Greene’s High-Volume Act Makes Others Defensive

The couple, perhaps on their way home from church services, waited patiently for the light to turn green. It was a quiet Sunday morning--the weather overcast, the streets uncluttered. At nearby Anaheim Stadium, the Rams were hours away from playing the Miami Dolphins.

And then it happened.

Who knows what noise they heard first. Suddenly there was yelling and screaming, as if someone had done something terribly wrong. A Def Leppard tape, the musical equivalent of fingernails dragged across strips of sheet metal, ached and echoed in the background. An instant later, a late-model Porsche pulled along side, shaking . . . vibrating as Kevin Greene and his business associate, Norwood Vann, readied themselves for an afternoon’s worth of work.

Imagine the view: Greene, a Ram defensive end, and Vann, a linebacker, fresh from their 70-mph tour of Orange County’s freeways, arriving at Katella Avenue. They are faced with a nuisance--a red light--so they make the best of it. They hoot and holler into the morning air. They battle Def Leppard for decibel time.

No, the couple must have thought, this certainly wasn’t covered in the sermon.

“They were looking at us like we were crazy,” Greene said. “I guess we were pretty much a wild sight.”

Nah--just 463 pounds of humanity, of imitation Hell’s Angels preparing for a day at the office. Wild? Greene is the guy who occasionally listens to old war tunes before a game. A lieutenant in the National Guard, Greene has sewn his bars on the inside of one thigh pad. His paratrooper wings are on the other pad.

And watch him on the sidelines before a game starts. If the mood strikes, Greene will gesture crazily toward the opposing bench. He points toward a player, again and again. From the far reaches of any stadium, you can read his lips:

“I want you! I want you!”

The semi-ritual began earlier this season when the Rams played Atlanta. Greene spotted a friend from college who played for the Falcons. As soon as the National Anthem ended, Greene was on the field, doing his best Apollo Creed imitation.

He doesn’t do it every week. “I’ve got to be in the right attitude,” he said. Still, the results are interesting. Sometimes his target won’t notice Greene’s taunts. Other times, they point back. “It’s pretty much a war out there.”

That’s how Greene likes it, of course. He is accustomed to life’s little battles, from his time as a walk-on at Auburn University, to his fifth-round draft status in 1985, to his recent position change--from outside linebacker to defensive end. Motivation has never been a problem.

But to hear Greene talk, you’d think he could barely adjust his chin strap. His self-appraisals are direct and unforgiving.

“I see myself as struggling at that position all year,” he said. “I think it takes experience. It takes learning the position.”

Greene is second to Gary Jeter for the team lead in sacks. Until recently, the honor was Greene’s. Yes, poor Greene is struggling all right.

Earlier this year, in training camp, Greene was a starter as Mel Owens and the Rams disagreed on contract terms. When Owens returned, Greene found himself as a backup and later, at left defensive end when the Rams go to their pass defense, or nickel backs. Now he has seven sacks, one fewer than Jeter, and a budding reputation as an intense, driven player.

“Seven? Yeah, that’s a little less than I wanted,” Greene said. “This is my first year playing defensive end and I wanted to whip up on the competition. I kind of wanted to get to 10 or 12. Now I’d like to end the regular season with maybe nine.”

Oh, is that all? Greene has help, though. Former Ram defensive end Jack Youngblood, a frequent visitor to Rams Park, offers advice. Greene happily listens. “I’m going to be the next Jack Youngblood,” he said. “That’s really my goal.”

Greene has this tendency to seek contact. What he lacks in technique, he attempts to make up in brawn. Sometimes it works, often it doesn’t. That’s where Youngblood comes in. “He’ll come in before a game and say, ‘Kevin, this is the way you’ve got to beat this guy.’ ”

There are other influences. Greene, though he hates to admit it, finds himself watching the competition which, in this case, is Jeter, the right defensive end. “If there’s any one person I’ve studied, it’s him,” Greene said.

As for the rest of it, Greene is self-taught.

For instance, take his performance against the Dallas Cowboys Dec. 7. At one point, Jeter and Greene tackled Cowboy quarterback Steve Pelluer. It was then, as Greene and Pelluer were facemask-to-facemask, that Mr. Def Leppard made his presence known.

Said Greene: “I said, ‘Ha! Ha! I got you!’ I was screaming again, slobbering through my facemask. He didn’t say anything back.”

So Greene enjoys antics. And, he insists, there’s nothing malicious about the routine, nothing insincere. “I look back at the screaming and hollering and just consider it fun,” he said. “It was a good time.”

Tell that to the couple at the stoplight.