Former Packers assistant coach Kevin Greene dies at 58

Pro Football Hall of Famer was member of Green Bay’s Super Bowl XLV coaching staff

GREEN BAY – Former Packers assistant coach Kevin Greene died Monday at the age of 58 at his home in Alabama.
Green was Green Bay’s outside linebackers coach for five seasons (2009-2013), including a Super Bowl appearance with the Packers on Mike McCarthy’s XLV championship year team.
“The Packers are saddened to learn today of the passing of Kevin Green,” Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said.
“He was a great coach for us and was instrumental in our team’s Super Bowl winning season.
He had so much energy and passion.
” Our players loved playing for him.
“My deepest condolences to Kevin’s wife Tara and their entire family.
” Green was a star player for four different teams during his playing days, earning All-Pro honors as a member of the Rams, Steelers, and Pro Bowl.
Earned Pro Bowl honors.
He had double-digit sack seasons with the Panthers and 49ers.
After a successful college career at Auburn University, Green was drafted by the Rams in the fifth round in 1985 and recorded 160 sacks in his 15-year NFL career.
When he retired after the 1999 season, he was ranked No.
3 on the all-time list.
He had 10 double-digit sacks, played in the Super Bowl with Pittsburgh in 1995, and was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.
With his coaching expertise and experience, Green joined the Packers in 2009 when Dom Capers was hired as defensive coordinator.
It just coincided with outside linebacker Clay Matthews’ rookie year.

A first-round draft pick in 2009, Matthews earned Pro Bowl honors in his first four years in the league under the guidance of Coach Green.
“Having him as my coach was very important to my development here,” Matthews said a few months after Greene was introduced to Canton.
“I think he was able to teach me a lot of fundamentals and techniques, like how to edge when running, how to place your hands and head.
There are little nuances to the game.
” Green said in the 45th Packers made history in an NFL movie clip in which he told Matthews, “It’s time,” after defensive captain Charles Woodson left the game with an injury during the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh.
Matthews forced a fumble by Steelers running back Rashad Mendenhall, which played a crucial role in Green Bay’s victory.

After five seasons with the Packers, Green left coaching for three years and returned to the Jets as an assistant coach in 2017 and 2018.
Green celebrated his induction into the Hall of Fame in 2016 by reuniting with Capers, who previously coached him in Pittsburgh and the Carolinas, as his coach in Green Bay and giving him a gift.
He was a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro.
A member of his 1990s All-Decade team in the NFL.
“Kevin was a great guy,” said Capers, a senior defensive assistant with the Minnesota Vikings and defensive coordinator with the Packers from 2009 to 2017.
“He had such a passion for the game.

He had an infectious personality and influenced those around him.
He was not only a successful player, but a great player Green recorded a career-high 16 1/2 sacks in back-to-back years (1988).
(1989) and led the league twice (1994, 1996).
He recorded the third-highest season total of his career with 15 sacks in 1998 and finished his career with 12 more the following year.
“I really found a way to survive the rush,” Green said of his own productivity just before his Hall of Fame induction.