Alabama running back Ingram is profile in courage
How does he do it?How does he focus, to make those X’s and O’s and squiggly lines make sense this week? How does he absorb everything from a professor droning on endlessly in a lecture hall? How does he feel when everybody is looking and everybody is thinking the same thing?
His father’s going to jail.
Courage is a word that is batted about almost casually in sports. In this case it fits.
Courage is being personified in Mark Ingram Jr., Alabama’s freshman running back, to keep going when things are crumbling in his family.
Mark Ingram Sr. was an NFL player of some note. He played college football at Michigan State under Nick Saban, who was the Spartans’ defensive coordinator at the time. Mark Jr. was a “legacy recruit.” You could sense the pride even last winter in Saban’s voice, that one of his former players entrusted him with his son. How gratifying that must be for Saban.
Mark Jr. quickly paid dividends. In the opener against Clemson, he was dazzling. He carried the ball 17 times for 96 yards. For Tide fans, it must have been like finding a diamond in your Cracker Jack box instead of the usual plastic trinket. Some Alabama players said later they knew he was good. But not that good, they said.
al.com
9/19/08
