R.I.P. Kevin Greene

[Joemailman]

He passed away at the age of 58. This is a shocker. No cause of death given at this time.

[Joemailman]

GREEN BAY – Former Packers assistant coach Kevin Greene died Monday at his home in Alabama at the age of 58.

Greene was Green Bay's outside linebackers coach on Mike McCarthy's staff for five seasons (2009-13), including the Packers' Super Bowl XLV championship year.

"The Packers were saddened today to learn of Kevin Greene's passing," Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said. "He was a great coach for us and was instrumental in our team's Super Bowl championship season. He had so much energy and passion. Our players loved playing for him.

"We extend our sincerest condolences to Kevin's wife, Tara, and their entire family."

A star for four different teams in his playing career, Greene earned All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors as a member of the Rams, Steelers and Panthers, and also had a double-digit sack season with the 49ers. Drafted in the fifth round by the Rams in 1985 after a decorated college career at Auburn, Greene recorded 160 sacks over a 15-year NFL career, ranking third on the all-time list when he retired after the 1999 season.


He reached double-digit sacks 10 times, played in a Super Bowl with Pittsburgh in 1995, and was eventually inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

Greene brought that expertise and experience to coaching, joining the Packers' staff when Dom Capers was hired as defensive coordinator in 2009, which coincided with outside linebacker Clay Matthews' rookie year.

Matthews, a first-round draft pick in '09, would go on to earn Pro Bowl honors his first four years in the league under Greene's tutelage.

"To have him as my coach was tremendous in my development here," Matthews said a few months after Greene's Canton induction. "I think he was able to instill a lot of what he would call fundamentals and techniques on how to set the edge on the run, hand placement, head placement. Little nuances in the game."

Greene is famous in Packers lore for an NFL Films clip of him urging Matthews, "It is time," during Super Bowl XLV vs. Pittsburgh following defensive captain Charles Woodson's exit from the game due to injury. Matthews would force a fumble by Steelers RB Rashad Mendenhall that proved pivotal in Green Bay's victory.


After his five seasons with the Packers, Greene left the coaching ranks for three years and then returned as an assistant coach with the Jets in 2017 and 2018.

Greene had Capers, who coached him in both Pittsburgh and Carolina before the two reunited as coaches in Green Bay, present him for his Hall of Fame induction in 2016. He was a five-time Pro Bowler, three-time All-Pro and a member of the NFL's All-Decade team of the 1990s.

"Kevin was such a great individual," said Capers, a senior defensive assistant with the Minnesota Vikings who served as the Packers' defensive coordinator from 2009-17. "He had a such a great passion for the game. He had an infectious personality and influenced everybody he was around. Everybody had a tremendous amount of respect for him because he not only produced and performed as a player, but as good of a player he was, he was even a better person. My heart and prayers go out to Tara and Gavin and Gabi. He'll be missed by so many people."

Greene posted a career-high 16½ sacks in consecutive years (1988, '89) and also led the league in sacks twice (1994, '96). He posted his third-highest single-season total of 15 sacks in 1998 and then ended his career the following year with 12 more sacks.

"I really figured out how to pass rush," Greene said, shortly before his Hall of Fame induction, about staying so productive throughout his career. "I figured out how to put a guy – an offensive tackle that was three or four inches taller than me, outweighed me 80-100 pounds – I figured out how to put him in a position of failure and I did that.


"Can't really share with you how I figured it out, but obviously I shared it with Clay up in Green Bay and so forth. And it works."

.

[Joemailman]

Clay Matthews III
@ClayMatthews52
Absolutely terrible news to hear of KG’s passing. Truly heartbreaking! 💔

KG was a warrior on the field, and he brought his same fire and tenacity to his coaching. So much of my success was a direct result of him, but he was so much more than a coach.
5:43 PM · Dec 21, 2020

Brett Favre
@BrettFavre
Kevin Greene was a true warrior and a dear friend!!! As much as I disliked playing against him I loved everything about him at the same time and I loved him like a brother. Gods army just got much stronger 🙏 RIP brother
4:32 PM · Dec 21, 2020

John Kuhn
@kuhnj30
Man, I am heartbroken by the news that we have lost Kevin Greene. One of the greatest men I have had the honor of working with. I will always remember the passion and integrity you displayed in everything you did. Your Cobra will live on in me! RIP KG

RJ Ochoa
@rjochoa
Mike McCarthy on Kevin Greene: I always admired Kevin as a football player. And really the reality of it is he approached coaching and he approached fatherhood and all of that the same way. He was as driven of a person as I've ever had the opportunity to work with.

.

[George Cumby]

Bummer.

I really enjoyed him as a player and as a coach.

So young, too.

RIP.

[pittstang5]

Damn - heard the news on the NFL Channel on SiriusXM.

Pat Kirwin said he heard it was a heart attack.

RIP

[hoosier]

Sad news. About this we can say that it was NOT time.

[texaspackerbacker]

5 posts and nobody mentioned steroids and dying young from them? He seems like the type.

[smuggler]

Damn that sucks. I won't speculate about causes, but this is certainly a fine cherry on top of a shit sundae of a year.

[Freak Out]

5 posts and nobody mentioned steroids and dying young from them? He seems like the type.

That's because we don't suck balls like you do.

[vince]

The Man. The Legend.

[MadtownPacker]

Damn, surprising to hear. RIP to a life ended to soon.

[MadtownPacker]

5 posts and nobody mentioned steroids and dying young from them? He seems like the type.

Steroids are that bad? Never done them but hardly reason to diss him.

[texaspackerbacker]

There once was a guy named Lyle Alzado ...... I think he was a long-haired piece of crap too.

I never liked Greene. Part of it, I suppose, is a deep seated prejudice against long-haired pieces of crap, but mostly it was because it was irritating to say the least that a lot of people were promoting him as something special and a possibility as Packer D Coordinator. They have an expression in Texas about people like him - all hat and no cattle, in his case, big on firing people up and short on being a cerebral coach.

Anyway, condolences to any of ya'all who are broken up about one of your heroes kicking off.

[Guiness]

Steroids are that bad? Never done them but hardly reason to diss him.

Long term usage is associated with immunosuppression.

Associating Greene with steroids is pretty unfair. I remember seeing an interview with him near the end of his playing days and he was a big supplement user, had his own 'mixture' but I don't remember any talk of him being roid user.

He was a damn good coach and solid guy while he was in GB. Great motivator and spoke as someone who had done it at the highest level himself. He was instrumental in CMIII's early development and the SB they won.

[smuggler]

They have an expression in Texas about people like him - all hat and no cattle, in his case, big on firing people up and short on being a cerebral coach.

What's the colloquial Texas expression for people that talk about things they are totally ignorant about? Sorry you were so offended by the dude's hair, but Kevin Greene was a technician as a player that pioneered a lot of the film study in attacking offensive lineman that were bigger and stronger than him. He was a damn good position coach that knew how to motivate to get the most out of people. He did not have ambitions for D Coordinator but he knew his craft and we were worse when he left.

You need to take a good long look at your biases if they're causing you to be so completely wrong about people as you are in this case.