Alvin Kamara has been a Pro Bowl selection for each of his four seasons with the New Orleans Saints. But the running back said he didn’t think he would have had that level of success had he not been eliminated in Alabama before taking the field for Crimson Tide.
“I learned a lot from Alabama,” said Kamara during an appearance on “Club Shay Shay,” a podcast hosted by Fox Sports’ Shannon Sharpe. “I’m not even talking about football. I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about how to interact with other people and a lot about how to deal with certain situations. I just learned a lot about life. When I left Alabama, I went home. I mean, nobody knows for sure: I was about to end football ”.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution named Kamara as Mr. Georgia Football, but when he arrived in Alabama, Kamara said he found out while he was “a pit bull near Chihuahuas in high school, and now they are all pit bulls and some of the pit bulls are bigger than me, so I’m still barking, but I say, ‘OK, I have to bark a little louder or I have to do a little more.’ And then I ended up hurting myself during the camp and I kind of didn’t know how deal with it. My mind was immature and I did a lot of immature things.
“I take full responsibility. It was immaturity. It was nothing about the coach (Nick) Saban not liking me, the coach (running-backs) (Burton) Burns not liking me. It was totally my fault. “
Kamara said he chose to go to Alabama in 2013 because he wanted to “be the best version of me, so I will go where the best is”.
“I was like, ‘Dude, I’m about to go and I’m about to show you why I’m the best running back’,” said Kamara. “At the time, I was 17 years old. I’m leaving the state championship. I’m having fun. I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m about to blow this up’, without thinking that there are seven of us in this room, it’s a soccer ball, it’s 10 games. What are we going to do, you know?
“So we got there, and it’s me, Tyren Jones, Altee Tenpenny – rest in peace with him, this is my brother – and Derrick Henry, all in the same class, not to mention TJ Yeldon, Kenyan Drake, Jalston Fowler and Dee Hart who already is there. So we walked into the room for the first running-back meeting and Coach Burton Burns – I love him so much, even though he was on my ass every day at Bama – we looked around and Altee and I were like, ‘Dude, we are stupid as hell. What are we doing?’ …
“We thought it was cool and now we are here and we realized, like, ‘OK, one, two, three, four and nobody is sloppy there.'”
JOSH JACOBS, JON GRUDEN DRAKE KENYAN DRAKE FOR LAS VEGAS
After leaving Alabama in January 2014, Kamara returned home to Norcross, Georgia, and was arrested in February for four traffic violations, including driving with a suspended license.
“I’m sitting in the back seat of the police car,” said Kamara, “and the policeman is like, ‘You are not a goddamn model. You are nothing, daddy daddy daddy. And I’m like, it’s that moment of realization, like, ‘What am I doing?’ “
After his mother released him from prison, Kamara said, “We took that ride home, and she said, ‘I’m not mad at you. But you need to find out something. The next day, I called Clemson. I’m like, ‘Okay, cool. Let me out of here. I have to get back on track. ‘And they’re like,’ Ah, nah. ‘ I was arrested, and the news really hit. “
Instead, Kamara played the 2014 season at Hutchinson Community College before returning to the SEC with Tennessee in 2015 and 2016.
Kamara entered the NFL as a third-round selection in the 2017 draft. In 60 games of the regular season, he has 3,340 yards and 43 touchdowns in 672 running attempts and 326 receptions for 2,824 yards and 15 touchdowns.
The Saints made the post-season pitch in each of Kamara’s four seasons, but New Orleans will not have quarterback Drew Brees in the 2021 campaign. After 15 seasons with the Saints, Brees announced his retirement last month.
New Orleans coach Sean Payton said he plans to put former Hueytown High School star Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill, competing to replace Brees on the starting lineup. Kamara said defenders have a difficult task ahead of them.
SAINTS TO LET JAMEIS WINSTON, TAYSOM HILL COMPETE FOR THE OLD WORK OF DREW BREES
“Exactly what Sean said. I think the statement is true, ”said Kamara. “It’s really at stake, so I think it will depend on who really gets up and takes care of the team as a whole because, as I said, Drew is a void that I don’t think is easy to fill. There will never be another Drew Brees. But whoever feels most comfortable being yourself and finding their own way to take control of the team and embrace your role as the new quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, I think it will be the one who will win the quarterback battle. “
Hill spent most of his four seasons with the Saints as an all-round offensive weapon, but he started as a defender in the four games Brees lost during the 2020 season.
Winner of the 2013 Heisman Trophy in the state of Florida, Winston joined New Orleans as a reserve last season, after five seasons as a holder of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at QB. Winston re-signed with Saints this off-season.
“Jameis, as it’s his second year on the show, I think he’s more comfortable,” said Kamara. “Whenever it’s your first year on the go, you’re trying to discover personalities, discover the manual, discover coaches. Find your clue and open your clue. And one thing about Jameis, he is very comfortable with who he is. He knows who he is and is very comfortable with his skills. He knows what his strengths and weaknesses are. As I said before, once you learn what you should be doing, why you should be doing it, I think that allows everything else to be an addition to your game. Jameis year 2, I think he will be more comfortable and will be able to show exactly what his work is.
JAMEIS WINSTON: DREW BREES ‘DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH IT MEANS TO ME’
“We’ve seen Taysom play, not just in the last three years that he’s been on our team contributing, but this year really being the leader and the starting defender. And I think the same thing is true for Taysom: he knows what his strengths and weaknesses are. He’s a competitor. I think he is also a leader ”.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @ AMarkG1.
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