Suspended for the entire 2008 season by the NFL for failing a third drug test, Anthony Hargrove was out of a job until the New Orleans Saints gambled on him in May 2008. The 6-3, 275-pound defensive tackle turned out to be a key pickup by the Saints, who won their first Super Bowl on Sunday.

It was the Bowl's true feel-good story. Hargrove had a tough upbringing in New York (his father died in a fire and mother succumbed to AIDS) before being raised by his aunt and uncle in Port Charlotte, Florida where he excelled on the high-school football team. Hargrove went to Georgia Tech and was drafted by the the St. Louis Rams in 2004.

After two seasons, St. Louis traded the lineman to Buffalo. In August 2007, Hargrove began making the wrong kind of headlines - first he was arrested for his involvement in a bar fight in Rochester and a week later was suspended for four games by the league for failing his second drug test. When he came up positive again in January 2008, the NFL banned him for a year.

According to the New York Times, "Hargrove experimented with alcohol while living with his aunt and uncle. By his second year with the Rams, he was regularly abusing marijuana and cocaine... Early in the 2006 season, Hargrove went missing for two days. He was in somebody’s basement, he said, snorting lines of cocaine as long as a shoe box in an overdose attempt."

“I was numbing myself,” Hargrove explained. “It was easier to smoke an extra blunt or have an extra drink than deal with my depression.”

So he checked into rehab at Transitions Recovery Center in North Miami Beach and stayed 10 months - seven more than was mandatory.

Thirteen months after the suspension, the NFL reinstated Hargrove. The Saints were the only team to offer Hargrove a contract and signed him for the $620,00 minimum.

Hargrove had a solid season with 42 tackles and five sacks. In the Super Bowl, he made two solo tackles and was hit with an unnecessary roughness penalty as his team upset the Colts 31-17, giving New Orleans its only Super Bowl victory in the team's 43-year history.

The Saints and Hargorve had come a long way. "He'd to hit rock bottom," says Hargrove's agent Phil Williams. "Once he looked up, he started climbing, crawling and climbing. It's amazing how quickly he climbed - all the way to the top of the NFL."

From rehab to Super Bowl champion indeed.

Super Bowl photo by AP

Also see:
2009 Super Bowl Stoner: Santonio Holmes
The All-NFL Drug Bust Team
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