Dorsey 2.5 -- RUN GRANT.EXE RUN GRANT RUN

Below is an article clipped from the Wisconsin State Journal comparing our newly found starting running back, Ryan Grant, to one of my all time favorite running backs, Dorsey Levens, of the championship 1996 team.

I was such a fan that I laid out a lot of money for an authentic Dorsey Levens jersey by Starter that I found at a sporting goods store in a shopping mall in Milwaukee It was one of those deals where I kept walking around the mall talking to myself about not being able to afford the jersey and trying to come up with rationalizations why I should have it.

Well, I know I am a sick man, but I am a believer in signs, in omens. So I took my Levens jersey out of stoage and I have been wearing it every day this week to insure a Packer win this coming Sunday. Even the name of the company that was then producing all the jerseys for the NFL: STARTER (with a rising star logo) I take as a sign of great things to come yet this season for Ryan Grant!

Here is the article:

Packers: Grant a lot like Levens
By JASON WILDE
608-252-6176
jwilde@madison.com
GREEN BAY — Brett Favre sees the similarities. So does Mike McCarthy. And Ted Thompson. And Edgar Bennett.
But the most important person whom Ryan Grant reminds of Dorsey Levens is ... Dorsey Levens.

"He does, actually," Levens said Tuesday. "It's kind of eerie."

In the wake of Grant's 119-yard effort in the Green Bay Packers' 34-0 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, all the postgame buzz was about how much the Packers' newest starting running back looked like Levens, who earned a Pro Bowl berth in 1997 and rushed for 4,584 yards and 32 touchdowns (including playoffs) during his seven years with the team (1994 to 2001).

And there certainly was some substance to the comparison.

Grant wears the same jersey number (No. 25). He's roughly the same size (6-foot-1, 218 pounds) as Levens (6-1, 230). He left Notre Dame unsatisfied with his career with the Irish (Grant was under-used his last two seasons after rushing for 1,085 yards as a sophomore) just like Levens did (he earned the starting job as a sophomore but transferred to Georgia Tech after falling out of favor with coach Lou Holtz).

"Dorsey was a little bigger, (but) Ryan is still young enough — with the strength and conditioning program here — (to) put on some size. But as far as their frame, their history, their background, where he played (in) college, there are a lot of similarities," said McCarthy, the Packers' quarterbacks coach in 1999, when Levens rushed for 1,034 yards and nine touchdowns. "Brett said it the first week he was here."

And Favre said it again Sunday, after Grant ran for a 30-yard touchdown against what had been one of the NFL's most imposing run defenses.

"The number obviously is striking, but he is a big, physical back, deceptively fast," Favre said. "He kind of sneaks up on you."

Both Grant and Levens have done that to Packers fans as well.

Similar moves

A fifth-round pick in 1994, Levens came to Green Bay as a fullback but emerged during the Packers' Super Bowl XXXI-winning season of '96 as a playmaker. Sharing time with Bennett, who is now Grant's position coach, Levens scored 10 touchdowns that year, then took over as the team's starter in 1997 after Bennett's season ended with ruptured an Achilles' tendon in the exhibition opener. Levens went on to rush for 1,435 yards and started alongside Barry Sanders in the Pro Bowl.

"I'll say this: I hope Ryan Grant becomes as good as Dorsey Levens was," said Thompson, who gave up a 2008 sixth-round pick to acquire Grant from the New York Giants on Sept. 2. "We liked what we saw of Ryan in New York. We liked him coming out of college, and we liked what we saw of him in preseason. His career had not really taken off yet. But we felt like the trade was worth doing — and you know how I am with draft picks.

"I like Ryan Grant, but Dorsey Levens accomplished quite a bit in this league."

Bennett admitted he saw the parallels the moment Grant arrived in that trade, but he too was unwilling to put Grant in Levens' class after just two 100-yard rushing performances. Levens, by comparison, had 10 100-yard games with the Packers.

"There are some similarities that you see and that you like about the kid, but I still say that Dorsey Levens is Dorsey Levens and Ryan Grant is still trying to make a name for himself," Bennett said. "Besides the number, when you see the guy move around, for me at least, I just see things where I think, 'I've seen Dorsey make that move.'

"But as I told Ryan when he first got here and we started talking about some of the similarities between him and Dorsey, I said, 'Don't have Dorsey calling me because you're not representing his number well."'

That shouldn't be a problem.

An eye on Grant

Every Sunday, Levens commutes from his home in Atlanta to Chicago to work as an analyst for Sprint's NFL Mobile network, watching "all the important games, so I've watched a lot of Packers games and not a lot of Bears games."

As a result, Levens has seen both of Grant's breakout performances — the 104-yarder in relief at Denver on Oct. 29, which earned him the starting job, and Sunday's effort against Minnesota.

"I've seen both 100-yard games, and it's not even the number. He runs hard, and he kind of looks like me a little bit," said Levens, who played three more seasons in the NFL — two with Philadelphia (2002, 2004) and one with the Giants (2205) — before signing a one-day contract with Green Bay in June 2006 to retire as a Packer.

"I'm not sure if his style looks like me. I've got to go back and look a myself some more. But I know he runs extremely hard, and I know I tried to pride myself on being a downhill runner and running extremely hard. So I think there's some legitimate comparisons there."

Another one comes from the offensive line. In his heyday, Levens was one of the line's favorites to block for because of his decisiveness, and Grant has that same quality, which sets him apart from predecessors DeShawn Wynn, Brandon Jackson and Vernand Morency.

"It makes it a little easier to block when you have a back who's downhill. He makes one cut and hits the hole," center Scott Wells said. "It makes our job easier. We don't have to worry about him dancing around and guys slipping off of us on our blcoks.

"I like his style. If he has to, he'll bury his head and get a yard or two. I think he's stepped up and responded well when he's been given the opportunity, and I hope for a lot more success out of him."

So does Levens, who is enjoying "bragging rights" over the plethora of Bears fans in the Sprint studio and knows Grant, who enters Sunday's game against Carolina with 305 yards on 72 carries, is the key to keeping that going.

"I feel pretty good walking into that office every Sunday," Levens said. "I enjoy watching him. Honestly, I think he's doing the number great justice. I'm happy. Somebody has to wear the No. 25, and if he can play the way he's been playing, that's great. I love the way he's running. I'm proud of him."

Ryan is just getting STARTed!

S'cuse me whilst I go buy some tag board and make the sign that will be on TV this Sunday:

DORSEY 2.5
RUN: GRANT.EXE
RUN GRANT RUN


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