Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
By Ross Jackson
One player who is not at all surprised to hear his name involved in trade conversation is New Orleans Saints’ star running back Alvin Kamara. Year after year, the ninth-year rusher’s name resurfaces every trade deadline and as the NFL Draft nears as a possible player on the move.
Then, year after year, Kamara dons the fleur de lis on his helmet for the Saints.
This year is no different. The Saints consistently find themselves subjected to “fire sale” talk and are estimated to be sellers at the trade deadline. Yet again, Kamara is at the center of those conversations.
“It’s been like that for years,” Kamara said about being the subject of trade rumors. “It just is what it is. I’m just focused on what I’m doing. I don’t really think about it too much.”
Unlike years past, this time it was reported that Kamara and general manager Mickey Loomis had a conversation about the potential for a trade. By the end, Kamara had reestablished his desire to remain in New Orleans.
The back’s commitment to New Orleans is nothing new and is a sentiment he again shared with the media heading into the team’s Week 7 matchup against the Chicago Bears.
“I think I’ve been vocal enough,” Kamara said. “I don’t want to go anywhere. And I said it countless times. Y’all know that. I think everybody knows that. The fan base knows that.”
Rather than resting on the laurels of the reported conversation, Kamara again clarified that he has very little interest in playing anywhere other than New Orleans. While the decision is not one that he has control over, it is one to which he has a simple solution. Have a drink.
“I don’t go upstairs and I don’t have an office upstairs,” He said. ”I got an office in Charlotte at NASCAR, but I don’t got an office upstairs. So, I don’t really sit in those meetings and I don’t really know what happens up there. I just keep my head down…if I was a GM. I guess I would go to the player and be like, ‘Hey, we’re trading you, just so you know.’ So, if Mickey comes downstairs and says that, then I’m going to go drink a pina colada.”
