Okay, so one of two things happened here. Either Mark Ingram was careless with what he put into his body...orrrr he took a look at his birth certificate, his contract, the budding star sitting in the stall next to him, and decided to take a calculated risk. Unfortunately, considering his status as a veteran, I think the second hypothetical is far more likely than the first. That's not to call into question the integrity of a player who has been integral to the Saints' culture change as a vocal leader in the locker room and a selfless player on the sidelines. It is, however, to point out that a 28-year old running back who is likely coming up on the last sizable payday of his career had the motivation to act out of character with a transcendentally talented player in line to take his "starting" job at/by the end of the year. I don't want to sound like a parent here, but - if he did try to pull one over on the league - I'm not so much mad as I am disappointed. Not only because it was an inevitable suspension waiting to happen, but because the Ingram/Kamara brotherhood, both on and off the field, was one of the most fun aspects of the Saints' resurgence. I was legitimately living vicariously through their bromance, so - while the first quarter of the Saints' schedule isn't too treacherous, and there's no reason to be too skeptical of Alvin Kamara's ability to shoulder the majority of the workload for a month - I'll be rather perturbed if that relationship is at all fractured. I think we're quite a few improvements in advanced analytics away from having a stat for how much chemistry can positively affect a team, but the Saints, led by their running backs, benefited from it in spades during an unexpected season of surpassed expectations. The following, however, does not sound beneficial...
As for Mark Ingram the player, as opposed to the personality, his absence - to put it simply - is going to suck. Not only did he and Kamara make each other's lives exponentially easier en route to having to a historic impact as a duo, but he's gotten more versatile and efficient as his career has rolled on. Four games is more than likely manageable, but if we see anything that remotely resembles the curious case of Willie Snead (circa '17) then a Saints' offense that was finally balanced would take a huge and unnecessary hit during a season that was shaping up to be special. I guess we'll be getting a look at Boston Scott a little sooner than we thought...
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