A misdiagnosed broken leg ended Delvin Breaux’s career with the New Orleans Saints and the NFL, sending him back to the CFL’s Tiger-Cats.
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In the ideal world, every player who suits up for the New Orleans Saints would get to go out on top and move on with a sense of closure. That wasn’t the case for Delvin Breaux, the cornerback who appeared in 22 games from 2015 to 2016. Breaux appeared on the Straight-Up Saints podcast with Chris Rosvoglou to discuss his relationship with the Saints, head coach Sean Payton, and how he’s doing up in the CFL.
Breaux, a New Orleans native who starred at McDonogh 35 High School, still remains a supporter of the Saints. He and his family cheered on the Saints even in defeat in the 2019 playoffs. He said of Saints fans, “The amount of support I got, not just from my family and friends but from the fans, the Who Dat Nation is crazy. I love them man, they’re awesome. They’re my biggest supporters even now.”
While Breaux still treasures his relationship with the fanbase, his connection to the team remains rocky. The misdiagnosed broken leg that derailed his 2017 training camp and ultimately ended his NFL career remains a point of contention for him.
“About that situation, it was a tough time for me and my family,” Breaux said. “It was hard. We didn’t know where to go or what was going to happen. Everything with the misdiagnosis — I had never been through that before. And by going through everything with the doctors with the misdiagnosis, and with Coach Payton, it was a really tough time for me and my family.”
Breaux’s conflict with Payton was something especially hard for him to stomach, to a point where he still feels a sense of betrayal towards the Saints head coach.
He continued, “Me and Coach Payton during that time, we were not on good terms. It was not good. That situation with me and the head coach, man,” “I’m just going to [expletive] lay it out. There was no respect, I was telling him something was wrong with my leg, something was bothering me, I knew something was wrong with my leg.
“And he just said, ‘Oh the doctors say this and that’ and I’m like, hey man, can we address this situation in private? Instead of humiliating me in front of my team? Because that’s embarrassing. That’s something I wasn’t proud of. I felt like less than a man.”
The result of this fiasco was that the Saints fired both of the team orthopedists and overhauled the medical staff, but the damage was already done. Breaux’s NFL reputation was tarnished and this latest injury — combined with his high school neck issue — were too much for teams to take a chance on. He ended up returning to the CFL, where he’s played at an All-Star level and gone on to compete for a Grey Cup championship.
You can find Breaux’s full interview where we’ve embedded it below, or at this link. It does feature some coarse language, so be advised.
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