The past few 'throwback player' features have included current or soon-to-be Pro Football Hall of Fame-ers. This week I'll be taking a look at someone who probably should be, but has fallen short over the last few years: Kevin Greene.
Accumulating 160 sacks (third all time) in a fourteen-year career, Greene is often dismissed on the grounds that he was a 'one trick pony'. Greene was never the most complete player, but if a coach had to pick one 'trick' for an 3-4 outside linebacker to excel at, pressuring the quarterback would likely be top of his list.
Kevin Greene excelled at sacking the quarterback the same way Cris Carter, Andre Reed, Terrell Owens and Marvin Harrison excelled at catching passes.
This tenacious ability to inflict pain on opposing quarterbacks manifested itself while he was at the University of Auburn. After some time in the National Guard, Greene attempted to forge himself a career in football as a walk-on player (he was not offered a scholarship to play college football). He introduced himself to his future coaches with a supremely confident declaration: "Hey, Coach, I'm Kevin Greene and I'm your starting outside linebacker". Greene quickly emerged as a force on defence - winning the Zeke Smith award in 1984 after only two seasons - and leading the SEC in sacks in his senior year with eleven.
Greene is known for being somewhat of a 'journeyman' player, and his first port of call was the Los Angeles Rams - who had drafted him in the fifth round of the 1985 NFL draft. He was immediately given a chance to play as the Rams ran a five-linebacker defence, and in his first two seasons as a regular he amassed 13.5 sacks. Despite the Rams' changing their defensive scheme from a 3-4 to a 4-3, Greene still managed to amass 72.5 sacks, including two consecutive seasons (1988 and 1989) with 16.5 sacks.
With the advent of free agency, Greene went looking for teams that employed a more familiar 3-4 scheme, and found a new home in the form of Dom Capers' Pittsburgh Steelers defence. He flourished, and recorded 12.5 sacks in his first year with the team, 14 in his second season and in 1994 he was named a consensus All Pro. Alongside Greg Lloyd, Chad Brown and Levon Kirkland, Kevin Greene was an integral member of one of the greatest linebacking corps of all time, and the group are still favourably compared to the great Steelers' linebackers of the 1970's.
Greene hopped around from team to team for the last few years of his career, and this arguably counts against him when being considered for the Hall of Fame. A short stint (three seasons) in Pittsburgh preceded one season with the newly-formed Carolina Panthers and another with the San Francisco 49ers before returning to Carolina for the final two years of his career. A super bowl ring remained elusive, but over his last four seasons Greene amassed an incredible 52 sacks, was named the National Football League Players Association linebacker of the year and reached his fifth and final Pro Bowl in 1998.
It's strange that this should hinder his case for entry. Sure, most Hall of Fame players spent the majority of their careers within one organisation but, despite his nomadic existence, Greene was a model of remarkable consistency. He never experienced a decline in his production - he is still the oldest player to lead an NFL season in sacks with 14.5 in 1996 at the age of 34 - and is one of only three players in NFL history to record ten or more sacks in at least as many seasons.
Greene finished with 160 of them - third all time behind Hall of Famers Bruce Smith and Reggie White, and ahead of Chris Doleman, Michael Strahan, John Randle, Richard Dent and Lawrence Taylor. All of whom are, unsurprisingly, in the Hall of Fame. He also holds the record for most sacks by a linebacker (27.5 sacks ahead of Taylor).
Another argument for his omission is that he was a pure sack artist and not a complete defensive player. While he undoubtedly specialised in this area, it is not coincidence that defences featuring Greene as a prominent starter were also dominant run-stopping units. Between 1988 and 1990 (Greene's first three as a starter) teams averaged only 3.9 yards per rush against the Rams. In his time with the Steelers and 49ers, teams averaged 3.48 and 3.5 yards per rush, respectively, and Greene ended his career with a respectable 52 tackles for loss.
Kevin Greene's admission to the hall of fame is a matter of 'when' not 'if'. He has a super bowl ring as a coach (with the Packers) to boost his claim, but the past few classes have been stacked with elite defensive candidates - almost all of the players above and below Greene on the all-time sacks list were enshrined after Greene became eligible in 2005 - and future classes are set to feature Ray Lewis, Jason Taylor, Charles Haley and John Lynch.
Greene himself said: "The Hall of Fame voters, if they would look at my entire body of work, how I played, maybe they'll see fit to put me in... commitment, passion, study habits, workout habits... everything I did I think I did it the right way."
He might have to wait a while, but in a highlight reel-obsessed league voters simply cannot - and will not - ignore Greene due to his production.
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