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There is no spotlight hoarding with Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara.

Case in point: The two took turns booming and zooming through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense for 148 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns in Week 16, setting new all-time (Ingram, 50) and single-season (Kamara, 14) franchise rushing touchdown records in the process.

If they are going to break records, of course they did it on the same day.

Everything is always done together.

The New Orleans Saints rode their running back tandem to a 31-28 win, clinching the NFC’s No. 1 seed. This tremendous season in New Orleans has been built upon performances like these, every part working in harmony together to devastating effect rather than being reliant on singular greatness. It makes sense that when Kamara and Ingram turned to face the cameras, they did so together.



They have become somewhat famous for this tradition that started last year, conducting all post-game commentary at each other’s hip. While it’s not finish-each-other’s-sentences stuff, they flow off each other in conversation, one picking up where the other left off. They lean on each other and laugh at the other’s answers and enjoy themselves.

“I don’t think it’s a thing where we’re just teammates,” Kamara said. “I think it’s like a brotherhood.”

Two years ago they did not know each other. Now they are essentially inseparable.

It is a bond that blossomed organically, starting over basic commonalities — both played the same position, both played at Alabama — and turned into something deeper over time.

They don’t know how it happened, it just did.

It is, as Ingram put it, genuine, something he considers hard to find.

“We never had any issues,” Ingram said. “We’ve always showed love to one another, we’ve always been there for one another, and that’s something, that brotherhood, that is going to last a lifetime. It goes deeper than this game.”

When Kamara first arrived with the Saints as a rookie last season, he dropped into a position group that featured two Pro Bowlers with nearly 16,000 rushing yards between them in Ingram and Adrian Peterson.

Ingram watched the rookie closely and noticed that Kamara chose to open himself up to learning from the veterans, rather than acting like he knew everything. He knew Kamara started his college career at Alabama before winding up at Tennessee. The two talked about why Kamara left and people they both knew.


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homerj07

I was surprised how well they fit together last year.

I'm glad Ingram had only 4 games and not more. SP was about to kill Alvin those first 4 games.

Wow!! 50 TDs combined in the first 2 years. Thats an amazing stat