few weeks after Green’s release, the players went on strike and coach Tom Landry invited the
then 194-pound, 6-foot-1-inch Green to join the team as a replacement player.
Green started as a free safety in three regular-season games, including a 13–7 loss against the Redskins on a Monday night. When the striking players returned Oct. 15, 1987, Landry kept Green on the sidelines for a few more games before releasing him.
Although some other teams expressed interest in signing him, Green decided to quit football, ending his professional career with one interception.
In 1988 he took a job as a credit analyst at American National Bank in Chicago. He then attended Northwestern law school and, after graduating in 1992, accepted a job at Ross & Hardies in Chicago (which merged with McGuire Woods in 2003). He went in-house at McDonald’s (1993–2003) and Household International (2003–2004) before becoming general counsel of Chicago-based CareerBuilder—the country’s largest online job board.
Q: How difficult was the Cowboys’ training camp?
A: Very difficult. It was during the days when there were few restrictions, so we had a long rookie camp. We had several weeks of double sessions and then five or six weeks total of grueling camp life. It also was mentally grueling. You start training camp in a room with about five other players. Every morning someone knocks on the door and a player is cut. By the end of camp I was the only one left in the room.
Q: What was it like being invited back to play?
A: It was a lot of fun. I started and played all three games during the strike season. Our final game was on Monday night against the Redskins in Texas Stadium. I got to run out of the tunnel and play the entire game. And at that point a number of the Cowboys had crossed over the picket line, including “Too Tall” Jones, Randy White and Tony Dorsett—players that I had grown up watching play.
Q: You had one career interception, right?
A: I made it during my second game against the Jets. So I am officially in the NFL record books.
Q: What was Landry like?
A: He was just like what you saw on TV. He was kind of stoic. Every once in a while he would say something that was kind of funny that would make the room break up. He worked with the defensive backs some because he used to be a defensive back, but as a rookie I didn’t spend a lot of time with him. He is one of the greatest coaches who ever lived, so I was fortunate to get to spend the little time with him that I did.
Q: How much were you paid to play?
A: I made the rookie minimum. It was about the same salary as first-year associates were making at the time.
