Alec Ingold – December 5, 2024
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Thursday, December 5, 2024
FB Alec Ingold
(This is your second nomination here. What does this mean to you?) – “I think that Walter Payton’s legacy was always about greatness on and off the field. The way he ran the ball was elegant. It was beautiful. And the work that he’s done, his entire family, the foundation and the legacy that they’ve been able to provide beyond his life has been inspiring to the entire organization, to the entire country. And the impact that’s been able to have just being associated with this award means a lot to me and my family. I take it extremely important. It’s a lot of responsibility and I think it lays a groundwork for work to be done in the community beyond your playing days while you’re doing it, leading by example and being able to set up this next generation for success. So just trying to do right by that award, by that name and by this league and this organization. I feel like all those responsibilities play a role in this recognition and this season of football that we’re in.”
(Last year you had this nomination and you were honored at NFL Honors with the other nominees from the 31 other teams. What did you take from being around those other nominees?) – “It’s a lot of guys doing really cool things and being able to be in a roundtable form with those, to be able to break bread and see all of the work that’s being done; I think it’s extremely inspiring. I think the challenge for the 32 nominees, to truly take this recognition, this moment and to be able to not only lead out in the communities but also the locker room, everything you’re doing, walking with your families; I feel like that group of guys is constantly trying to uplift one another so the past couple times I’ve been able to be a part of those rooms, I always leave it more hungry, more fulfilled, more inspired to do more work because of the environment that’s created around the Super Bowl, around NFL Honors, so I wouldn’t expect anything less this year.”
(Speaking of which you have a new teammate this year who is a former Walter Payton Man of the Year winner across the whole league, so how cool has it been to have DT Calais Campbell here and maybe have some of those conversations?) – “It’s a full circle moment for me being in the leadership council with Calais and working with him day in and day out. I don’t think I’ve ever told him this, but at the NFL Honors awards in 2019 when he won it, I was there with Josh Jacobs. He had brought me while he was going through the Offensive Rookie of the Year deal, and as a rookie you’re trying to figure out what you want to do in the league, right? You’re trying to figure out, okay, there’s all these activations, the signings, who you’re kind of looking up to. And I was really lost and trying to find what path I wanted to walk down in the NFL, and as soon as Calais gave his speech, I knew in my heart that that’s something that I wanted to do. I wanted to walk down that path and I wanted to embody all the work that he had put in, and it was extremely inspiring seeing him get his standing ovation and the work that he did through his foundation, through his family’s name. So it’s been pretty cool to have that full circle moment, going to work with him every single day, seeing that patch on his jersey and seeing how he walks that walk.”
(What are some of the things that you guys have been able to do with the Ingold Family Foundation that you’re proud of?) – “I think just sharing our story, being advocates for youth that have been adopted like myself, being a voice for those in foster care looking to become adopted. And at the end of the day, just bringing those messages of family into living rooms – whether it’s education, football camps – the events we do are cool, but being able to look somebody in the eye and tell them to call somebody and tell them they love them, right? And feel that connection, feel that vulnerability. The ‘relatableness’ that happens in those environments, it’s everything. It brings purpose to my work on the field, brings purpose to my life at every step that I walk, so being able to be an advocate for those that have been adopted and are looking to be adopted brings great joy in my life.”
(I know that that’s the cause for My Cause My Cleats for you. Tell me about taking advantage of this platform that you’re given as an athlete with My Cause My Cleats?) – “I think the NFL, the Dolphins as a whole, as an organization being able to utilize the platform that we have; they do a great job of allowing us to have these moments, to share our stories, to bring eyes, ears, attention to amazing causes that are happening in our lives because day to day we’re talking X’s and O’s, we’re getting into the nitty gritty of things and all of a sudden you bring kind of that bigger picture into things. I think it kind of reminds everybody just being a better person, doing things right just because that’s the integrity you should be walking with. All those messages I think are extremely important and My Cause My Cleats is a great reminder. Every step that we’re taking, we’re walking with an organization, a community, someone we’ve came from, stories that have been shared. So I think it’s a great opportunity and the Dolphins do a great job allowing us to share our platform and share our voices.”
(Two-part question for you – first, I know you talked a lot on the NBC special about what it would be like to go home, so first question is what was it like for you to go home, play in that stadium? And then additionally to that, I think towards the end of that special you mentioned one of the best parts would be seeing a bunch of people who are from the same place and looking at you and having that moment – has there been any moment since then that someone has come up to you and really shared some sort of affinity for what you talked about there?) – “I think going home was special. I think it’s a very historic place to play a football game, especially Thanksgiving, snow game. I think those are the moments that I’ve dreamed of as a kid being able to be part of. I’m glad it wasn’t my first time, so I was able to lock in at the job at hand and make sure I was doing right by the team and what we needed to do execution-wise. But I think for the family at-large, to be able to just have to drive 15 minutes down the street to go watch the Dolphins play some football was, I think that was really cool for them. It was a special moment for my family to celebrate Thanksgiving that way. And yeah, I think when you go to that special – we talk about the Ingold Family Foundation, all the work that we do serving those kids; I see myself in those kids through core traumas, through tough conversations, whatever environments we’re creating. So being able to be on that field and hoping that some of those kids could see themselves out on the football field, I think was special. Obviously, a lot of outreach through social media, through our website, opportunities to continue this work. And I think that’s the power of this platform and doing right by it, using it. Y’all as the media, you give us so much grace and opportunities to impact beyond what we do on the field, and I think that the more work, the more stories that are being shared from y’all allow for these kids to feel extremely special. And you never know the residual impact. I know we can look at numbers and clicks and you can go through all the analytics of things, but you can’t measure that one kid who gets it. And I think that’s where the power of us working together, this entire organization working together, I think that’s where real magic happens.”
(What do you think when you think about meeting up with the other 31 nominees for the Walter Payton Man of the Year and just kind of sharing your guys’ stories together?) – “I think it’s extremely humbling and you hope that you do right by that opportunity, and like I said earlier, I think it really is a motivating sense of continuing to do good, continuing to do right, walking with that integrity that Walter Payton did in his life and building a network of guys across the league that are wired the same way, have their hearts in the same place. The vehicles can be different, the foundations can be different, the communities can be different; but that intention is the same. So when you’re aligned that way, I think it’s an extremely special place to be a part of.”
