Tough Loss Turns Greene Mean : Rams: Linebacker gets angry when he looks back, so he looks ahead to last two games and, hopefully, playoffs.

Kevin Greene hates losing. He hates talking about it, thinking about it, dreaming about it, accepting it. Hates it.

The day you cross Greene’s path after a Ram loss is the day you’ll be picking asphalt from the back of your neck. Reporters beware, he’s headed this way from the cafeteria, wearing his infamous scowl, sun glasses, and baseball cap turned backward on his head. And white socks pulled up to his knees.

In defeat, he walks a bee line across the Rams’ training complex and turns his head for no man.

If it’s an act, he gets the Academy Award.

This isn’t a good week to ask Kevin Greene if he has a second. Not three days after a hair-graying loss to the San Francisco 49ers--the blackest Monday in Greene’s life.

To no one’s surprise, he took this one like a shot to the solar plexus. Personally he has no reason to be ashamed, having sacked Joe Montana once to raise his season sack total to 15.5, fourth-highest in the National Football League.

So why the funk?

“I don’t know, man,” said Greene, an Army reserve captain and an unabashed patriot. “Americans are born winners. Americans hate to lose, no matter what it is. My family, especially. My brother, my dad. Whenever we get together and play Ping-Pong, horseshoes, cards--it’s all out.”

So imagine the pain of losing a possible divisional title, in excruciating fashion, on national television.

Greene’s forehead tensed.

“I thought we physically handled the 49ers on both sides of the football,” he said. “And we just had a couple of little breakdowns that hurt us. I think they knew when they won the game that they were lucky to get the hell out of there.”

And that was that. Next question.

“I’m still suffering,” Greene said. “I’m trying to put it behind me now. It’s over, it’s history, it’s buried, and I really don’t want to talk about it any more, because we’ve got to play the Jets, and it’s the most important game of the season. If we don’t win this game, the chances of us getting into the playoffs are slim and none. So let’s just forget about the damn Frisco game and move on.”

To a more appealing subject, perhaps, such as Greene’s season, which has been stellar. He burst upon the NFL scene last year with 16.5 sacks, second in the league to Philadelphia’s Reggie White. But it wasn’t enough for some people, especially those who cast Pro Bowl votes.

“People were saying last year was a fluke,” said Greene, in his fifth season. “They were saying that Kevin Greene was going to fall back into obscurity, (that) what happened with him was just a freak thing. I hate people saying that about me. I feel I’m a dominant linebacker in the NFL.”

Putting seasons of 15 or more sacks back to back seems to have driven his point home. Greene has actually had a better season in 1989 in most respects. Last year, he gathered his sacks in clumps, collecting 9.5 of his 16.5 in three games. He once went five games without a sack.

This year, he has been held sackless in only four games and never in consecutive weeks. Last year he was a virtual unknown who might have taken some teams by surprise.

This year, opponents have designed game plans to stop him and still failed. He’s also doing it without the inside pass rush of Gary Jeter, who took some heat off Greene in 1988 with 11.5 sacks. Jeter signed with New England as a Plan B free agent in the off-season.

“I don’t think any team can totally stop me,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve been successfully blocked, consistently, all year. I’ve had some competitions where the battling was rough, and I maybe only got to the quarterback once or twice but didn’t get a sack. Other times, I’d physically beat my man, but a back out of the backfield would hit me before he released on a pass, or a tight end would stay in and give me a chip shot before he released on a pass. They have been blocking me a lot of different ways.”

“I think he’s had a lot of attention this year and still done it,” Coach John Robinson said. “People have done some things to deter him. I find myself expecting certain things from him. I’m kind of taking him for granted.”

Greene has done everything for the Rams except make a Pro Bowl, which could change next Wednesday when this year’s team is announced.

Greene, though, isn’t holding his breath.

“I don’t have much faith in the Pro Bowl,” he said. “Last year, I was statistically No. 2 in sacks and the No. 1 outside linebacker, as a production pass rusher, and didn’t go. That just shows you that the Pro Bowl is a political thing. Pro Bowl players are not chosen on merit alone. I’m not into that political game. I want to be voted to the Pro Bowl for deeds done. I don’t want it to be because I’m running at the mouth or thinking I’m bigger and better than anyone else. The biggest thing in my life is getting this team to the playoffs and then get to the Super Bowl.”

Ram Notes

Desperate for defensive linemen, the Rams signed journeyman Sean Smith, a former fourth-round pick of the Chicago Bears, on Thursday. Smith was released last summer and was cut by the San Francisco 49ers after a short tryout last week. Smith, at 6-feet-4 and 275 pounds, gives the Rams depth and bulk in the line, which is suffering after a wave of injuries to Doug Reed, Mike Piel and Bill Hawkins. To make room on the roster, the Rams released linebacker Richard Brown. The team is expected to make a decision today on Hawkins, who appears headed for injured reserve with a partially torn knee ligament. If so, the team will activate rookie linebacker Mark Messner from the developmental squad. . . . The Rams fell 11,286 tickets short of selling out Sunday’s game against the New York Jets at Anaheim Stadium, meaning that the game will be blacked out locally.