Mario Marcell Haggan (born March 3, 1980) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

who played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

, the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

, and

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arri ...

. He was drafted by the Bills in the seventh round of the

2003 NFL Draft The 2003 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League (NFL) teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936 NF ...

after playing

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univers ...

Early years

Haggan grew up in

Clarksdale, Mississippi Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19th century when he establishe ...

, where he attended

Clarksdale High School Clarksdale High School (CHS) is the public high school of Clarksdale, Mississippi and a part of the Clarksdale Municipal School District. History Around the time of racial integration, circa the 1960s, there had been plans to build a new consolida ...

, played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and was named an All-American. He was named first-team all-state by the

Jackson Clarion-Ledger ''The Clarion Ledger'' is an American daily newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. It is the second-oldest company in the state of Mississippi, and is one of the few newspapers in the nation that continues to circulate statewide. It is an operating d ...

and played in the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

All-Star Game. Haggan led his team to the state Class 4A championship in 1997. As a senior, he recorded 158 tackles with three fumble recoveries and earned Honorable Mention All-American honors from ''

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''.

College career

Haggan played at

from 1998-2002 playing both

and

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

. Haggan was a member of the Bulldogs’ 1998 SEC Western Division championship squad as well as the 10-win 1999 team that led the nation in defense. During his time at MSU the Bulldogs played in the

SEC Championship Game The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. The championship game pits the SEC East Division regular season champion against the West Division regula ...

, the Cotton Bowl, the

Peach Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta, Georgia since December 1968. Since 1997, it has been sponsored by Chick-fil-A and is officially known as the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. From 2006 to 2013, it was officially re ...

, and the

Independence Bowl The Independence Bowl is a post-season National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-sanctioned Division I college football bowl game that is played annually each December at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Independence Bowl ...

. Haggan was a first-team All-SEC selection by the

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and second-team All-America honoree by

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

in 2000 and a second-team All-SEC selection in both 2001 and 2002. He was the Bulldogs’ leading tackler in each of his last three seasons, including 119 tackles his senior season and ranks eighth in MSU history with 359 total tackles.

Professional career

Buffalo Bills

Haggan was drafted in the seventh round of the 2003 draft by the

, playing in 65 games for the Bills while collecting 78 tackles from 2003-2007.

Denver Broncos

In 2008, Haggan was signed by the

. Haggan was named a starting OLB and a defensive captain for 2009 and started all 16 games that year. In 2010, he was moved to ILB and delivered the best season of his career, with 87 tackles in 16 more starts. Haggan was one of only two Bronco players to start every game in 2009 and 2010. Haggan was valued by the Broncos as a depth player for his versatility, having played all three linebacker positions and both defensive end positions.

St. Louis Rams

Haggan signed with the

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Rowlett, Texas Rowlett (, traditionally ) is a city in Dallas and Rockwall counties in the U.S. state of Texas, and an eastern suburb of Dallas. The total population estimate is 73,270 in 2021. It is a growing, upscale community with nearly $1.5 billion in dev ...

.Tanika Haggan
/ref>

References

External links

Denver Broncos bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haggan, Mario 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Clarksdale, Mississippi American football linebackers Mississippi State Bulldogs football players Buffalo Bills players Denver Broncos players St. Louis Rams players