Vikings’ Greenway added to Pro Bowl roster again
Chad Greenway is headed to Hawaii.By: Luke Hagen, The Daily Republic
- Greenway
Chad Greenway is headed to Hawaii.
The Minnesota Vikings linebacker and Mount Vernon native was added to the NFC Pro Bowl team as an injury replacement Thursday for DeMarcus Ware of the Dallas Cowboys. The game is being played Jan. 27 in Honolulu.
Greenway said he received the news Thursday afternoon from Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier.
“As a player, you put everything into the game,” Greenway said. “Statistically, you can always be better. You can always have more interceptions and more tackles for a loss. But you look at the body of work and the way our team played, you hope to make it on the first ballot and make it on the initial list.
“But for the position that I play, considering the sack is such a highly regarded stat and going against all of the 3-4 linebackers, you kind have to take what you can get. So I’m very excited to make it again, my second time in a row.”
This is the second consecutive year Greenway has been named as a Pro Bowl selection. He was left off the initial roster but was selected when Ware announced he would have surgery on his shoulder and would not be eligible to play.
Last year, Greenway was picked as an injury replacement last year for Lance Briggs of the Chicago Bears. Greenway will be the first Vikings linebacker to play in consecutive Pro Bowls since Scott Studwell in 1987-88.
“I’m hoping to be able to take a bunch of family, my position coach and some other people out there with me,” Greenway said. “Last year was a great experience.”
According to the Vikings official website, Greenway finished the season with a career-high 191 tackles, based on coaches’ film review. The NFL credited Greenway with 148 tackles, third best in the NFL. He led the team in tackles for the fifth straight year and had seven tackles for a loss, three sacks, two fumble recoveries and one interception.
The 2006 first-round draft pick said he does not have any Pro Bowl incentives in his contract, but he will walk away from the game with some extra money. Each player on the winning team of last year’s game received $50,000, and the players on the losing team received $25,000.
The Vikings’ season ended Saturday in the NFC wild-card round in a loss to NFC North Division rival Green Bay. Greenway added that he’s proud of the way the team ended the year, winning the final four games to earn a playoff berth.
“With the team we had put together, it was such a tight-knit group and we wanted to go out and fight for each other,” Greenway said. “We put together a nice run of football where we put ourselves in that position. To look back on it and reflect is even more impressive than when we were going through it. … It was a very fun run and it’s unfortunate we couldn’t go into Green Bay and get a big win.”
Greenway added he is putting preliminary plans together to get his dual-sports camp going again this summer. Because his father was battling cancer, last year was the first time he did not host the camp since entering the NFL. He said the camp will be in June or July.
—The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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