INSTANT REPLAY COSTS RYAN GRANT $1.35 MILLION

When referee Ed Hochuli used instant replay to reverse an 80-yard touchdown run by Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant on Sunday, he cost Grant $1.35 million in contract incentives. Hochuli ruled -- correctly -- that Grant was down after 21 yards. But if the call on the field had stood, Grant would have had an additional 59 yards, which would have given him more than 1,250 for the season and put him among the Top 5 rushers in the NFC. Grant’s contract called for him to receive significant bonuses if he reached those two milestones, but as it turned out, he finished the season with 1,203 yards, good for sixth in the NFC in rushing, and his bonuses were nowhere near as lucrative. However, Grant didn’t sound too upset about it in talking to Greg A. Bedard of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Yeah, that’s the way the ball bounces,” Grant said. “I told [running backs coach Edgar Bennett], ‘If we were playing in your day, that’s a touchdown. No replay.’” The biggest question surrounding the play is why it was ruled a touchdown in the first place. Grant was clearly down after 21 yards, and the TV cameras showed an official pointing to the ground to signal that he was down. And yet Hochuli’s crew huddled together and called it a touchdown, forcing the Lions to use a challenge before Hochuli got the call right. Grant said one of the officials told him during the play that he wasn’t down and should keep running. The league declined to comment on that.