Sunday Chat is a weekly feature appearing in The Blade’s print and digital platforms each Sunday.
Lance Moore set state records at Westerville South for receptions (103) and touchdown catches (24) during his senior year, but it didn’t result in college coaches banging down his door.
The 5-foot-9 sure-handed wide receiver ended up at the University of Toledo, where he put together a career that’s still prominent in the UT record book. Moore finished with 222 receptions, 2,776 receiving yards, and 25 touchdown catches. He also had more than 1,300 return yards and two touchdowns.
He still has the third-most career catches in program history, the second-most receptions in a single season (103), and the third-most receptions in a single game (15). Moore ranks fifth in career receiving yards, third (1,194) and fourth (1,189) in single-season receiving yards, and fifth in single-game yardage (195). He’s the only receiver to have two 1,000-yard seasons.
But, similar to his high school career, outlandish college stats did not make him a top NFL prospect. Moore went undrafted and was released by the Cleveland Browns as a rookie before catching on with the New Orleans Saints.
Finally, in Moore’s fourth NFL season, an injury to Saints wide receiver Marques Colston changed the trajectory of Moore’s career, which featured a Super Bowl triumph, 389 receptions, 4,816 yards, 44 receptions, and a place in the Saints’ Hall of Fame.
Now living in San Diego, Moore officially becomes a certified NFL agent on Sunday.
The Blade recently caught up with him to discuss his career.
The Blade: How did you end up at Toledo?
Moore: I didn’t have any scholarship offers going into my senior year or even after my senior year. The plan was to be a preferred walk-on at Ohio State. Two or three weeks before graduation, Akron offered me a scholarship. The next day, Eastern Michigan offered me a scholarship. The following day, Toledo offered me a scholarship.
I ended up visiting Toledo that weekend and had a great time. The following weekend I visited Akron, and, on my way home from Akron, I called the coach who recruited me to Toledo, and I told him I wanted to come to Toledo.
The Blade: At Toledo, you had a tremendous career. You won two MAC championships. You had a lot of huge catches. Obviously, the Pitt game is very famous. If you can boil it down to a single moment, what stands out most to you about your college career?
Moore: Winning the MAC championship my senior year, I think, was the most awesome moment. Sure, the Pitt game was great and my coming out party. But to be able to do something so meaningful and so special to the group of guys that I bled and sweat with all those years and to go out on that high note was what it was all about. The bond with the guys that I lived with and that I call my brothers today — Bruce Gradkowski, Trinity Dawson, Jason Flowers, Andre Hawkins, and my brother, Nick Moore — that was the most important part of the experience.
The Blade: You had this phenomenal NFL career that no one really would have predicted. I know athletes have immense self-belief. Going into the combine and pro day, did you think you had a bright future in the NFL or were you just like, ‘We’ll see what happens?’
Moore: I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I knew what happened was going to happen. But it did not surprise me because I knew the talent that I had and the way that I worked — the mental part of the game, the habits, learning from veteran players. I knew I had what it took. It was just a matter of getting an opportunity and seizing that opportunity. I was going to be prepared. It wasn’t going to be a lack of effort on my part.
The Blade: The Browns released you and you get shipped off to NFL Europe. Eventually, it clicked. What was it that finally happened when you clicked in 2007, 2008? Was it just simply getting the opportunity?
Moore: I honestly think that’s what it was. In 2005, I was a practice squad guy. From Day 1, though, when I showed up, it was a whole different level of competing for me. I realized when I got cut by the Browns that this could be my last shot. Not to say that I took it easy in Cleveland, because I didn’t, but I didn’t have an understanding of how the pro game worked. Every single day I showed up in 2005 in San Antonio, it was game day for me. Those practices were full-go, I’m trying to kill every single DB that’s in front of me. That was my mentality. I kept that mentality whether I was on the active roster or I was still on the practice squad. It became a more businesslike approach for me.
The Blade: What was your experience like in Berlin in NFL Europe?
Moore: Initially, I didn’t want to go. My agent brought the idea to me because the Saints said they’d like to send me to Europe. I was like, ‘No, we just got a new coach. I want to get to know coach [Sean] Payton. We just signed Drew Brees. I want to have some kind of connection with him before training camp. My agent was like, ‘Look, man, if you want to play for this team, you should probably do what they tell you to do.’ It was a great experience being able to go there. I had never been to Europe before. I lived in Berlin, our home stadium was the Olympic Stadium, where Jesse Owens won all of the Olympic medals and where freaking Hitler used to give his speeches. The history that was there was incredible. To be one of the few guys today who can say they played in NFL Europe is pretty cool.
The Blade: Not to diminish your own skills, but was it just a connection with Drew Brees in how your career took off?
Moore: First, it was the guys in front of me either not playing great and/or injuries, in 2008, Marques Colston got hurt and was out several weeks. I had been playing, but I wasn’t the focal point of the offense. Once he got hurt, I took on the role of the X receiver, and that’s really when my career exploded. It wasn’t a matter of whether I could do it, it was a matter of would I get the opportunity. If that injury didn’t happen, I honestly don’t know where my career goes.
The Blade: How unbelievable is it to be on a winning Super Bowl team? And not just that, but you had multiple catches in the game and, up to that moment, you caught a two-point conversion pass on the most critical play of the game. What’s it like to play in a Super Bowl, win a Super Bowl, and the whole celebration in the days afterward?
Moore: When you grow up playing football, those are the things you dream about — playing in a Super Bowl, making plays in a Super Bowl, winning a Super Bowl, being able to celebrate a Super Bowl win with your friends and family, it’s storybook. It still gives me goosebumps today to think about how awesome that was. It’s the pinnacle of the profession. Everybody wants to win a Super Bowl and to have a Super Bowl ring. I didn’t have kids at the time, but I do have kids now, and it’s really cool to be able to show them Daddy’s Super Bowl ring. I don’t take it for granted. I know most guys who play in the NFL don’t win one.
The Blade: In 2014, you played a season with the Steelers. Bruce Gradkowski was on that team. What was it like to reunite and play together in the NFL?
Moore: It was fun. It was somewhat like old times, the two of us being back together and living together. But, totally different, because he was married and had a little girl at the time. Once the season started, he was like another coach. He helped me with the playbook and the communication associated with the Pittsburgh offense. It’s hard going from a place that you spent nine years and were in the same offense to a place where it’s completely different, the terminology is different, the quarterback is different. It’s hard making that transition. He helped smooth the transition. And I wasn’t as productive there. It was a loooong year for me. I really struggled mentally, and he really helped reel me in.
First Published October 1, 2023, 11:00 a.m.
