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(One of four in a series on the Pro Football Hall of Fame finalists with Steelers connections.)

Kevin Greene was a highly-productive pass rusher for a long time in the NFL, and while that’s praiseworthy on its own, the work ethic he used to attain his success might be the most impressive of all. Despite being forced to start near the bottom at every level of football, Greene climbed the ladder to the top. And he did it every time.

At Granite City South High School in Illinois, Kevin Greene was voted to the all-conference team. But only as honorable mention. Then he played his college football at Auburn, in the prestigious and ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference, but Greene was forced to begin as a walk-on. No scholarship. But by the time he was a senior there, Greene was voted the winner of the school’s Zeke Smith Award, given to the Tigers’ Defensive Player of the Year.

Then it was on to the professional level. But as a fifth-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams, Greene’s arrival in the NFL hardly was trumpeted. Once there, Kevin Greene had to work his way up from being a rookie who played only on special teams to an outside linebacker who became one of the most feared pass-rushers of his era.

On Saturday, Feb. 4, Kevin Greene has a chance to be recognized as one of the greatest of the greats when the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2012 is announced as part of a 90-minute live show to be presented by NFL Network beginning at 5:30 p.m. EST.

Greene is one of 15 modern-era candidates who are on the ballot, along with Jack Butler and Dick Stanfel, who were selected in August 2011 as senior candidates by the Hall of Fame’s Seniors Committee, which reviews the qualifications of players whose careers took place more than 25 years ago. Besides Kevin Greene, the other modern-era finalists are Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Cris Carter, Dermontti Dawson, Edward DeBartolo Jr., Chris Doleman, Charles Haley, Cortez Kennedy, Curtis Martin, Bill Parcells, Andre Reed, Willie Roaf, Will Shields, and Aeneas Williams.

From this list of 17, between four and seven will be elected into the Class of 2012.

Even though Greene began his NFL career as a special teams player, he quickly developed difference-making pass rush skills. He had no starts in his second NFL season, but he still finished with seven sacks. In 1987, Greene’s third pro season, he had 6.5 sacks in a season shortened to 15 games by a players’ strike.

By his fourth season, Kevin Greene was a force. He finished with 16.5 sacks, including 4.5 in a 38-16 win over the San Francisco 49ers in the regular season finale that clinched a playoff spot for the Rams. The 49ers then went on to win the Super Bowl.

The following year, 1989, Greene matched his total from the previous season with another 16.5 sacks, and from there he would go on to post double-digit sack seasons 10 times. The only time he missed recording 10 sacks in any of his last eight seasons was when he had a team-leading nine sacks for the Steelers in 1995.

But it’s also true that coming to the Steelers was what jump-started the second phase of Kevin Greene’s NFL career.

When the NFL adopted free agency for the 1993 season, the Steelers’ initial philosophy was to use it sparingly, mostly as a tool to replace guys they lost via free agency.

Going into the 1993 season, outside linebacker Jerrol Williams was a restricted free agent the team wanted to keep. But San Diego offered him a guaranteed contract, which the Steelers declined to match, and Williams was gone.

That opened the door for Kevin Greene, whose career had hit a lull because of a decision by the Los Angeles Rams to switch to a 4-3 defense. Greene was built for the 3-4, and he flourished in the attacking style the Steelers were implementing at the time. He finished his three seasons with 35.5 sacks, ninth on the team’s all-time list, and was voted to two Pro Bowls. He left the Steelers as an unrestricted free agent following the 1995 season because the team had groomed Jason Gildon as his replacement.

Greene, a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1990s, played in six conference championship games (two with the Steelers) and his only Super Bowl appearance came in Super Bowl XXX when the Steelers lost to the Dallas Cowboys. Greene led his team in sacks 11 times during his career and finished with 160 total to rank third all-time at the time of his retirement following the 1999 season. He also had three safeties, 26 opponent fumble recoveries, and five interceptions.