Foster Moreau had a heck of a week for what otherwise would've been a ho-hum mid-May, one that ended with a sweaty morning in his native New Orleans.
On Tuesday he finished his final treatment to battle a rare form of Hodgkin's Lymphoma he had been diagnosed with in late March. On Wednesday he signed a 3-year, $12 million deal with the Saints. On Thursday, he was catching passes from Derek Carr at the team facility in Metairie, with no limitations beyond the need to get back into football shape.
“I was just excited to get back out there and probably running a little too hard," Moreau said this week on Adam Schefter's podcast. "It was a blast.”
Listen to the full interview in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
The new Saints TE, a New Orleans native who starred at Jesuit and LSU before being drafted by the Raiders, joined the ESPN insider for an illuminating interview that detailed his cancer diagnosis, treatment and outlook amid a "rollercoaster" offseason, that began like any other. He was in for a physical with the Saints as he conducted free agent visits, when it was discovered by the Saints medical staff that he had Nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma.
The good news: It was "slow growing" and "non-aggressive," Moreau said, "but it’s still cancer."
The type of cancer meant he didn't have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation. After multiple biopsies, he underwent four cycles of rituximab, a less aggressive form of treatment that would battle the disease. The first round of treatment was a 7-hour IV drip, done in part to ensure he did not have an adverse reaction, followed by three more "5-minute" injections into his stomach.
It's possible Moreau could face complications down the road and have to undergo another round of treatment, but at this point he's cancer free and ready to join the team. Head coach Dennis Allen said "absolutely," when asked if Moreau could potentially join the Saints at voluntary OTAs later this month, with GM Mickey Loomis echoing the same message.
“We brought him in because he’s a good player, a versatile, well-rounded tight end," Loomis said this week. "The fact that he’s from New Orleans and has a history at LSU and here, really had nothing to do with our interest in him. And that was, man, that’s emotional to come take the physical and discover something that is unexpected. I know that’s tough on him and his family, and yet they handled it so beautifully, and the great news is that the prognosis is good and even the treatment protocol that he’s going to be under is going to allow him to do some things in this offseason and hopefully play in the fall.”
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Moreau told Schefter he had to stop working out for a period of time as he underwent the treatment, which he described as "its own personal hell."
But all in all, he's been able to maintain his weight and doesn't expect many, if any, adverse affects of the interrupted offseason.
“The only thing was it was just hard on my mental. … It was really the unknowns, just so much unchartered territory. Thinking about trying to reach out to guys and finding out you have a rare form of cancer and you hear that and you’re like, ‘oh boy, I’m in for a doozy. This is really going to be a tough chapter in the book. This is going to be a long, wordy, strenuous, just ungodly chapter.’ But it really, it wasn’t that difficult," he said. "But just knowing that with free agency pending, right? Because after I got that news I kind of started that back up a little bit.
"With free agency pending. With the surgery, not being able to work, just seeing all of my best friends going through phase 1, phase 2, OTAs. Just little stuff like that hit me. I just wanted to be doing stuff and I knew I couldn’t. That was the hardest part, and just seeing the effect that it put on my family, and them just looking after me at every turn was just so invaluable for me. But it was hard for them, too.”
ON SIGNING WITH THE SAINTS
Moreau said the decision to sign in New Orleans was pretty easy, and made easier considering Saints GM Mickey Loomis called his agent the morning after diagnosis with the message that whenever Moreau was ready, the team would still be thrilled to bring him onboard.
The 5th-year TE had interest from other teams, he mentioned the Raiders, Dolphins and Packers, but returning home just made too much sense to pass up.
"I didn’t know how important it was going to be to be here until, honest to God, I was working out this morning and I said, ‘you know what? If I had to be [in another city], and I had to finagle everything that I was going to try to do in terms of moving my bloodwork and getting in touch with my doctors and making sure that I find a place to stay and that I know people, and that I know where to go, where to be, where not to be, how to get there," Moreau said. "It’s just, it’s going to be so easy on my psyche. And obviously, what a dream to play for the hometown team, right? It's not lost on me.”
Growing up in New Orleans, Moreau was obviously a Saints fan.
"It's been a while," he said, noting that he fanhood goes back to the Aaron Brooks days. He remembers going to games before he even really understood what has happening, and his most vivid Saints memory is Steve Gleason's blocked punt with the team returning home after Katrina.
He said, like most Saints fans, remembers that moment "better than they remember their social security number."
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ON REJOINING DEREK CARR
"I’m great friends with Derek and I’m lucky to call him a friend, but even more a mentor. Just coming into the league I remember going through the rookie meetings that you have to do, the player engagement meetings. I remember writing it down, I still have it in my first NFL offseason notepad. Derek told all of us, he says, ‘you only get this chance once. Please make it count, and don’t make it count for anyone other than you.’ It was so powerful for me. I remember where he was sitting, I remember how he said it. He’s just a special guy and a special leader. I’ll always be, I don’t know if indebted is the right word, but just, I’ll have a massive amount of reverence for, especially the man, but obviously the player.”
ON EXPECTATIONS
“We’ve got some great, young weapons on this team. I’m just excited to see how we work ourselves out. You know, I’m coming into an interesting tight end room. Obviously Taysom Hill, a tremendous player in terms of how they use him. He plays in-line a lot better than people give him credit for and obviously there’s the running aspect from a direct snap situation. And then Juwan Johnson had a tremendous year last year, really broke out. He’s certainly a leader on this offense that I’m really excited to pick his brain and see what I can learn for my game. But I’m excited. We’ve got a lot of young weapons and guys who are really hungry to get the ball in their hands and make a play. [Chris] Olave, [Rashid] Shaheed, these guys are really great. We added Jamaal Williams, he’s tremendous. Alvin’s awesome. Mike Thomas is coming back and he is hungry as ever. I’m excited.”
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