Saints RBs are buddies off the field
METAIRIE, La. — New Orleans Saints running backs Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara are getting along famously — at least by appearances.
They stand side by side in the locker room for joint postgame interviews, celebrating one another’s successes. And they stood together on the sideline — as fans — at the Sugar Bowl earlier this week.
“I know there’s definitely egos” in pro sports, Kamara said this week as the Saints prepared for Sunday’s wild-card game against Carolina in the NFC playoffs. “I think people questioned it a lot … ‘Are they really that close? They seem close, but are they really that close?’ But it’s really one of those things where we’re actually close and we care about each other and we care about more than just the football player part of it. I genuinely care about the dude.”
It’s rare for one team to have two running backs capable of gaining 1,500 or more yards from scrimmage, as each did this season. In fact, that’s never happened before in the NFL.
But in professional sports, contracts are based largely on production, and players at the same position are competing for opportunities to stack up yards and touchdowns. In this case, that would apply more to Ingram, whose contract expires after the 2018 season.
Kamara was well aware jealousy could have eroded chemistry in New Orleans’ backfield as he — a rookie out of the University of Tennessee — blossomed quickly and became a focal point of the offense. After all, Ingram was a 2009 Heisman Trophy winner for an Alabama national title squad and a 2011 first-round draft choice by New Orleans who made his first Pro Bowl when Kamara (who started his collegiate career with the Crimson Tide) was playing for a junior college in 2014.
Instead, what Kamara said he found in Ingram was a consummate teammate — and a friend who has eased his transition to life as a pro and in a new city.
“It’s not just one of those things where we’re cool in pads … where it’s like, we’ve got a game so we’ve got to function,” Kamara said. “We’re cool, like, off the field, like, for real — like, legit.”
Their cooperation not only has been rewarded individually, it has played no small role in propelling the Saints to their first playoff appearance in four seasons.
Ingram said sharing the workload might have helped him not just stay healthy but also fueled his competitive juices. Ingram’s 230 carries were at least 42 fewer than any of the four players who rushed for more yards than he did. His 4.9 yards per carry matched that of yardage leader Kareem Hunt of Kansas City. Kamara, who rushed only 120 times, averaged a league-best 6.1 yards per carry.
“Being fresh … obviously has benefits for both of us being healthy at this point in the season,” Ingram said. “We just thrive off each other. There’s no animosity. Everything’s genuine. I want him to do well. He wants me to do well.
“I want to be the best. He wants to be the best. That’s what we work for and that’s why we push each other. That’s just healthy competition. That’s the reason why we’re at where we’re at now.”
As their yards and touchdowns piled up, they always appeared eager to celebrate one another’s success, even speaking to reporters in tandem. That was refreshing to the linemen who block for them.
“It’s just a nice cohesiveness that they’ve had,” left tackle Terron Armstead said. “Their success has had a direct correlation to the success of the team.”
For Ingram and Kamara, it has come naturally.
“Everybody just looks at me and him because we’re in the same backfield. We compete for carries and compete for touches,” Ingram said. “But at the end of the day, I just want him to do well. I just want him to be the best he can be, and he wants the same for me.
“We’re just there for each other. That’s my dude. If he needed me outside of football, we’re brothers for life.”
“It’s not just one of those things where we’re cool in pads … where it’s like, we’ve got a game so we’ve got to function. We’re cool, like, off the field, like, for real — like, legit.” – ALVIN KAMARA ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH MARK INGRAM