Courtesy of GoGriffs.com
The New Orleans Saints announced Saturday that former Canisius men’s basketball player Chris Manhertz ’14 has officially made the team’s final 53-man roster. All NFL teams needed to trim their rosters to 53 players by a 4 p.m., deadline.
Manhertz, who spent the 2015 season on the Saints’ practice squad, is the first former Canisius student-athlete to make a regular-season roster for an NFL franchise since Mike Panepinto played one game for the Buffalo Bills during the 1987 season.
The Bronx, New York native played in all four preseason games for the Saints, where he had four catches for 46 yards, an average of 11.5 yards per catch. Against the Houston Texans Aug. 20, he pulled down two passes, with his longest reception going for 18 yards.
Manhertz originally signed a reserve/futures contract with the Buffalo Bills in Dec. 2014. As a basketball player for the Golden Griffins, he played in 116 career games from 2010-14 where he made 94 starts and averaged 6.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game for his career. A three-time team captain, he ranks fourth in school history with 789 career rebounds and he is just one of three players since 1951 to lead the Griffs in rebounding in three consecutive seasons.
In his four years at the College, Manhertz served on Canisius’ Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and he earned his undergraduate degree in health and wellness. He also completed his master’s degree work in 2014, earning a master’s in sport administration from Canisius.
The Saints will open up the 2016 season Sept. 11 at home when the team plays host to the Oakland Raiders.
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