The NFL regular season kicks off for the Green Bay Packers in exactly 34 days, and what better time to honor one of the franchise’s most important players to wear the number, Ahman Green?

Lovingly dubbed “Red Zone Magic” by my brother and I in our younger days, Green is one of the organization’s most recognizable early 2000’s alumni. Today, we look back on his career.

Journey to the League

Ahman Green was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where he played his high school football. He was both a high school All-American and state player of the year as a senior, and was recruited to play at the collegiate level for the home team, the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

While at Nebraska, Green played for two National Championship teams, winning it all as both a freshman and a junior.

Green still holds the Cornhuskers’ freshman rushing record with 1,086 yards, a season in which he was named a freshman All-American, and places third on Nebraska’s all-time lists for rushing yards and touchdowns.

The Huskers star was drafted into the NFL by the Seattle Seahawks in 1998’s third round, selected seventy-eighth overall.

Green by Green Bay

Just two years into his career, Ahman Green was traded, along with a fifth round pick, to the Packers, in exchange for cornerback Fred Vinson and a sixth round selection.

Green, although successful in limited snaps with the Seahawks, had struggled to find playing time behind Ricky Watters, who was a three-time thousand-yard rusher for Seattle.

The Packers didn’t need Green to start right away, but he quickly ascended into the role in 2000. Fellow Packers Hall of Fame member Dorsey Levens suffered a season-ending knee injury in week eight, and the course of Packers history changed forever.

In the season’s final eight games, Green rushed for over one-hundred yards three times, eclipsing the 150 yard mark twice, and produced seven touchdowns along with over forty catches. He ended his season with 1,175 yards rushing, as well as 559 yards receiving, even though he spent half the year as the backup.

After that, Green held the keys.

Throughout the next six seasons, Green would do far more than just prove himself as a starting-caliber back. From 2001 to 2006, Green rushed for over 1,000 yards for the Packers five times, only falling short in 2005 as a result of a ruptured tendon.

From his first game with team in 2000 through the end of the 2004 season, Green had more yards both rushing and from scrimmage than any other player in the league, making the Pro Bowl four times.

His best year as a Packer came in 2003, when he won NFC Offensive Player of the Year. He rushed for 1,883 yards and fifteen touchdowns, highlighted by a still-standing franchise-best of 218 yards in week eighteen versus Denver.

Green ended his first stint with the Packers in 2007, just forty-six yards shy of breaking Jim Taylor’s franchise feat.

Dawn of 34

While Ahman Green wore the number 30 for almost all of his Green Bay Packers career, that wasn’t the case in 2009, the year he broke the franchise’s all-time rushing record.

That season, Green returned to the Packers as a free agent after two disappointing campaigns as a Texan, during which he was often injured, to find his former number dawned by another Packers favorite, fullback John Kuhn.

Green then chose 34 as an homage to Walter Payton, and in his final NFL season, joined Payton in the ranks of all-time team rushing leaders.

Serving primarily as a role-player behind Ryan Grant and Brandon Jackson, Ahman Green broke the Green Bay Packers all-time rushing record on November 8th, 2009, surpassing Jim Taylor’s 8,207 yards with a forty-five yard performance on six carries.

He finished his career with 8,322 yards, producing 160 yards and one touchdown in 2009, before retiring in 2011 after brief UFL and CFL stints.

A Lasting Legacy

Although his playing days are long over, Ahman Green continues to actively support the Packers today, often making alumni appearances on behalf of the team.

Green was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 2014, and he and his family still live in Wisconsin, where he’s taken part in several interesting endeavors, including co-owning the Green Bay Blizzard, an former arena football team that now plays in the IFL, and serving as the head coach of Lakeland University’s first varsity esports team.

Beyond his accomplishments on the field and his involvement in the Green Bay community however, Green also cements his legacy as one of the first Green Bay Packers players that I remember, alongside his running-mate, Samkon Gado.

Funnily enough, back when I first began to fall in love with the game of football, it was Green’s avatar dancing across NFL 2K5’s gridiron, and while I was too young to remember much of the real action on the field, I do remember that.

Green was one of the best running backs in the game at 92 overall, simply magic in the virtual red zone, and that lead to the “Red Zone Magic” nickname. That name then inspired the namesake of my series here on Packers Talk, and eloquently combined with the real Green’s love for video games.