Grant referred to himself as "one of the last of the Mohicans around here," being the longest tenured player on the New Orleans Saints team. In multiple sports articles Thursday, March 4, and especially excerpts by Mike Triplett of the Times Picayune in New Orleans, defensive end Charles Grant, the longest-tenured player on the New Orleans Saints' roster, saw his eight-year roller coaster ride come to an end Friday, March 7, when the Saints released Grant on the first day of the new league year.

The team announced its plan to cut Grant on Thursday, while also announcing that it had released guard Jamar Nesbit and veteran linebacker Mark Simoneau. For the three long-time Saints, their Super Bowl rings will be parting gifts.

None of the decisions comes as a surprise, with all three veterans' salaries having exceeded their levels of productivity in recent years, according to one of the Saint’s spokesman. None of the three players were on the field for Super Bowl XLIV, with Grant and Simoneau on injured reserve and Nesbit declared inactive before the game.

None of players were reached for comment Thursday.

General Manager Mickey Loomis said the Saints wanted to make the decisions before the start of free agency, so the players had the best chance to catch on with another team.

Loomis said the team didn’t discuss any plans to bring back Grant, 31, at a reduced salary in the future.

“It wasn’t a situation where we were just looking to reduce salary,” Loomis said of Grant, who was due $4.25 million in salary and bonuses this year with even greater increases scheduled for 2011, 2012 and 2013.

“I think a change will be good for him. Hopefully he’ll be able to hook on with another club.”

Loomis did say, though, that “I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for him.”

“Charles has been a good player for us, a first-round pick; he’s done a good job for a lot of years and went through some tough times with us, including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” said Loomis, who was promoted to general manager in 2002, the same year that Grant arrived with the 25th overall pick out of Georgia. “Yet he was one of the first players when (Coach Sean Payton) came on board to kind of embrace him and the change. And he was on our team through the Super Bowl; it was good that he was able to experience that.”

Even if Grant was deemed worthy of his 2010 salary figure, the current state of the league’s collective bargaining agreement provided the Saints with an ideal chance to release Grant with no salary-cap penalties.

In a normal year, the Saints still would have had to account for $11.33 million in prorated charges from his signing bonuses. But since the NFL is heading into an uncapped year, those charges will disappear.

Grant’s career ended on a bittersweet note. He earned his first Super Bowl ring while watching from the sideline, having suffered a season-ending triceps tear during the regular-season finale at Carolina.

Grant, one of the team’s two firstround draft choices in 2002, played in 118 regular season games for the Saints over eight seasons - starting 106 of them - and tallied 505 tackles with 47 sacks to rank eighth on the club’s all-time sack list. He also had one interception, 14 forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries. Grant started all 16 regular season games for New Orleans in 2009 and made 53 tackles with 5½ sacks before being injured in the regular season finale, ending the year on injured reserve for the second consecutive season. According to a staff member, both Grant’s health and production had started to decline in recent years after he signed a seven-year contract extension worth a maximum value of $63 million in 2007. Grant also landed on injured reserve with a triceps tear midway through 2008 and suffered an ankle injury for much of the 2007 season.

Friday was also the first day of free agency around the NFL. The Saints will not be very active in the market since new league rules prevent them from signing any unrestricted free agents unless they lose one of their own unrestricted free agents to another team. The first-year salary of the new UFA cannot exceed that of the player who was lost.

The Saints and other NFL teams are allowed to sign veterans who have been released by other teams - an abundant list, as many teams did the same thing as the Saints this week, parting ways with longtime veterans.

The Saints have only two starters who became unrestricted free agents as of 11 p.m. Central time Thursday - safety Darren Sharper and outside linebacker Scott Fujita. The team seems intent on allowing Sharper to test the market and gauge his value, perhaps hoping that he will lower his contract expectations after seeing what’s out there. Fujita seems more likely to re-sign with the Saints quickly.

Grant will be back in his hometown of Colquitt for his annual Kids Day Out to be held Saturday, March 13, on MLK Jr St. at the ball park from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.