It all began when Adrian Greene and his older brother saw their neighbour coming home from practice with his football helmet and shoulder pads.
Greene initially wasn’t interested by the bulky look, but his brother, Korey was. Korey convinced their parents to sign him to play football and Greene said the older brother couldn’t stop talking about football for days.
“My brother and I didn’t even watch football. At the time, my dad thought football was kind of a stupid sport. My mom wasn’t really interested in seeing her kids run into other kids. When we saw the pads and stuff, we started asking the neighbours all sorts of questions,” Greene recalled.
“When it comes down to signing up. I was just going to stick to soccer and basketball. But my older brother couldn’t stop talking about it for almost a week straight. I started football when I was around seven or eight, and we never looked back since.”
He came down with a blocked punt against Ottawa in Week 15 that shifted the momentum for the rest of the game. Then he started at corner when the team needed him in Week 17 against Saskatchewan. With the 2023 season being far from over, Greene has yet to fully unleash his potential as a second-year player with the Lions —racking by 14 defensive tackles, 10 special teams tackles and one pass knockdown and blocked punt.
Greene and his older brother used to spend their free time looking up highlight videos of prominent NFL names such as Ed Reed, Sean Taylor, Devin Hester and LaDainian Tomlinson. Growing up in the Toronto area, Greene and his youth team had several interactions with the Toronto Argonauts in the community. Chad Owens was one of the players that stood out for Greene.
“A few guys were coming out of Scarborough Thunder that pursued the CFL as well like Jermaine Gabriel. We looked up to those guys, they always come back to talk to us at our practices,” Greene recalled.
Little did he know football was going to send him to different cities across Canada. Greene mentioned several Canadian Universities had sent out offers to the Toronto native, but he ultimately chose Saint Mary’s University located in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
“The main thing for me that I didn’t go to an Ontario school was because they don’t necessarily hand out full scholarships like that. That was a big factor for me. Like if I have the opportunity to alleviate some things financially on my family, I was going to do that,” he recalled.
“When I got recruited, James Colzie was the head coach. He was also the defensive coordinator and cornerback’s coach. His resume was one of the best resumes I saw. I figured I should be playing under someone who’s played a high calibre of football at Florida State and a little stint in the NFL. Why not learn from someone who’s going to be my head coach, coordinator and position coach.”
That’s when Greene was challenged to be better in man-to-man coverage. Throughout his time at Saint Mary’s, he and the defensive backs were trained to take on the responsibility of handling the opposing man in front with less to zero help.
“Majority of my snaps from college as a boundary corner were man-coverage. Schematically, it was like having no help, go be on that island by yourself. I think that was a big benefit of helping me develop as a player,” Greene recalled.
The young defensive back was taken by the Lions in the fourth round, 32nd overall of the 2022 CFL Draft. He concluded his three playing seasons at Saint Mary’s with 37 total tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery in 20 games.
Greene was confident that he was going to be a CFL Draft pick and ended up in a room full of ball hawks under Ryan Phillips’s defence.
“The emotions were high because it’s like your dream you worked towards is coming true,” he added.
On draft night, Greene was heading to the field to get a workout in. That’s when he saw former BC Lions, Shaq Murray-Lawrence who was also training with his Lions helmet. A group of athletes gathered near the end to discuss how Greene could be the next hometown player to represent Scarborough. Greene fell into the Lions’ draft board later that night.
With veterans like T.J. Lee, Garry Peters and Marcus Sayles in the room, Greene immediately felt he was welcomed by the Lions.
“Going into pro football, you obviously hear about other people’s experience. It’s always interesting to see how it’s going to pan out for yourself. I feel very comfortable in this room. It’s like a brotherhood. RP has everyone prepared and the veterans make sure the younger guys are brought along with them,” Greene said.
On this BC Lions team, the guys will crack jokes. They will ensure they’re a fashionable bunch and ultimately, take care of business on the field.
Greene and the team will head into Friday night against their divisional opponent, Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And a chance to secure home-field advantage for the Western Final.
“The main thing is executing our assignments on the field. Do your homework beforehand. When the lights come on, it’s time to execute and play fast,” Greene added.
Updated on October 10th, 2023: Adrian Greene recorded his first CFL interception last Friday evening against the Blue Bombers. The Lions were up 20-10 at half time but the Bombers’ second half effort was too much for the Lions. In overtime, Winnipeg’s running back, Brady Oliveira slipped by the Lions defence for a score, while the Lions failed to answer back. Final score: 34-26.