When he hears his name called sometime in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night, perhaps before the Giants pick at No. 19, maybe even when the Giants pick, running back Mark Ingram anticipates he will feel unmitigated joy and satisfaction.
It would be understandable if he also experienced an equally strong but far different emotion, because his father, Mark Ingram Sr., the former Giants receiver and Super Bowl hero, will not be at Radio City Music Hall to share the moment with his son. Instead, he will be watching from a federal prison in Ashland, Ky., where he is incarcerated.
“It’s not bittersweet at all,” Mark Ingram Jr. told The Post this week. “He’s not here, but at the same time he’s here in my heart and he’s here in spirit and he’ll be watching. Although he’s not here, I know he loves me and everything that we worked for growing up, it all paid off because I’m about to get drafted. I know he’s happy with that, I’m happy with that, my whole family is just proud of me. It’s a blessing, it really is.”
Blessings, and curses, are nothing new to the Ingrams. The son is the highest-rated running back in the draft, an accomplished player who as a sophomore helped Alabama to a national championship and won the Heisman Trophy.
VIDEO: HUBBUCH’S DRAFT PREVIEW
Ingram credits his father’s guidance for helping steer the way to the NFL. Yet his famous father is now infamous, serving a seven-year jail sentence for money laundering and bank fraud. Mark Ingram Sr., an elusive Giants receiver from 1987-92, made one of the most memorable catches in franchise history — a 14-yard reception on third-and-13 against the Bills in Super Bowl XXV — and also was the player who caught Dan Marino’s memorable fake-spike touchdown pass for the Dolphins against the Jets in 1994.
But Ingram has been in and out of jail since retiring from the NFL in 1996. In 2009, Ingram jumped bail, ignoring a judge’s order to start a 92-month jail term because he wanted to watch his son — at the time a freshman backup — play in the Sugar Bowl. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals two hours before the game, sitting alone in a hotel room in Flint, Mich. Two years were tacked onto his sentence, and he is scheduled to be released in November 2014.
Ingram Jr. has a close relationship with his father, despite all the troubles. They speak several times each week, with plenty of pre-draft advice coming this particular week.
“He raised me to play the game,” the younger Ingram said. “He knew what it took to play Division I football, to play in the NFL, to win a Super Bowl. At times in high school, when other kids would be at the pool or sleeping in, I’d be up running bleachers, running routes, working out in the heat. I know about hard work.”
The 5-9, 215-pound Ingram left Alabama after his junior year, and most mock drafts have him as the only running back going in the first round.
Is running back a glaring need for the Giants? Ahmad Bradshaw gained a career-high 1,235 yards last season in his first year as a starter, but he has a long history of ankle and foot problems and could be a free agent, depending on the outcome of talks on a new collective bargaining agreement. Brandon Jacobs gained 823 yards in a reduced role, but does not appear to be the dynamic force he once was and is scheduled to make $4.65 million, hefty money for a backup.
Ingram said he has not had very much contact with the Giants during the pre-draft evaluation process. But he was born in New Jersey and grew up a Giants fan.
Perhaps he will follow his dad to the Giants, which would likely bring a smile to the face of a prisoner hoping for the best for his son.