D'Tanyian Jacquez "Quezi" Green (born January 15, 1976) is an American former college and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a wide receiver and

punt returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for five seasons during the 1990s and early 2000s. Green played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, and earned All-American honors. He was a second-round pick in the

1998 NFL Draft The 1998 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

, and played professionally for the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

, the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

and the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

of the NFL.

Early years

Green was born in

Fort Valley, Georgia Fort Valley is a city in and the county seat of Peach County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 8,780. The city is in the Warner Robins metropolitan area and the Macon–Warner Robins combined statisti ...

in 1976.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Jacquez Green
Retrieved June 30, 2010. He attended

Peach County High School Peach County High School is a public high school located in Fort Valley, Georgia, United States. The school is part of the Peach County School District, which serves Peach County. Mission Statement: To graduate college and career ready student ...

in Fort Valley,databaseFootball.com, Players
Jacquez Green
. Retrieved June 30, 2010. and was a member of the Peach County Trojans high school football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

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 The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

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 A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

. He was also a member of the Peach County Trojans' state championship 4x100-meter relay team as a junior.

College career

Green accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played wide receiver for coach

Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former American football, football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of ...

team from

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 79, 85, 88, 94, 97, 98, 99, 127, 139, 143–145, 147–150, 152, 154, 158, 181 (2011). Retrieved August 29, 2011. He was a three-year

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

and a member of the 1996 Gators'

Bowl Alliance The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games (specifically the Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls) for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship game and to provide quality bowl game matchups ...

national championship team, when he had seven catches for seventy-nine yards in the Gators' 52–20

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...

victory over the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivis ...

. Against the

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

in 1997, he scored a rare triple—throwing a

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

pass, catching one and running for one. Green suffered a major injury when he dislocated his hip in the 1995 national championship game against the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

. He may best be remembered for a 58-yard

reception Reception is a noun form of ''receiving'', or ''to receive'' something, such as art, experience, information, people, products, or vehicles. It may refer to: Astrology * Reception (astrology), when a planet is located in a sign ruled by another p ...

from quarterback Doug Johnson late in the 1997 Florida-Florida State game that propelled the underdog Gators over the top-ranked Florida State Seminoles.Jack Hairston, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois, pp. 142–143 (2002). He was a member of the Gators'

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(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 The Fred Biletnikoff Award is presented annually to the most outstanding receiver in American college football by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation, Inc. (TQCF), an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. The award was creat ...

. Green caught sixty-one passes for 1,024 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior before entering the

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

Professional career

Green was a second-round draft choice (thirty-fourth pick overall) of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the

, and he played for the Buccaneers for four seasons from to .National Football League, Historical Players
Jacquez Green
Retrieved June 30, 2010. Green's most productive seasons as a wide receiver were , when he caught fifty-six passes for 791 yards with three touchdowns (only ten starts), and , when he had fifty-one receptions for 773 yards. Before the season, he signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the Washington Redskins and re-united with former Florida Gators and Buccaneers teammate

Reidel Anthony Reidel Clarence Anthony (born October 20, 1976) is a former American football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1997 to 2001. Anthony played college football for the University of Florida, and received consensus ...

. He was released by the Redskins and signed by the Detroit Lions. Prior to the 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 said that he played ''

Madden NFL ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...

'' every day, and that "I want to make it to the NFL just to play in this

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{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

Early years

College career

Professional career

Life after the NFL

See also

References

Bibliography