Countdown to Kickoff: Anthony Hargrove is the Saints Player of Day 69

USA Today

5 hours ago

Hargrove was a key contributor with New Orleans during their Super Bowl XLIV championship run
The last day of June also marks 69 days before the regular season opener for the New Orleans Saints. New Orleans will face the Arizona Cardinals at home to kick off this season. It'll be their 59th year of NFL existence, but first year under new head coach Kellen Moore. We've been highlighting a player of each day that wears a number that corresponds with the remaining number of days until kickoff. However, no New Orleans player currently wears 69. The last player to wear 69 for the Saints was offensive lineman Chris Reed, who did it for five special teams snaps in one game for the team last year. With No. 69 not currently in the rotation, our choice for Saints Player of the Day is Super Bowl XLIV champ Anthony Hargrove.
A defensive back and quarterback in high school, Hargrove moved to the defensive line when he got to college at Georgia Tech. His career with the Yellow Jackets was short but productive. Over 24 collegiate outings, Hargrove had 6 sacks with 19 tackles for loss while forcing 2 fumbles and recovering 2 other fumbles. He showed enough for the Rams to select him with a Round 3 choice in the 2004 NFL draft. Hargrove was with St. Louis until 2004, gathering 8 sacks and 2 fumble recoveries.
Early in the 2006 season, the Rams traded Hargrove to the Buffalo Bills. He'd remain with Buffalo through the rest of 2006 and all of 2007. With the Bills, Hargrove had 2.5 sacks. During the 2008 offseason, it was reported that Hargrove had violated the NFL's substance abuse policy. Because of repeated violations, Hargrove was suspended for the entire 2008 season.
Upon reinstatement by the league in 2009, Hargrove was signed by the New Orleans Saints. He was moved from defensive end inside to tackle by the Saints, where he'd become a valued part of the interior rotation. Hargrove appeared in all 16 regular season games in 2009, recording 5 sacks and recovering 3 fumbles. One of those he returned for a touchdown, as he was a valuable contributor on the team's Super Bowl XLIV championship squad. Hargrove remained with the Saints in 2010, where he recorded 1 sack during 14 games of action that season.
Hargrove signed a free agent deal with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011. He was released in training camp, but would play 15 games that year with the Seattle Seahawks. The following year, he was among several New Orleans players and coaches implicated in the 'Bountygate' scandal -- the largely unfounded witch hunt by commissioner Roger Goodell. It resulted in the suspension of Hargrove and other players, along with a ludicrous one-year suspension of Saints coach Sean Payton.
Hargrove and other players eventually had their suspensions overturned by former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, but 2011 would turn out to be his last NFL season. Hargrove had tryouts with the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys in 2012 and 2013, but was unable to make the roster of either team.