Saints' Isaiah Foskey visited friend's dying grandfather on draft night: 'Speechless'
Reveling in the festivities at his own draft party, Isaiah Foskey accomplished a lifelong goal when the New Orleans Saints drafted him No. 40 overall in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft. When Foskey got off the phone, he celebrated with family and friends for about 15 minutes – and then he went to the hospital.
Foskey and Gunnar Rask have known each other since youth football. The two were teammates together at De La Salle High School in Concord, California, and remained friends when Foskey attended Notre Dame and Rask went on to play at Cal.
On April 28, Day 2 of the draft, Rask was picking up cupcakes for Foskey’s draft party in Discovery Bay when Rask received a phone call from his mother. Rask’s grandfather, Jon Ireland, was terminally ill and was being put on life support.
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Instead of driving to Foskey’s draft party, Rask headed to Kaiser Permanente Antioch Medical Center to be by his grandfather’s side.
“I sent Isaiah a text and he was totally understanding,” Rask said. “My grandfather would try to be at as many De La Salle football practices and football games, so Isaiah knew my grandfather very well.”
Draft party
The climax of Foskey's draft party occurred on Day 2 when he was selected nine picks into the second round.
“At first I thought it was a prank call because it said private caller. I thought, ‘Oh shoot, someone is prank-calling me right now.’ I picked up the phone and I heard, ‘it’s the New Orleans Saints, how’s it going?’ Everything else after that was a blur. All the emotions just started coming in. I really don’t remember the phone call after that,” Foskey told Paste BN Sports.
But Foskey had other, more important things on his mind and the mood shifted.
“After that, I was just thinking about Gunnar’s grandpa (Jon). I’m gonna go there right after the draft,” Foskey recalled. “I know he was waiting to see me get drafted, to see that emotion and excitement of me getting drafted.”
Hospital visit
Rask and his family were watching the draft in Ireland’s hospital room at his grandfather’s request. When Foskey’s name was announced, the entire room erupted. Then Rask received a surprising text message.
“We are all so excited for Isaiah. I knew my grandfather, he really wanted to see Isaiah get drafted into the NFL, so that was really exciting. And then, not even like 15 minutes after he got drafted, I got a text from Isaiah saying, ‘I’m on my way.’ At first, I didn’t really process it. I was like ‘Yeah, you’re on your way to the NFL.’ Then it hit me, he’s on his way to the hospital,” Rask recalled to Paste BN Sports.
Within an hour, Foskey and some of his family members were in the hospital lobby.
“A lot of people look at it like that’s crazy for him to do that. But right away when Isaiah said he was coming, that’s not out of character for Isaiah at all. Everything that Isaiah does in life, on the field and off the field is all first class,” Rask said. “For me, it really showed that the brotherhood is strong. It was really cool to be able to see him in such a high moment in his life think about me and what I was going through with my family. It was a really cool moment. Me and my entire family were just honestly speechless.”
Foskey and Rask will cherish the moment forever. Ireland died hours after Foskey was drafted on Friday night. He was 84 years old.
“I felt it was the right thing to go out there and just see him one last time. It felt like I needed to do it. It wasn’t like an option for me. It’s something that I felt deep down in my heart that I needed to go out there and do it,” Foskey said.
Follow Paste BN Sports' Tyler Dragon on Twitter @TheTylerDragon.