GREEN BAY, Wis. — This is not a proper day for Ryan Grant to lick a flagpole or grab a well-digger’s ax, but it is a suitable Sunday for him to run with, and hold onto, a football.
I don’t know about Lambeau Field, but my motel room is a frozen tundra. Grab a steak out of your refrigerator freezer, and that’s what my face feels like. When the wind chill reached minus-24 degrees downtown Saturday, I saw a lawyer put his hand in his own pocket.
Green Baby, it’s cold outside.
But Green Bay’s Grant is all warm, and fuzzy, inside.
He is alive and well and running toward the Super Bowl.
He was nearly a dead player walking 22 months ago.
A nasty scar that extends from his left wrist to the elbow provides a permanent reminder.
Wisconsin is Ryan Grant’s preferred state now, but Colorado should rank second as a tour stop.
When Grant was a sophomore at Notre Dame in 2002 and the Irish played at the Air Force Academy, both teams arrived undefeated with identical 6-0 records. The unknown tailback proved to be the difference in Notre Dame’s 21-14 victory. He finished with a touchdown and 190 yards rushing (86 more than the Falcons’ potent triple-option offense).
That was Grant’s best afternoon with the Irish. He sat out a season because of academic problems — but graduated with degrees in sociology and computer science. He lost out as the starter in 2003 to Julius Jones (of the Dallas Cowboys) and was supposed to start his senior year, but injured a hamstring, was demoted again and rarely participated.
Grant went undrafted in 2005.
The New York Giants did sign the 6-foot-1, 224-pounder to their practice squad, probably because he had been the prep football player of the year in New Jersey, where the Giants play and train.
But in March 2006, his football career — and life — seemed to come to a conclusion at a nightclub. It was not another one of those disgusting pro athlete altercations. It was a freak accident. Grant slipped on a wet floor, tried to break his fall with his hand and smashed several champagne glasses. The artery, the nerves and the tendon in his arm were sliced, and he almost bled to death en route to a hospital.
After an operation, Grant had no sensation in the left arm for months. The Giants placed him on the physically unable to perform list. Grant was unable to make a fist.
He worked as a high school assistant, rehabilitated his arm and returned the past season.
However, the Giants had no place or use for Grant. They traded him in September to Green Bay for a sixth- round draft choice. He was brought in as a problematic afterthought and emergency fill-in. The Packers had second-round pick Brandon Jackson (from Nebraska) and veteran Vernand Morency, who were competing to compete for the starting job, but Morency got hurt in a July practice and Jackson was injured in a September game. DeShawn Wynn took over.
Although the Packers reached their open date (Oct. 21) at 5-1 and were the surprise of the NFL, their running game stunk like Wisconsin lutefisk (lye fish).
Jackson, Morency and Wynn had contributed 97, 56 and 203 yards in six games. Grant had carried just six times for 27 yards.
Then, in the Oct. 29 Monday night game in Denver, on the Packers’ first running play, Wynn was tackled after gaining only a yard — and left with a numb neck and shoulder.
By process of elimination, Grant was inserted.
Against the Broncos’ permeable rush defense, Grant ran for 104 yards.
Welcome to Colorado, Grant! In his two appearances in Our State, Grant had 294 yards rushing (5.7 yards per carry).
In the second half of the regular season, Grant produced four more 100-yard games and 929 total yards, second only to LaDainian Tomlinson.
Oh, and one more Colorado thing. “Ryan is perfect for our system,” Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said last week.
System? When McCarthy took over here in 2006, he hired Jeff Jagodzinski as his offensive coordinator. The two of them previously had served alongside line coach Alex Gibbs, who primarily was responsible for establishing the Broncos as the most proficient running team in football with his zone-blocking schemes.
Green Bay became the third NFL team to shift to The System, which relies on the offensive line forcing defenses to run one direction while setting up a lane for the running back on the backside — with cut blocks. It requires, as Mike Shanahan tells us, a strong back who will run into the middle and make one decisive move.
Grant is a big, powerful, one-cut back.
His college and pro ordeals seemed to be over.
Yet, in the opening quarter of the Packers’ playoff game against Seattle, Grant fumbled twice and the Seahawks turned the turnovers into touchdowns. On TV at halftime, Hall of Fame QB Dan Marino facetiously (or not) said he would have patted Grant on the back, then told the coach to remove him.
Brett Favre did talk to Grant — encouragingly — and did not ask that he be benched.
In the snow, Grant ended up with Green Bay postseason records — 201 yards rushing and three touchdowns.
He is the guy who came in from the cold.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
