Nick HutchisonFounder and CEO, BookThinkers

Alec Ingold reflects on his ACL injury

27 Apr 2023 · 1 min

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In this interview, Nick Hutchison asks NFL running back Alec Ingold about the moment he tore his ACL and the emotional and career implications of the injury. Ingold describes the sudden loss of all his achievements and the flood of uncertainty that followed, questioning whether he would ever play again, when surgery would happen, and what his future would look like. He recounts a pivotal conversation with teammate Derek Carr, who had recently suffered a season‑ending ankle injury during an MVP season. Carr advised Ingold to accept the situation and recognize that while he cannot control the injury, he can control his response, emphasizing personal agency in dealing with setbacks.

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You tear your ACL, you're in the NFL. What did that feel like? Did you think, I'm done? Did that ever even cross your mind? Like, bring us through that experience.
The moment I tear the ACL, everything, every accolade, every title that you could have given me, you know, you can run down the list, it's all gone in the snap of a finger. The uncertainty of your future was just like right there and prevalent in your face. And it was not life-threatening, but it was career-threatening. It was all those thoughts run through your head, like, will I ever play a snap ever again? Will I be back on this stage? Where will I be? Who am I going to have the surgery done? When's it going to happen? So all those questions, that rabbit hole just gets built deeper and deeper and deeper. And, uh, I had a teammate at the time, Derek Carr, who's now a New Orleans Saint, come up to me in that locker room. He had a season-ending injury where he breaks, like snaps his ankle, both bones in the leg gone, right? And his season's over. And he had to deal with that having an MVP season. And I just remember him telling me like, deal with it how you have to, but you have a choice. Like you can't control