Green Bay - He looked so thin.
Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant doesn't think he slipped below 200 pounds.
But he sure looked like it.
Jeans sagged. Shoulders shrunk. His shirt looked like it was off tackle Chad Clifton's back. Hobbling around on crutches, Grant didn't look like the NFL running back that absorbed hits from linebackers and churned up 1,200-plus yards each of the previous two seasons.
He looked like just a guy.
But that was November.
This is August. And what Grant lost he has worked tirelessly for nearly a year to regain.
Grant had surgery after he suffered ligament damage in his right ankle in the 2010 opener at Philadelphia.
"I was expecting an awesome year, 1,500," he said.
"Fifteen-hundred yards?" linebacker Clay Matthews said.
Only one player - Houston's Arian Foster (1,616) - ran for that amount in 2010.
"Yeah," Grant said. "I felt strong. I felt confident where our offense was going. We were clicking."
But it was over in eight carries and 45 yards.
Grant's natural frame is thin. He's got a metabolism to die for. Without his usual penance paid to the weight room, he lost muscle tone and dropped to 205 pounds. He stands 6 feet 1 inch tall.
There are top-10 running backs that are shorter and weigh more.
Foster is 6-1 and weighs 227.
And yet a comeback by Grant last season might have been possible in late December. January for sure. The injury was healed and he could have attempted to rejoin his mates.
But Grant, coach Mike McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson discussed their options and it was best for all involved that Grant go on injured reserve.
"I don't regret that at all because my ankle is fine now," Grant said. "They didn't want to take any chances. They said I had a lot of football left. Who knows what would have happened? Say I got out there and I wasn't ready to go? And I'm trying to play and now I'm putting bad film out there."
Without a crystal ball, no one knew then that going on IR meant Grant would miss out on Green Bay's history-making run as a sixth-seeded, road-warrior playoff team that marched all the way to Super Bowl XLV.
But before that march, the Packers stumbled sometimes. Without Grant, the Packers tried to fool defenses with a faux running game. Then rookie James Starks got himself off the physically unable to perform list and out of McCarthy's doghouse with good practice habits.
Starks had 101 yards in three regular-season games and 315 yards in the playoff run.
Is there room for Grant and Starks together in an aerial-driven offense piloted by Aaron Rodgers?
Two-back systems have been successful in recent years in Dallas, Chicago and with the New York Jets. If that's what ends up being the best approach for Green Bay, "I'm all for it," Grant said.
"James is already ready. He proved that last year," Grant added. "And James has done something that I haven't done. . . "
If it means sharing snaps with Starks in practice, fine, Grant said. He'll get game-ready with what he gets. If it means sharing carries with Starks in a game, fine, Grant said. There were games he had to make do with 10 carries anyway.
He'll agree to anything.
He has to play in a Super Bowl.
"The only thing better than one ring is two," Grant said. "How can you be complacent when they win a Super Bowl and you're not a part of it?"
That's why Grant never had a breaking point during the long year off filled with rehabilitation.
Every day began at 9 a.m. with rehab and workouts until 1 p.m. Every day ended with workouts at 5 p.m. and rehab on the fatigued ankle until 8 p.m.
He'd run, lift weights and do drills to increase his running power, speed and explosion. He'd run again. He made sure his ankle was as ready to work at night as it was in the morning, because the body changes as the day wears on.
He's 219 pounds now and probably more, he figures, because the Packers aren't having two-a-day practices.
The Packers obviously believe in Grant's potential for a comeback. They didn't cut him - a fear every player has.
"If they can do it to somebody we don't speak of, they can do it to anybody in this league," said Grant, referring to Brett Favre.
The Packers paid Grant his $1.75 million roster bonus, which was due the first week of the league year. Grant saw that move as an act of faith on Green Bay's part. He won't turn 29 until December, he's got a lot less tread on his tires than other running backs and he said the year away revived his whole body.
Grant is determined to validate the decision-makers.
And to insert himself in a memory. It wasn't the Super Bowl that got to him. He was there on the sideline, a spectator with a pass instead of a jersey - but at least he was there.
No, it was the locker room ecstatic with veterans Mark Tauscher, Donald Driver and Charles Woodson after the Packers beat Chicago in the NFC Championship Game that hurt.
"Seeing the guys like Tausch, Drive, Wood, all the older guys who had tried to get to the Super Bowl their whole career, and not being able to physically help them get there - that was hard," Grant said.
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Lori Nickel wrote: