Players enter every season looking to win a Super Bowl, but as they get older, urgency begins to set in. They begin to realize they don’t have as much time left in their career and a greater sense of urgency is born from this realization.
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara has reached this point.
Kamara is only 29 years old, far from old but football age plays by different rules. This is especially true for running backs, so Kamara understands the clock is ticking.
“I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Well, I got time, I got time.’ Ain’t no time, so I’m trying to run it up,” he said.
Kamara is going into Year 8. He projected his career by posing the hypothetical of him playing 16 or 10 seasons. Either way, he’s going into the back half of his career.
“I feel like there is no time to waste, because let’s just say I’m at the halfway point, if I were to play 16 years,” Kamara said. “Or 10 years, I’m on the back end of my career. I don’t want to waste no time.”
The Saints have missed the playoffs in each of the past three seasons after making it in Kamara’s first four years. The running back is eager to return to the success he saw early.
He does believe that urgency has extended to younger players, as well. They may not have the same career timetable, so they don’t understand there’s no time to waste. What they do understand, however, is the time to strike is now. That message comes from older leaders and is received by younger players in the locker room.
