Roy Green's press conference today as it was announced he was headed into the Cardinals' Ring of Honor stretched to 30 minutes as Green told stories about his time with the Cardinals, about his famous catch to beat the powerful 49ers at Sun Devil Stadium in the team's first season in Arizona, about ex-teammates like Stump Mitchell and Ron Wolfley, about the Cards' killer loss to the Redskins to end 1984, about towel-whipping then-Cardinals ballboy Michael Bidwill when Bidwill was a teenager working training camp.

(Green, with Bidwill laughing beside him, joked he would have treated Michael better had he known he'd eventually run the team.)

But at one point, Green told a story about a contract negotiation with Bidwill's father, Bill. At the time, Green was serving as his own agent. And he decided -- in the era before modern free agency -- it might be time to play out his option and improve his contract status following the 1989 season.

"I told Mr. B I wanted to talk to him," Green remembered. "He was like, 'Yeah, come on in.' He asked, 'What's going on?' I said, 'You know what, Mr. B? I'm looking for a raise, actually. I think that I've played well, blah, blah, blah.' He looks at me and says, 'Roy, you're overpaid right now.'

"I wanted to laugh at that very moment but I had to keep my lawyer's face on. I'm negotiating. In a few minutes after I got out of the office, I was dying. I couldn't wait to go tell the guys what he had told me."