The first time Browns running back D’Onta Foreman ever rode in a helicopter, he was immobilized — strapped to a backboard.
“(Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was) like, ‘You’ll never forget that,’” Foreman said after Saturday night’s preseason game against the Vikings. “Yeah, I never will.”
No one will probably forget that day at The Greenbrier in West Virginia, when Foreman was transported by helicopter to a medical center on August 1 after suffering a scary injury while working on punt rushes. He remembers the whole thing.
“I went to make contact with my head down and pretty much, it kind of jammed and went down my spine area and I just felt like a sharp pain,” Foreman said.
He said he didn’t get knocked out and was not diagnosed with a concussion, but once he told the medical staff where the pain was located and they felt around, they took an abundance of caution.
“They had already checked and made sure that I was able to move everything and everything like that, but they just didn’t know if I would have, I guess, a later symptom, maybe start going numb or have some numbness later on,” Foreman said, “so we just checked all the boxes and I appreciate them for that.”
The medical center in Roanoke, Virginia, is about an hour and 25 minutes away from White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where The Greenbrier is located, so taking him by helicopter was the most efficient way to get him there.
The whole process took a while. First, Foreman was immobilized and placed on the backboard. Then he was carted to an ambulance and loaded into it. Then the ambulance pulled away and waited up the hill from the practice fields for the helicopter, which arrived just as players were walking off the field and post-practice interviews were getting underway.
“I was strapped down to the board. I couldn’t look around, I couldn’t move, and the board really was making it worse because I was just so stiff,” Foreman said, “and then I didn’t want to move because I didn’t know if I could mess something up. So it was like, I’m literally like this for an hour.”
While Foreman was being transported and being reassured everything was precautionary, things were different for his family.
His brother, Armanti, happened to search X, formerly Twitter, for D’Onta’s name right as he was being carted off and loaded onto the helicopter.
“He looked just when everything started being posted, so he knew right away and he was just so nervous,” Foreman said. “He called my mom and they called my agent and they were just panicking in the moment.”
The Browns reached out to his family relatively quickly, but it was still a nervous time when all they knew was Foreman had been put in a helicopter.
They were able to find some calm after they received their initial updates and especially after they heard from Foreman.
“By the time I talked to them, they just wanted to hear my voice and just kind of hear it from me that I was doing good,” Foreman said.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get the second helicopter ride of his lifetime on the way home. He had to make the long trip in a car.
“That was actually cool. I got a chance to get me a little nap in,” he said.
Foreman received plenty of support throughout the process, getting texts from teammates and quarterback Jameis Winston even sent him a prayer as a voice recording in his message to Foreman.
“Everybody checked on me,” Foreman said. “And for days, honestly, it wasn’t even just one day, it was like the whole week I sat out, people were just checking on me every day. So very thankful for my teammates and just them being there for me for real.”
Foreman was back with his teammates the following day, but he spent the next week, both in West Virginia and back in Northeast Ohio, having X-rays, CT scans and an MRI.
While the pain initially started in his neck and made its way down his spine, it spread into his muscles and, by the time he fell asleep that night, it was in his back. He admitted that, while he had movement and was being reassured everything was fine, he was a little nervous they would find something both that day and in the week following.
“Definitely because at the end of the day I’d never been in a situation like that and I was having pain,” he said, “so yeah, I was able to move everything, but I didn’t know if I fractured something or something happened or if I could have symptoms later on down the line. I definitely was nervous.”
Foreman started treatment the next day and was in a neck brace, but he returned to practice on August 8, a week later, after undergoing all the procedures and knowing he would be good long term.
“Once I did my last X-ray, I talked to the doctor and he showed me all of my pictures, all of my images from everything, and told me I was good,” Foreman said, “and told me that I wouldn’t probably have much — whatever the word is — later on in my life, you know what I mean, so it was great.”
Foreman made his preseason debut Saturday night against the Vikings and scored the Browns first touchdown, a 1-yard run with 7:18 left in the first quarter to tie the game at 7. It was actually his second attempt to get in from the 1, a fact not lost on the 6-foot, 235-pound back in his sixth season out of Texas.
“I feel like in those situations, I got to get in there, just me with my stature and my frame, me being a bigger back, it’s like I take those personal,” he said, “so I was actually mad I didn’t get in on the first one. I feel like I don’t need two times to try it.”
“That’s kind of his game,” Stefanski said. “He puts his weight down and stays low and goes forward. I thought that’s what he did when he got the ball in his hands and obviously had a nose for the goal line there down to our left.”
Some preseason touchdowns mean more than others and this one certainly meant a lot for Foreman after receiving his biggest scare on the football field.
“It puts a lot into perspective about how fast life can change and how things can happen,” he said, “so to be able to still be healthy and be able to come out here and play the game that I love to play, stuff I’ve been working hard for, I’m just very thankful for that. So can’t say that enough.”
Foreman said he didn’t think about the moment at The Greenbrier after he scored his touchdown Saturday night, at least not until he felt a little bit of the pain from that day again.
“It kind of came back in my mind after I got in the end zone on the first touchdown and I felt my neck,” he said. “It got sore and tight, and I was like, ‘Dang!’ Because I hadn’t really been hit, but it’s not nothing I’m worried about. I think I can get that cleared up with some needles and some treatment.”
Foreman’s surreal moment let him know how quickly the game can be taken away from you and it’s not something he’ll take for granted.
“I’m just thankful to still be here, thankful to still be working and just doing the things I love to do,” he said. “Like I said, it’s bigger than football as well. I’m thankful to just be able to walk around and be myself every day.”
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