Mark Ingram achieved a storied career with the New Orleans Saints on his way to winning the team’s rushing records, and it was worth the wait. But it would have been hard to convince him of that on a night that left him feeling camera-shy. Ingram spoke about his experience on a recent NFL Network roundtable with other players.
“Man the draft day was great,” Ingram said, looking for the silver lining of what turned into a tense evening. “Woke up, go to the draft and walked the red carpet, got my mom, three of my sisters, my grandma with me. Go into the green room. I go to the draft because they told me there’s no way I stay past 20, maybe top 15. I’m like cool, I can wait that long.”
But his wait ended up running longer than expected. Ingram continued: “So we get to the draft room, you know the first 10 picks go by, not there. Next five go by, not there. I’m like, every time the camera’s on me. Every time the next pick comes up the camera’s on me. I’m like, shoot, I might have to take a little walk real quick. I walk to the bathroom, come back, still not picked. And then it gets past 20, not picked. 25, not picked. And then 28 comes up, I’m like, dang. And then a 504 number calls me.”
Ingram sighed, shaking his head and grinning.
“I had been training in New Orleans, so I’m like, who’s messing with me right now?” He asked in disbelief. “They should know not to call my phone right me now. Pick it up, it’s Mickey Loomis, we just traded back into the first round to get you, we’re in here going crazy. He puts Sean Payton on the phone, he says ‘Man everybody’s excited, we traded back in the round to come get you.'”
It was an expensive move — the Saints traded their 2012 first-round pick to move up from their second rounder at No. 56 in order to get Ingram. For his part, he’s just grateful things worked out as well as they did. Once he finally got that phone call, all he had in front of him was emotional catharsis.
But it’s Ingram’s story, so we’ll let him tell it: “So I walk to the draft stage to get my hat, get my jersey. My father actually was incarcerated at the time, and the lady who was introducing me, she had a note from my father. I’m like, how do you have a note from my father? I thought it’s a prank. She read the note to me, I’m crying, it’s an amazing opportunity to share that time with my loved ones.”
Talk about a rollercoaster of emotions. But things worked out in the end. Ingram overcame some early-career struggles in New Orleans to win the team’s records for rushing yards and touchdown runs, returning to (possibly) close out his time in the NFL in a 2021 trade. He’s said he hopes to continue playing as long as a team will have him, but we’ll have to wait and see whether any offers materialize now that he’s a free agent again. Regardless of where his path leads him next, let’s hope his NFL career ends as it began: wearing black and gold.
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