Panthers' Kevin Greene Suspended
The Carolina Panthers suspended Kevin Greene for one game without pay Monday, one day after he attacked an assistant coach on the sidelines during the team's loss to the Washington Redskins.
The action means the Panthers (2-12) will be without Greene, who leads the team in sacks, in Sunday's home finale against St. Louis (4-10). Greene's suspension will cost him $117,647.05, the equivalent of one week's pay from his 1998 salary of $2 million.
Upon learning of the team's action, NFL officials said they planned no further sanctions against Greene.
"We're really not involved in it at all," league spokesman Chris McCloskey said.
Greene, Carolina's starting left outside linebacker, got into a heated discussion with linebackers coach Kevin Steele on the Panthers' sideline after the Redskins drove for long touchdowns on their first three possessions.
Carolina safety Mike Minter, who was sitting beside Greene at the time, said the linebacker was upset because someone had given him the wrong call on the Redskins' third score, a 5-yard burst up the middle by Skip Hicks.
Minter said neither Greene nor Steele used profanities but both were upset.
"Kevin just lost it," Minter told reporters Monday.
The 6-foot-3, 247-pound Greene jumped up off the bench, lunged at Steele, grabbed him by the jacket just below the neck with both hands and began shoving him backwards before coaches and players separated the two.
Coach Dom Capers spent several minutes speaking to Greene before letting him stay in the game.
It was another dark incident in what has been a bad year for Greene, a 14-year veteran.
He has 14 sacks but just one in the last five games, and after a loss to Miami last month, Dolphins offensive tackle James Brown questioned whether Greene was trying as hard as he possibly could on every play.
Two weeks later, in a loss to the Jets, Fox television analysts did the same thing after videotape of a touchdown run by New York's Curtis Martin showed Greene appearing to offer little resistance to a block by wide receiver Wayne Chrebet.
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