Hargrove appeals his suspension

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GREEN BAY - Green Bay Packers’ defensive end Anthony Hargrove took the first step yesterday toward appealing his eight-game suspension for his part in the bounty program when he played at New Orleans.

ESPN had reported that Hargrove appealed. But actually, the players’ union filed a letter reserving the appeal rights for Hargrove, Scott Fujita, and Will Smith. The union wants to find out who will hear the cases before deciding its course of action. Jonathan Vilma did appeal his year-long suspension for his role in an informal program that paid Saints’ defensive players for hard hits and injuries to certain opponents on offense. The union says Commissioner Roger Goodell did not have the authority to punish the players like he did almost a week ago.

Meanwhile, Yahoo.com Sports released a document yesterday in which Hargrove claimed that Saints’ coaches Joe Vitt and Gregg Williams wanted him to cover up the bounty program when he was questioned about it by league officials. The league had said that Hargrove obstructed its investigation. Hargrove signed with the Packers this spring.

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The Packers have promoted Alonzo Highsmith to a newly-created title of senior personnel executive. The 47-year-old Highsmith has been an area scout for the Packers for 14 years, and he’ll be moving from Texas in the month to start his new role. He’ll take over some of the duties formerly held by football operations director Reggie McKenzie before he left to become Oakland’s general manager. Highsmith, a former NFL running back, said he’ll do a little bit of everything from pro personnel evaluations to college scouting on the road. Other changes are also expected in the Packers’ scouting operation. That’s after assistant college scouting director Shaun Herock left last week for a job with the Raiders.

Tags: wisconsin sports, proam, football, packers