What Is Mean Joe Greene's Net Worth?
Mean Joe Greene is an American retired professional football player and coach who has a net worth of $2 million. Mean Joe Greene was drafted #4 by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1969 NFL Draft. His position was defensive tackle, and he played his entire career with the Steelers from 1969 to 1981. During his illustrious career, Greene was selected to the Pro Bowl 10 times. He was also a five-time First-team All-Pro and three-time Second-team All-Pro. He was named to the First-team All-AFC 11 times. Joe won four Super Bowl Championships with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, two-time AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year, two-time KCC 101 AFC Defensive Player of the Year, and two-time NEA NFL Defensive MVP winner. Greene has been named to the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, NFL 1970s All-Decade Team, and Pittsburgh Steelers All-Time Team. Joe's #75 jersey was retired by the Steelers, and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987. He has been ranked by NFL.com as the 13th best NFL Player of All-Time.
Greene has also served as a defensive line coach for the Steelers (1987–1991) and the Miami Dolphins (1991–1995) and an assistant coach for the Arizona Cardinals (1996–2003). He was well known for his role in the Coca-Cola "Hey Kid, Catch!" commercial in 1979. Joe appeared as himself in the 1980 film "Smokey and the Bandit II," and he had a cameo in 1995's "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls." In 2017, he published the autobiography "Mean Joe Greene: Built by Football."
Early Life
Joe Greene was born Charles Edward Greene on September 24, 1946, in Temple, Texas. Greene has said that an aunt started calling him "Joe" because she thought he resembled boxing champion Joe Louis. Greene attended Dunbar High School, where he was a member of the football team. He earned a football scholarship to North Texas State University (which was later renamed the University of North Texas), and from 1966 to 1968, he played on the school's varsity team. Joe was selected for the All-Missouri Valley Conference three times, and during his senior year, he received first-team honors from the Newspaper Enterprise Association, United Press International, and "The Sporting News" and was named to the 1968 All-America team.
Career
In the 1969 NFL Draft, Greene was the fourth overall pick, and he was chosen by the struggling Pittsburgh Steelers. Within a few months of making his NFL debut, Joe had proven himself to be one of the league's most dominant defensive tackles. Though the Steelers finished the season with a record of 1–13, Greene was named the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press (AP), and he was selected for the Pro Bowl. Joe's former teammate Andy Russell stated that Greene was "unquestionably the NFL's best player in the seventies," adding, "No player had a greater impact or did more for his team." The Steelers had a 5–9 record in 1970 and a 6–8 record in 1971, and Joe was chosen for the Pro Bowl both seasons. The team finished with an 11–3 record in 1972 and won its first-ever division title as well as its first playoff game, and Greene was named AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Joe was selected for the Pro Bowl again every year from 1973 to 1976 and in 1978 and 1979, and he earned his second AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1974. The Steelers won the Super Bowl for the first time on January 12, 1975, and they followed it with three more wins during Greene's time on the team (January 18, 1976, January 21, 1979, and January 20, 1980). After the 1974 season, the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" honored Joe as the city's outstanding sports figure of the year.
In 1975, Greene missed four games because of a pinched nerve, and he graced the cover of "Time" magazine with some of his teammates. He missed several games in 1976 after injuring his back. By the following year, Joe had become the captain of the team's defense. In 1979, the Steelers had a 12–4 record and were ranked #2 in total defense and #5 in scoring defense. "Pro Football Weekly" and the Pro Football Writers Association named Greene a first-team All-Pro, and he was chosen to play in what would be his last Pro Bowl. He won the NFL's Man of the Year award as well. Joe retired after the 1981 season and became a defensive line coach for the team in 1987. In 1991, he left his coaching position with the Steelers to take the same position with the Miami Dolphins, who he stayed with until 1995. From 1996 to 2003, Greene was an assistant coach for the Arizona Cardinals.
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Personal Life
Joe married Agnes Craft, who he met in college, on January 28, 1968, and they welcomed three children together. Sadly, Agnes passed away in 2015 at the age of 67. In 2018, Joe and his children established the Agnes Lucille Craft Greene Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded to Texas students with parents who have fought cancer. After Agnes' death, Joe married a woman named Charlotte.
Honors
Joe has been inducted into the UNT Hall of Fame (1981), the College Football Hall of Fame (1984), and the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1987), and his #75 jersey was retired by the University of North Texas. He was selected for the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee. In 1994, Greene was named to the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, which celebrated the best players in the 75-year history of the league. In 1999, "The Sporting News" ranked Joe #14 on its list of the "Top 100 Football Players," and in 2010, he was ranked #13 on the NFL Network's "The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players." In 2014, his #75 jersey was retired by the Steelers, and in 2017, the Mean Joe Greene Community Football Field opened in his hometown, Temple, Texas. In 2018, the University of North Texas erected a statue of Greene outside of Apogee Stadium, and the following year, he was chosen for the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Real Estate
In 2004, Greene paid $760,000 for a 5,101 square foot home in Flower Mound, Texas. The home includes four bedrooms and five bathrooms.
