OPINION

By Dennis Dillon

updated 3:52 p.m. ET Jan. 8, 2008

He's lucky to be here. No, not in the NFL.

Not in Green Bay, where he has been working and living since early September.

I'm talking about right here, right now, at a table in the Packers' locker room at Lambeau Field — sitting, breathing, talking ... and recounting the scariest moment in his life.

You think you know the improbable story of Ryan Grant. Acquired from the Giants for an undisclosed pick right before the start of the season. Rushed for 929 yards and eight touchdowns after taking over as the Packers' feature back in Week 8. Resuscitated a previously lifeless running game and should give Green Bay's offense balance in the playoffs.

You don't know the half of it.

Grant was in a Manhattan nightclub with some Giants teammates in March 2006 when he got bumped and lost his balance. Reaching back to brace himself from falling, he stuck his left hand through some champagne glasses and his arm started bleeding profusely. He walked out of the club, someone called 911 and medical personnel arrived — just in time.

"I didn't know the severity of it initially," says Grant, who could have bled to death.

He severed an artery, the ulna nerve and a tendon in his left arm. Surgery was performed the next morning, and for eight weeks Grant had to wear a cast on his arm that immobilized his hand in an awkwardly bent position to keep pressure off the tendon. After that, he faced an eight-month rehab.

At first, there was some doubt Grant would be able to use his left hand again, much less play football.

But by the time the Giants left for training camp in July, he was working out twice a day.

Although he was placed on the injured reserve list, which meant he would not play for the second consecutive year — he was on the Giants' practice squad as an undrafted rookie in 2005 — he continued to work out and improve his strength and speed.

Since he didn't have to attend meetings or practice, Grant had some free time. Rather than mope around, he took real estate classes and helped coach the Queen of Peace High School football team in North Arlington, N.J.

"I couldn't sit and feel sorry for myself," he says. "I'm not that type of a person."

Nearly two years later, any sympathy should be directed toward the defenses that now have to try to stop Grant.

The Packers' problems at running back this season started on the opening day of training camp, when third-year pro Vernand Morency injured his knee. Later in camp, another knee injury put Noah Herron, also a third-year player, on injured reserve.

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Brandon Jackson, a second-round pick, began the season as the No. 1 back but he injured a shin in the third game. In stepped DeShawn Wynn, another rookie.

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Green Bay won its first four games, but the running attack was abysmal. It wasn't all the runners' fault; the line was trying to develop chemistry and timing with the young backs. After four games, the Packers had the NFL's worst rushing offense, averaging 54.3 yards per game and 2.7 yards per carry.

"It was brutal," offensive coordinator Joe Philbin says. "We dug ourselves such a deep ditch that it was going to be hard to get too far out of it."

Grant burrowed into a hole of his own in Week 4 against the Vikings. After playing the role of backup special teams player, he fumbled on his sixth carry of the season, nearly costing the Packers a victory.

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But when he received another chance four weeks later, during a Monday night game in Denver, he extricated both himself and the ground game.

After Wynn injured a shoulder on his first carry against the Broncos (he went on I.R. the next day), Grant rushed 22 times for 104 yards in a 19-13 overtime victory. At his postgame press conference, coach Mike McCarthy anointed Grant the new starter.

Grant brought new energy to Green Bay's offense, rushing 188 times for 956 yards (a 5.1-yard average) even though he was the primary back for fewer than 10 full games. When Seattle goes to Lambeau for an NFC divisional game against the No. 2-seeded Packers on Saturday, the Seahawks won't be able to focus on Brett Favre and his quintet of wide receivers. The Seahawks have a plan for stopping Grant.

A downhill, one-cut, decisive runner — "Not a real shake-and-wiggle type of player," Philbin says — Grant is physical enough to break tackles and can shift into another gear when he gets in the open. He had 24 regular-season runs of 10 or more yards, including 11 of at least 20 yards — only San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson (13) and Pittsburgh's Willie Parker (12) had more.

Sitting in his office last week, running backs coach Edgar Bennett pulled up a play on his computer from a Week 16 loss to the Bears that demonstrated how Grant and the line work in tandem.

It was a stretch run, a staple in the Packers' running game.

With Green Bay facing second-and-6 at its own 34 late in the second quarter, tight end Bubba Franks went in motion from left to right. Favre handed off to Grant, who started to the right side, forcing one of the Bears' linebackers to overpursue.

Grant then cut back inside through a hole created by blocks from right guard Jason Spitz and center Scott Wells. Left guard Daryn Colledge helped by eliminating a Bears lineman with a cut block on the back side. Once he got into the open, Grant raced for a 66-yard touchdown, his longest run of the season.

Before each game, Bennett asks the running backs to write down their individual goals.

"Every week, one of the things he writes down is he wants to be the spark of our offense," Bennett says of Grant. "It could be a big block, a great run, finishing a run where he overpowers a 'backer or a DB. Somehow, some way, he finds a way to be a spark and set the tone."

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