Saints kicker Garrett Hartley was so amped up he could barely get the words out. He was out of breath from sheer exhilaration
We were surrounded by his teammates all filled with the joy you can only experience by climbing football’s Kilimanjaro – a Super Bowl championship. The Sun Life stadium floor littered with confetti and Who Dat Nation members going crazy in one end zone as Saints coach Sean Payton lifted the Lombardi Trophy allowing the front row revelers to touch it and add to the realization that their 43 year dream (that more often looked like a nightmare) had finally come true.
Adrenaline no doubt surging through his veins, Hartley could not stop moving during our interview. “I’ll never forget being here with my teammates, all my family and friends, being able to celebrate with them,“ he said. “Being covered in confetti to getting Gatorade dumped on you going 3-for-3 from over 40 yards in the Super Bowl, its truly remarkable”
And history-making too.
Hartley, place-kicker at Southlake Carroll in 2002 and 2003, becomes the first kicker in Super Bowl history to ever make three 40-plus yard kicks in one game. All three boots crucial, allowing the Saints to keep in striking distance of the Colts. And it was Hartley’s 40-yarder in the NFC Championship that propelled the Saints to their first Super Bowl. So, in the space of 2 pressure-filled weeks, Hartley has played a leading role in the 2 biggest moments in New Orleans sports history.
Amid all the celebration, Hartley giving a nod to his football roots. He says the pressure of being part of a program like Southlake Carroll helped prepare him. “From high school with Coach Dodge making me kick field goals [during practice] otherwise the team had to keep running and make the lineman all mad at me.” Hartley said that coupled with pressure-packed playoff runs, Hartley’s Dragon teams won a state championship and played in another state title game, not to mention kicking in front of 85,000 at Oklahoma all allowed the 5’-8”, 196 pounder to perform at his best on his sports biggest stage. And make no mistake, if he misses any of those kicks the Saints chances to notch that stirring comeback fall drastically.
Hartley thought this day would never come, though. The NFL suspended him at the beginning of the season for violating the league’s drug policy and he thought his career was over.
Hartley says he took the banned drug Adderall to stay awake while driving from Dallas to New Orleans during the offseason. The Saints decided to keep him and after the suspension he was inactive for seven weeks. Hartley returned to the field December 6th, and the rest is "fleur-de-history."
“I’m so proud to be where I’m from - Southlake Carroll high school,” beamed Hartley. “Let everyone know me and Chase Daniel represent for Southlake and we’re coming home world champions!” Daniel, a former Southlake star, is the Saints third quarterback.
After a couple minutes, Hartley thanked me for the interview, but had to keep moving. He was too jacked up not too. He left me with this, “It’s truly remarkable and storybook ending.” And the book wouldn’t be complete without those early chapters at Southlake Carroll.
