DOnta Foremans journey: Panthers RB perseveres after personal losses

April 26, 2024

D’Onta Foreman has a tattoo that stretches across his chest that reads, “Family over everything.”

The Panthers’ running back has had the tattoo for a while, before personal tragedy struck Foreman twice in a jolting, life-defining way that brought home the importance of family — and promises made to family members.

Foreman is in the midst of a breakthrough season at the age of 26. He’s hit personal bests in every major rushing category and ran for a career-high 165 yards and a touchdown (on 21 carries) Saturday to lead the Panthers’ record-setting rushing performance in a 37-23 win against Detroit. The 6-foot, 235-pound Foreman is the principal reason the Panthers’ run game somehow improved despite the October trade that sent Christian McCaffrey to San Francisco for four draft picks.

Foreman’s emergence has served as validation for a player who won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back as a junior at Texas, but who struggled to find his footing in the NFL due to injuries and immaturity early in his career.

Foreman nearly walked away from the game after the Falcons cut him last summer. He was still in Atlanta when his dad, Darreck Foreman, called to check on him.

“We had a conversation and he just told me that he loved me regardless of whether I was playing or not,” Foreman recalled. “I told him if I get an opportunity, I would take it. But if not — if I didn’t get another opportunity for that year — then I’d probably be done because I was just tired of the emotional roller coaster.”

His father’s words held even more meaning six weeks later when Foreman received another call and learned his father had rolled his truck over on a rural road in Oklahoma.

D’Onta Foreman and Armanti Foreman in 2015 while playing for Texas. (TFV Media via AP)

Darreck Foreman grew up in Texas City, Texas, just across the bay from Galveston. He played wide receiver at Texas City High and later was a deejay in the city of about 54,000. When he wasn’t working weddings, parties or family reunions, Foreman was coaching his twin boys in youth football (the Texas City Stingrays) and basketball (the Rockets).

It was clear from an early age that D’Onta and Armanti were destined for athletic success. Darreck would tell his boys, “Y’all are different from other kids,” and encourage them to carry themselves as such.

Even in the talent-rich state of Texas, the identical twins were a potent tag team at Texas City High, with D’Onta rushing for 4,000 career yards and 61 touchdowns, and Armanti finishing with 3,000 career receiving yards and 32 touchdowns. They enrolled together at Texas, where D’Onta posted a 2,000-yard rushing season in 2016 and ended his Longhorns’ career with a school-record 13 consecutive 100-yard games.

Foreman’s best day for the Longhorns was also his worst.

Foreman’s hometown girlfriend gave birth to a son, D’Onta Jr., in September 2016, during Foreman’s junior year. The baby was born about four months premature and weighed just 15 ounces at birth. Foreman visited D’Onta Jr. in the neonatal intensive care unit, but couldn’t hold him because he was confined to an incubator.

Seven weeks later, the night before the Longhorns’ game at Texas Tech, Foreman’s girlfriend called to tell him D’Onta Jr. was having complications. Foreman played the next day and had a game for the ages in Lubbock, carrying 33 times for 341 yards — the third-most in Texas history — and three touchdowns in the Longhorns’ 45-37 win.

“I had a kind of breakdown after the game,” Foreman said. “During the game, I was OK because it was kind of like my place to be able to be free, play in the game, just do my thing. It kind of held me over for a little while. But after the game was over, a lot of emotions. A lot of emotions.”

After the team returned to Austin, D’Onta and his brother left immediately for Texas City. During the 210-mile drive, Foreman learned his son had died of an intestinal infection. When he arrived at the hospital, Foreman consoled his girlfriend, but declined an offer to see his son a final time. “I didn’t really want to because it was a lot for me at the time,” he said.

Foreman spent the week in Texas City. He remembers his position coach at Texas and a couple of other school officials driving down for the funeral. Foreman was back in Austin in time to play West Virginia, and rushed for 167 yards in a loss to the Mountaineers.

A month after his son’s death, Foreman won the Doak Walker and became the first Texas running back since Ricky Williams in 1998 to earn consensus All-American honors. Foreman was drafted in the third round by his hometown Houston Texans the following April.

Foreman and his girlfriend soon would have another reason to celebrate: the arrival of a baby girl, Nike, in August 2017.

Foreman joined the Texans the same year as Deshaun Watson, appearing in 10 games as a rookie, with one start. Foreman scored his first two touchdowns during a Week 11 victory against Arizona, but tore his Achilles while running into the end zone on the second score — an injury that kept him out for most of the 2018 season, too.

When the Texans cut Foreman early in training camp in 2019, then-Houston coach Bill O’Brien said it was in the “best interest of the team.” The Texans reportedly believed the 23-year-old back needed to “grow up” and adopt better work habits.

“I feel like some of the stuff they said about me was kind of exaggerated,” Foreman said recently. “But as a young player, I definitely was immature at the time to understand how to really operate in the NFL. Just how to go about handling my business.”

The Colts claimed Foreman on waivers from Houston. But Foreman was released three weeks later after tearing his triceps and was out of the league the entire 2019 season. He latched on with Tennessee’s practice squad in 2020, was activated in November and played in five games as a backup to Derrick Henry.

Foreman was with the Falcons during training camp last year before being waived as part of the final cuts. He signed with Atlanta’s practice squad, only to be cut two days later. Foreman was just about done, ready to return to Texas and jump back into the trucking business he’d started in 2020 during COVID-19.

“I was definitely in a bad place,” Foreman said. “I wasn’t happy. Just a lot going on.”

Foreman told his dad he’d stick with football as long as he got another chance that season, and had a similar talk with his brother.

“We had that conversation about things not working out or him maybe having to give it up,” Armanti Foreman said. “But I definitely never felt like he would just walk away on his own terms. The game would have to push him away. He loved the game too much.”

Foreman moved back to Houston, where he was working out and waiting to hear from NFL teams. On the morning of Oct. 15, 2021, Darreck Foreman lost control of his 2014 Freightliner rounding a curve on an Oklahoma highway, according to a report. Foreman’s uncle called him and said a camera inside the truck showed the vehicle was on its side. Foreman and other family members tried unsuccessfully to reach Darreck on his cell.

A half-hour later, Armanti called Foreman in tears. “He was crying on the phone. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ Because I’m still not processing the whole thing,” Foreman said. “He told me he passed away. And I was like, ‘No he didn’t. They haven’t talked to him. How do you know?’”

Their 47-year-old father had died at the scene after sustaining head and internal injuries.

“When I lost my dad, I really felt like I was done playing football. I was like, ‘I don’t even want to play no more,’” Foreman said. “But it was crazy because (teams) started calling me a couple days after that.

“So it was like, I told him what I was gonna do, so I’ve gotta stick to my word. It just happened to work out for me. I’m just thankful for that. I think about it all the time, though. And I just want to keep doing good on my promise.”

A week and a half after his father’s death, Foreman worked out on consecutive days for Washington and Tennessee, but wasn’t signed. But when Henry broke his foot in Tennessee’s next game, the Titans signed Foreman and veteran Adrian Peterson to the practice squad the same day.

After playing sparingly behind Peterson initially, Foreman became the Titans’ featured back and delivered three 100-yard games down the stretch — a power-running exhibition that convinced the Panthers to sign him in March as a big-back complement to McCaffrey.

D’Onta Foreman ran for 566 yards and 3 touchdowns in 2021 while with the Titans. (Christopher Hanewinckel / USA Today)

Panthers running backs coach Jeff Nixon took Foreman to dinner not long after he arrived in Charlotte on a one-year, $2 million deal. Foreman opened up about everything he’d gone through.

“It took a toll on him,” Nixon said. “But he made a promise to his dad before he passed that he was gonna really do well in the NFL, make a comeback and make a really good career out of it. And I’m just so happy he’s made good on that promise.”

Foreman had to wait his turn behind McCaffrey, getting just 12 carries over the first six games. But after the blockbuster trade of McCaffrey, interim coach Steve Wilks committed to a downhill rushing attack led by Foreman, who ran for more than 100 yards in four of the first six games after McCaffrey’s exit.

“He’s a really good athlete, a really good runner for his size with his feet and his quickness and burst,” Nixon said. “He doesn’t run like a 240-pound back, with his quickness and agility. He runs like a much smaller guy when he gets in space.”

Foreman’s dad used to tell him not to settle for being good at whatever he was doing, but strive to be great. That advice made Foreman a tough self-critic. After a tough day in a November loss at Baltimore, Foreman said he’d had a “s—” performance.

“When he first got here, he would make a mistake in practice and really get upset and have his head down,” Nixon said. “I thought at times he kind of lost a little bit of confidence during training camp, learning the offense and those sorts of things.”

Wilks has noticed signs of frustration from Foreman when he’s missed a running lane or been tackled after a loss or short gain. It hasn’t bothered Wilks “because it shows that it means something to him (and) wants to be the best at his craft.”

Foreman doesn’t say much in the locker room. Right guard Austin Corbett joked that Foreman has probably said 15 words since getting to Charlotte in the spring.

But Foreman has made an impression in a running backs room that underwent a big change this year. Rookie Raheem Blackshear called Foreman an “older brother” who’s advised him on how to budget his money during the offseason. Second-year back Chuba Hubbard said Foreman is the same guy now as he was early in the season when he was barely playing.

“He doesn’t really say too much, just stays in his lane, puts his head down and works. And when given the opportunity, he shows up,” Hubbard said. “I always respect people like that — that don’t be making excuses for anything, don’t be crying about this or that. They just wait for the opportunity and work hard, and once it comes, they take it. And that’s what he did.”

Foreman spent the Panthers’ bye week in Texas, spending time with his two children — 5-year-old Nike and his 3-year-old son Master. Though the two have different mothers, Foreman said the two have a close bond and enjoy being together. Foreman has diamond-studded pendants with the names of his two surviving children he wears on a gold chain.

Foreman also attended his brother’s graduation, after Armanti kept his own promise to his father that he’d finish his degree. Armanti, who plans to get into coaching, said he’s proud of what his brother has accomplished after all he’s been through.

“He’s had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of tragedy that has happened to him,” Armanti said. “He’s always been able to prevail and make it through those situations.”

Now, thanks to a son’s promise to his father, Foreman should in line for the biggest payday of his career as a pending free agent. He’d like to stay in Charlotte.

Asked if he thinks of his father more around the holidays, Foreman said he thinks of him all the time. He’s certain his dad would be pleased with how this season has played out.

“This is absolutely what he would want and I felt like I just had to go make it happen,” he said. “It’s just crazy because I wish he would have been able to be there, witness it all, see it all and be able to talk to him, just hear his perspectives on things. I always think about him, though.”

(Top photo of D’Onta Foreman: Rich von Biberstein / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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