It’s been a dramatic offseason for Foster Moreau. The former Las Vegas Raiders and LSU Tigers tight end was expecting the first big payday of his NFL career as a free agent, and it nearly came with his hometown New Orleans Saints team.
Instead, he’s beginning a treatment plan for Hodgkin’s lymphoma after the cancer was discovered in a routine physical in New Orleans. Moreau shared the story of his initial diagnosis from Dr. John Amoss, a Saints team physician, which ended up being life-changing.
“I felt strong. I felt like I was running well,” Moreau recounted during an interview with Good Morning America. He had already undergone a physical with the Cincinnati Bengals before visiting the Saints, which hadn’t detected anything. “I mean, my offseason training was going just fine, and then he tells me something’s there that I could’ve never imagined and it rocks my world.”
He’s remaining optimistic. Other players have dealt with Hodgkin’s lymphoma to return to football before, and Moreau is hopeful he can do the same: “It’s at stage 2, so it’s spread from the initial location. But it appears to be a slow spread and we should be able to get rid of all of it.”
But he’s keeping a clear head. Moreau says he’s thankful for the support the Saints have given him throughout this process, and that he’s grateful he can stay close to his parents in New Orleans while undergoing treatment. He’s treating this battle just like every other conflict he’s approached on the field.
Moreau continued, “There’s no other way to look at it, right? So I’m preparing for my opponent, right? Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chemotherapy, I’m preparing for being on an IV, for six, seven, eight hours. Whatever it takes, right? Because I mean, there’s no other option. There’s no option.”
So will he return to play football? Moreau hopes so, but he’s being realistic about his expectations. He recently returned to New Orleans to complete his physical, and it’s possible the team could sign him after the 2023 NFL draft so he doesn’t count into the 2024 compensatory picks formula. They could then place Moreau on the non-football injury list until he’s cleared to return in, say, October. But that’s a long ways away. For now, Moreau is going to do everything he can to win this fight.
“You only have a finite amount of time on this Earth,” Moreau added. “For me, I’m gonna make it count. And right now, making it count is whuppin’ up on cancer’s butt.”
