Kevin Greene Waves Goodby to His Gang--Maybe for Good
Kevin Greene took a postgame, postseason, possible post-tour-of-duty victory lap around the Anaheim Stadium warning track Sunday afternoon, not necessarily a novel idea in itself.
But then, you realized that this was a Ram doing the running--and he wasn’t running to avoid being drenched in beer or pelted by rotting watermelon rinds from fed-up Melonheads cursing above the north end zone.
No, this Ram was reaching out and slapping palms and blowing kisses and raising a clenched fist that represented jubilation, not self-preservation.
It was, then, a moment to freeze in time.
Greene staggered through the final few yards, winded and worn out from the longest continuous grin by any Ram this decade.
“Halfway through, I’m thinking, ‘I’m gonna run out of breath here,’ ” said Greene, camped in front of his locker stall and still smiling.
“But I was able to keep going and slap some palms. Show the fans how much I love them . . . “If this was my last game with the Rams--and I don’t know what free agency holds for me--I wanted to say I enjoyed spending the last eight years of my life playing for the L.A. Rams and I enjoyed the fans. I enjoyed their spirit and I enjoyed the energy they have given me.
“So I wanted to take that lap and reach out and touch the fans who have given me so much support . . . and helped me pay my bills.”
Next year, most likely, someone else will be footing the bill. Free agency has finally been foisted upon the lords of the National Football League, and Greene, as a five-year veteran with an expired contract, is one of 11 Rams who qualify for the inaugural swap meet.
He doesn’t have to leave, and he says: “I want to be with the Rams. I love the Rams.” But he has also seen enough the past two years to know that the love is not entirely requited and that a pass-rushing linebacker custom-built for the 3-4 defense of John Robinson’s better years is superfluous in the stand-your-ground 4-3 scheme of Chuck Knox.
Robinson brought the 4-3 to Anaheim in 1991, out of desperation, and Greene, once the linchpin of the Rams’ defense, became a spare part. He switched back and forth--defensive end to linebacker, left side to right side--and had his playing time scaled back, largely, to obvious passing situations.
Greene had 16 1/2 sacks in both 1988 and ’89 and 13 more in ‘90, but slumped to a mere three in ‘91--one for each Ram victory.
Robinson left after that 3-13 disaster, but the 4-3 remained. The 4-3 requires outside linebackers who can backpedal, slide laterally and flare out right or left. Greene has always been a straight-ahead guy, tee it up and tee off on the quarterback.
From the start, Greene’s talents and Knox’s philosophy were in conflict, but Knox, lacking linebackers who could run forward without tripping over a chalk line, much less backward, had to plug the round peg into the square hole and go with Greene as his starting left-side linebacker.
Results were as mixed as this 6-10 season, which saw the Rams lose to Phoenix at home and beat Dallas on the road within a span of eight days.
Greene had eight sacks in eight games--and just one in the next seven. He had another sack Sunday, dragging down Atlanta quarterback Wade Wilson midway through the fourth quarter, which added an extra bounce to that victory lap.
But essentially, Greene was saying goodby as he jogged around the stadium, although he couldn’t quite bring himself to say the words once inside the Ram locker room.
“I don’t know if this is the end,” Greene said. “I have no idea where I’m going to play next year. I’m facing a very uncertain future.
“I don’t know what the Rams will say to me. I don’t know what other teams will be interested in me. . . . I don’t know where I’m going to be, so I guess I kind of had to consider this as my last game as a Ram. I’d hate to let four or five months pass and sign with somebody else and then look back at this game and say, ‘Gee, that was my last game and I let the moment pass.’ ”
The last three Ram teams have lost 11, 13 and 10 games, but through the blowouts and the blowoffs, Greene has endured, and even thrived, as a fan favorite. Inside Anaheim Stadium, boos are reserved for the indecisive quarterback and the fumbling tailback, but Greene is always cheered as he runs in and out of the tunnel, still caricatured on the ever-present, adoring “GANG GREENE” bedsheet banner.
Greene was asked about this curious invulnerability he has in the stands.
“I don’t know,” he replied after a pause. “I can’t put a finger on it. But I’ve always felt I had some kind of special contact with the fans. The way I’ve always looked at it is that I’m a working man’s NFL player and maybe the fans relate to that.
“I was a fifth-round pick. . . . I was not highly recruited. I’m a blue-collar guy, I guess, and that’s enabled me to make a good connection with the fans.
“I love the fans; I’m going to miss ‘em. I gotta weigh a lot of things in the off-season, but I praise God for getting me eight years here. I was a walk-on at Auburn for two years. I’ve already quadrupled that time here. So I’ve been lucky.”
Sunday, he was both lucky and good, for maybe the last time in these colors. He was also a winner, on the long end of a 38-27 final score.
“I’d like to go out on a winning note with the Rams,” Greene said, “and it meant a lot to me to win this one, because it meant doubling our (victory total). We went from 3-13 to 6-10. That’s progress.”