Former Ram Hargrove has a fresh start with the Saints
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By Jim Thomas
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(MCT)
ST. LOUIS — On the field was never a problem for defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove.
"He's the most athletic guy I've ever seen probably at that size," said Leonard Little, a veteran of 12 NFL seasons with the Rams. "He weighed like 280, 285 back then. He could run like a 4.5 and do backflips. Do a 360 dunk."
But off the field was another story. Hargrove loved to party, and did more than dabble.
Alcohol? Marijuana? Cocaine?
"All of the above," Hargrove told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
In St. Louis, this came to a head in September 2006. Out late with friends at an area casino, Hargrove continued the party at his house. As the Rams convened for practice on a Wednesday morning, Hargrove wasn't there. No one at Rams Park knew where he was. No one could reach him. Almost two full days passed before the team made contact with him.
A few weeks later, the Rams traded Hargrove to Buffalo for a fifth-round draft pick. With 4½ sacks over the last three games of 2005, Hargrove appeared poised for a breakout 2006. Instead he had a meltdown.
For a franchise that has seen plenty of draft picks crash and burn in recent years, Hargrove became the poster child. Only 20 when he was drafted in the third round in 2004, Hargrove wasn't much more than a child.
"It just seems like there was always something in the way or something that happened to him that always brought him down," Jim Haslett, then the Rams' defensive coordinator, said at the time.
For the longest time, Hargrove couldn't get himself out of what he called the "downward spiral of life." Growing up in Brooklyn, Hargrove's mother died when he was very young. He was homeless for a while. He has a brother and sister who have had substance abuse problems.
"I guess there's always been something brewing in me," said Hargrove, who has a charismatic smile and an endearing personality. "And I guess as I got the fame and the fortune or whatever, it kind of came to a head. It blew up. And when you're in the NFL that kind of stuff gets publicized every day.
"When it's happening, you don't really know how to deal with it. And you're only coping mechanism is to use a substance. After a while, the substances aren't working anymore. So now you're just stuck and you're miserable. You get on this downward spiral and you really don't know how to get off. Unfortunately it took me some places where I wasn't ready to go. You're in denial and you think you can handle it. My life was spinning, I just couldn't get it back under control."
Things didn't get better in Buffalo. In 2007, he was suspended for the first four games of the regular season for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. But Hargrove didn't change his ways, and paid an even bigger price after that season. He was suspended for the entire 2008 season, again for violating the substance abuse policy.
Next came three months at the Institute of Psychiatry in Charleston, S.C., attempting to get sober and straight.
"You wear a wristband and you're a patient," Hargrove said. "You can't go anywhere unless somebody else is with you. You're not allowed to have shoelaces. I mean, it's a real, real firm place. You're in there with people from all walks of life. You're kind of like, 'Oh my God, am I really here?' "
Then came a 10-month stay at what basically amounted to "a halfway house" situation in Miami.
"You stay in the community with 'regular' people, they bus you back and forth to the treatment building where you're in meetings all day learning about recovery," Hargrove said. "And they're pounding the '12 Steps' (recovery program) into you. Basically, you're learning how to live. You start to become a member of society."
So after what amounted to 13 months of rehab, Hargrove was reinstated by Commissioner Roger Goodell in February. Hargrove wanted to get back in the league, but nobody called.
So Phil Williams — Hargrove's agent and father figure — sat down with Hargrove and put together an 11-minute video on a home camcorder.
"I wanted people to see a real person — see him, hear him," Williams said.
Williams sent copies of the video to 30 NFL teams, everyone but Buffalo and St. Louis, along with a four-page letter further explaining Hargrove and his situation.
Only two teams showed any interest, one of which was New Orleans. Saints assistant coach Joe Vitt had been on Mike Martz's Rams staff in '04 and '05, Hargrove's first two seasons in the league.
"They brought me in for a workout and then they sat me down on a visit," Hargrove said. "They asked the questions, and I was honest. I told them the truth. I told them I can't guarantee I won't relapse. But I outlined my plan with them, what I needed to do to keep me on the straight and narrow."
In May, the Saints signed him to a one-year minimum contract. Hargrove said he wanted to cry on that day. On Sunday, when he returns to the Edward Jones Dome for the first time since his ignominious departure, he may do just that.
"I want to tell the fans in St. Louis that I'm sorry for letting them down — not being the man that I needed to be at the time," Hargrove said. "Hopefully they can forgive me. See where I've grown. I'm going to try to right the wrong that I did. I'm always going to be grateful to St. Louis for giving me an opportunity to play in the NFL. I just hope my career progresses so that I can only do great things. And hopefully, they can be proud."
Unfortunately for the Rams, whatever Hargrove does won't be in St. Louis. He is doing amazingly well so far with the Saints. Moved inside to defensive tackle, Hargrove started the past two games in place of the injured Sedrick Ellis. Last week against Carolina, he recovered two fumbles — one for a touchdown. He was named NFC defensive player of the week.
"Sometimes in life, I think that a person can get up off the ground when they hit rock bottom," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "It's a good story for him and where he's at right now. It's something I'm sure he battles every day."
Says Hargrove: "I'm not in the clubs; I'm not in the strip clubs any more. Right now I'm working on building my spiritual relationship with God. I'm trying to be a father. I'm trying to do the right things. I've learned that there is nothing out there after 11 o'clock at night. Because there really isn't anything going on out there that I need to be doing."
Not anymore, knock on wood.
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(c) 2009, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
