Jarvis Green recalls Bill Belichick’s blunt post-draft advice
"That was my first impression, our first time talking."
When Jarvis Green looks back on his time with the Patriots, he thinks not only of the two Super Bowl wins, but of the important lessons he learned from Bill Belichick.
Now a business owner in his post-football career, Green believes the rugged environment he worked in with the Patriots helped make him a more resilient entrepreneur.
“Thank God I went to New England, because it’s done so much for me in my life,” Green explained. “With Coach Belichick, you would get constructive criticism basically every day. And then it’s just about how you can deal with it. If you can deal with it, then it makes you better on and off the field. That was the biggest thing for the Patriots.”
“Coming from the Patriots, I remember we’d be down 14 or 21 points, we never felt like we were going to lose the game. We felt like we always had a chance. And I thought about it the same way with business. I always have a chance to be successful some way somehow.”
Three years into starting his own wholesale shrimp company, Oceans 97, Green’s belief is starting to pay off. The Louisiana-based company is beginning to establish itself as an affordable frozen shrimp option in grocery stores on the east coast, including New England.
It could all have been very different for the 39-year-old former defensive lineman. When he was coming out of LSU in 2002, Green recalls playing in the NFL wasn’t as much of a focus as it is for many college football players.
“I’ll be honest, when I grew up, my goal was never to say I’d played professional football,” Green explained. “My goal was to go to college, get a degree and do something. That’s what my mom and dad taught me.”
As he prepared himself for evaluations by NFL scouts, Green’s academic priority might have affected how teams perceived him.
“I went to the combine, ran terrible, worked out terrible, everything I did was terrible,” Green remembered. “But that same year, I walked across the stage and got my degree in industrial engineering. I took my last test in industrial facility down in Baton Rouge. I had been working out in Dallas for the pre-draft, but stopped that to go and finish exams. So my combine was terrible. I just said wherever I go, I’m going to go. I said whoever gives me a shot, I’m going to work my ass off.”
“I went with the 126th pick. The Patriots drafted me, which was kind of a blindside pick by them from my standpoint. I remember it was the second day of the draft. I talked to Scott Pioli first, and he congratulated me and told me he was putting Belichick on. I got on the phone with Coach Belichick and asked him, ‘Coach, where exactly is New England?’ And he was like, ‘What do you mean?’ I told him, ‘I have no idea. I know it’s a region, but where is the facility.’ He said, ‘Foxborough.’ I was thinking where the heck is Foxborough?”
What Belichick said to him next would set the tone for Green’s experience in New England.
“Belichick talks to me and says, ‘Look, congratulations. Welcome to the Patriots. You’re a rookie. You don’t know anything. You haven’t done anything. If someone asks you what you want to do, just to give you [an idea], just say you want to make the team, help the team as much as you can. See you at mini-camp.’ That was it! That was my first impression, our first time talking.”
Green would go on to establish himself as a valuable member of the Patriots’ back-to-back Super Bowl championship teams in 2003 and 2004. His finest hour on the football field with New England came in the AFC Championship Game against the Colts in 2004. Green totaled 2.5 sacks against Peyton Manning, helping the Patriots halt the how-powered Indianapolis offense, 24-14.
