EARTH CITY, Mo. -- Kevin Greene's excruciating wait to land in the Pro Football Hall of Fame lasted a whopping 12 years, and he became something of an expert at dealing with the nerves that come with the annual process.

This time, Greene decided to do something a little bit different.

Greene, 53, and his wife, Tara, took his son, Gavin, and daughter, Gabrielle, to San Francisco for the week before the Super Bowl and the 2016 Hall of Fame class announcement.

"This is the first time that we've brought our children for the Super Bowl and this potential honor," said Greene, a Hall finalist for the fifth consecutive year. "The reason why we did that is Gavin is on the downhill of his senior year of high school. This is really the only time that we have; he's going to be gone to college in three or four months. So it's one of the last times we can do something like this as the whole family.

"We just said, 'Hey, let's make a weeklong vacation of it and go to Frisco and enjoy the festivities and celebrate Super Bowl 50,' and whether the Hall of Fame happens to happen, either way it's a great week in Frisco."

It's a great week that got better Saturday night when Greene was elected for induction into the Hall of Fame.

Before Saturday, Greene found himself in the unenviable spot of being all too familiar with the hurry-up-and-wait approach that goes with being on the ballot. But the former pass-rushing linebacker for the Rams, Steelers, Panthers and 49ers was optimistic about his chances.

"I have felt really good about my chances the last four to seven years. I felt good because I knew the numbers and production and longevity that I have in my corner," Greene said. "I saw other players go in before me that didn't quite have the longevity or numbers or production and I really felt good about it."

Greene rattles off the numbers with relative ease, noting that his 160 career sacks rank third all-time behind only Bruce Smith and Reggie White. He knows where his numbers stand against other Hall of Famers like Michael Strahan, Rickey Jackson and Charles Haley, all fellow pass-rushers who have gotten the call to Canton in recent years. He's also quick to note that as a linebacker, he had to do more than just rush the passer and still was able to post sack totals in line with the best defensive ends in the league.

"So I'm just scratching my noggin' about this process," Greene said. "You try to be cautiously optimistic about it but you understand the process is not perfect and there's a lot of gray area. You try not to go all in. If you go all in and you don't make it, you just freaking beat your head against the wall and you wonder why, why, why?

"In my case, I have failed to get in up to this point and I've learned how to handle that depression because you didn't make it. I've learned to just kind of move on with life. It is a little difficult but it's confusing more than anything. I end up asking myself why a lot."

Greene left his job coaching linebackers for the Green Bay Packers a couple of years ago so he could spend more time with his kids. His son is a football player and Greene wanted to help him in any way he could before he went off to college.

Although Greene said he could go back to coaching as soon as next season, his focus now is spending as much time with his family as possible. This week, the Greene family spent its days seeing the sights, visiting Alcatraz, going shopping and just hanging out.

Greene said he scheduled a massage for Saturday morning to help take his mind off the Hall of Fame vote.

"I wouldn't say this defines me," Greene said of reaching Canton. "I'm a dad. I love my son. I love my daughter. I love my wife; we've been happily married 24 years. I get into that. That's what I do. I do ask why and there's a measure of not understanding the process that I struggle with in my mind, because I have always thought it was about individual success and individual impact and what you've done to help your team achieve success and so forth."

That's not to say Greene didn't want to have a bust in the Hall.

"I think it'd be cool," Greene said. "It's kind of like I really want to win the lotto. Everybody wants to win the lotto but there's something inside you that says, 'You ain't got a rat's-ass chance of doing it.' It's kind of like that so you just say, 'OK, I didn't win this time.' You try to move on, I guess. But yeah, I want to win the lottery."