Jacquez Green


 * "Jacquez" redirects here. For the baseball pitchers, see Pat Jacquez and Tom Jacquez.

D'Tanyian Jacquez Green (born January 15, 1976) is a former American college and professional football player who was a wide receiver and punt returner in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons during the 1990s and early 2000s. Green played college football for the University of Florida, and earned All-American honors. He was a second-round pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Washington Redskins and the Detroit Lions of the NFL.

Early years
Green was born in Fort Valley, Georgia in 1976. He attended Peach County High School in Fort Valley, and was a member of the Peach County Trojans high school football, basketball and track and field teams. Green received all-state honors in football and basketball as a senior, and was also selected to play in the annual Georgia vs. Florida High School All-Star football game. Green played quarterback throughout high school, except for his junior season when the Peach County Trojans lost in the state title game; that season he played wide receiver and running back. He was also a member of the Peach County Trojans' state championship 4x100-meter relay team as a junior.

College career
Green received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played wide receiver for coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football team from 1995 to 1997. He was a three-year letterman and a member of the 1996 Gators' Bowl Alliance national championship team, when he had seven catches for seventy-nine yards in the Gators' 52–20 Sugar Bowl victory over the Florida State Seminoles. Against the Auburn Tigers in 1997, he scored a rare triple&mdash;throwing a touchdown pass, catching one and running for one. Green suffered a major hip injury in the 1995 national championship game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He may best be remembered for a 58-yard reception from quarterback Doug Johnson late in the 1997 Florida-Florida State game that propelled the underdog Gators over the top-ranked Florida State Seminoles. He was a member of the Gators' Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship teams in 1995 and 1996, a first-team All-SEC selection and a consensus first-team All-American in 1997, and was one of the three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award. Green caught sixty-one passes for 1,024 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior before entering the NFL Draft.

Professional career
Green was a second round draft choice (thirty-fourth pick overall) of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1998 NFL Draft, and he played for the Buccaneers for four seasons from 1998 to 2001. Green's most productive seasons as a wide receiver were 1999, when he caught fifty-six passes for 791 yards with three touchdowns (only ten starts), and 2000, when he had fifty-one receptions for 773 yards. Before the 2002 season, he signed as a free agent with the Washington Redskins and re-united with former Florida Gators and Buccaneers teammate Reidel Anthony. He was released by the Redskins and signed by the Detroit Lions. Prior to the 2003 season, he signed with his former team, the Buccaneers, and retired. He ended his NFL career starting thirty-seven of the sixty-six games in which he played, registering 162 receptions for 2,311 yards and seven touchdowns.

Life after the NFL
Green is also an avid video game player, and he won the annual Madden Bowl in 2001 and 2002. He served as the offensive coordinator for Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Florida for two successful seasons, and was the associate head coach and offensive coordinator at Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Florida. Green is now an assistant coach at Valdosta High School in Valdosta, Georgia.