Ahman Green will be inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

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Green Bay — The highest high and lowest low came within a span of 14 days.

One week, Ahman Green ripped free down the right sideline for a 98-yard touchdown against the Denver Broncos.

"We had to win that game to get into the playoffs," Green said, "and our offense had a phenomenal day running the ball."

Two weeks later at Philadelphia — on fourth and 1, one plunge away from a ticket to the NFC Championship Game — Green was on the sideline. The Packers punted. Fourth-and-26 eventually thunderstruck. And Green's best chance at a ring vanished.

"Sometimes coaches think too much," Green said. "For us as players, we wanted to make it happen."

Yet along the way, Green established a legacy as the franchise's all-time leading rusher. On Saturday, the running back will be inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame with offensive tackle Ken Ruettgers, whose 12-year career spanned from 1985-'96.

Green is only four years removed from the NFL — he returned to Green Bay for a 2009 swan song to complete his 12-year career — yet already represents a throwback, a back of another era. Green was the now-rare ball carrier who never came off the field, thrashing defenses with a devastating blend of speed and power.

Few teams feature a do-it-all threat in this age of timeshares and specialization.

Green estimates there are a dozen such backs today. In his prime, totaling an NFL-high 9,036 yards from scrimmage from 2000-'04, arguably no running back was more complete.

"It's something that I expected all running backs to do, but we don't see it these days," said Green, who caught at least 40 passes in six seasons. "You kind of see a guy who's just a receiver, a fast back who gets the ball in the air and he's out in space. Or then you see a guy that just can't get tackled or a guy who just picks up the blitz. I think I was a jack-of-all-trades — and pretty good at all of them."

Growing up a San Francisco 49ers fan, Green was drawn to Roger Craig.

He admired the playmaker who affected the game in every way. Running. Catching. Picking up the blitz. And at his peak — once totaling 1,000-plus yards both rushing and receiving — Craig was the most versatile running back in the NFL.

So Green says it clicked then, not at Nebraska, Seattle or Green Bay. Green insists he knew as a kid watching the 49ers what it'd take.

"I was determined, real young, and put it into my head that I want to be a pro athlete," Green said. "Not necessarily a pro football player, but a pro athlete. I also played baseball, ran track, played a little bit of basketball. But I told myself that I have to be good at everything.

"By the time I got to high school, I learned that I was faster than the average kid. That point on, I thought 'You know what? Even though I'm fast, I'm not going to just settle for that. I'm going to see how hard I can push myself, how hard I can work to become faster.'"

The result was a player who wasn't gasping for oxygen into the fourth quarter.

That 98-yard run against Denver, the one that helped Green finish with a team-record 1,883 rushing yards in 2003, came in the fourth quarter. Denver's white jerseys look more like construction cones. A year later, he broke free for a 90-yard run...on the fourth-to-last play of the third quarter.

No wonder Green craved the ball in that playoff game against the Eagles. He was averaging 6 yards a carry and thirsty for more. Looking back, he's confident Green Bay would have won at Carolina that next week.

Late in games, Green remained fresh. This started in March.

"It wasn't during training camp. It wasn't during September," Green said. "It was always when I started my off-season training. I was training for that quarter in March, in April, in May, because I knew my team was going to need me in the fourth quarter. Me playing in the first quarter and first half is great and dandy.

"But come the end of the game, that's when my team was going to need me."

A typical March workout included "25 hills." Or in Green Bay, 25 sprints up his steep driveway.

A self-described gym rat, he lifted weights religiously and embraced Pilates, yoga, anything that'd ensure he'd stay in top gear.

"And after I took off on that 98-yard run," Green said, "I wasn't even tired. I was ready to keep going."

These days, Green still lives in Green Bay. He's a co-owner/coach at D1 Sports Training, a co-owner of the Indoor Football League's Green Bay Blizzard, serves as a Packers analyst for WFRV-TV, plays rugby and even interned with the Packers last summer.

During that internship, Green worked closely with Eddie Lacy. He sees part of himself in the rookie of the year.

Through last season, the two spoke multiple times. Green wants to be a mentor for the hammer now chasing his records.

"I know what he's going through, trust me," Green said. "I was running that ball, getting beat up and trying to recuperate to get back on the field and do the same thing."

Said Lacy, "Everything that he's telling you, he's done it himself. So you know it works. His main thing was your body lean. Get lower to where when you're taking hits, you're still falling forward and you're not getting knocked back. And just always making sure you have the right body level so you're not taking big hits."

And Lacy is "right on top" of Green's list of 12 running backs that still do it all.

Specialized backs that coaches can scheme into situations are the rage. Green was a threat in all aspects. He was equally explosive between the tackles and on a screen play.

This weekend, Green will be enshrined.

"I needed to be on my game physically so it was one less thing to worry about and one less thing for teammates to worry about," Green said. "They'd know, Ahman was ready to play. They knew, 'I don't need to be worried about No. 30 because he was going to be ready mentally and physically to play.'"