Despite three-game suspension, Alvin Kamara vows there will be no dropoff with him or Saints; says he feels 'dark cloud' lifting

Running back Alvin Kamara will be suspended for the first three games of the Saints’ season, the NFL announced Friday, meaning he’ll miss Week 1 at home vs. the Titans, Week 2 at the Panthers and Week 3 at the Packers.

That feels like a manageable resolution for both the team and the star running back, who met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in New York on Wednesday to share his side of the story before discipline was handed out for Kamara’s involvement in the February 2022 incident in Las Vegas.

Official.🍎: https://t.co/YMT3KpPXs0🤖: https://t.co/t0RJ2SPlDY pic.twitter.com/pk47pZcd2J— NOF (@nofnetwork) August 4, 2023

Obviously the Saints have prepared for a possible Kamara absence — first signing veteran running back Jamaal Williams in free agency, then drafting Kendre Miller in Round 3.

As for Kamara himself, while he was hoping the discipline could be as minimal as possible, he just told the media hours earlier on Friday that he was starting to feel energized now that the “dark cloud” of this saga was finally about to be behind him.

“Today I had a boost at practice. I just felt better, like a weight was off me. I’m just looking forward to focusing on football,” said Kamara, who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge last month after he had been facing a felony battery charge for more than a year. “It’s hanging over you, it’s hanging over you. And obviously, it’s self-inflicted, but nonetheless it’s like a dark cloud. It’s hard to enjoy the smaller things.”

Kamara insisted, however, that his off-field issues have never affected his preparation or his commitment to the team or his craft. He said the same about any possible suspension.

“I’m preparing the same way as if I’m not gonna get suspended,” Kamara said just before the punishment was announced. “If I do, obviously I don’t expect the team to miss a beat. They’ve gotta keep going if I’m here or not, right? I don’t think Pete (Carmichael Jr.) or Derek (Carr) or DA (Dennis Allen) or anybody is like, ‘Well, if Alvin gets suspended, we can’t do this or we can’t do that.’ They’re gonna keep moving.

“I don’t expect any dropoff. I don’t expect any dropoff in our room specifically. … One person don’t stop the show.”

Alvin Kamara is at the podium pic.twitter.com/DxsR3qHekc— NOF (@nofnetwork) August 4, 2023

Kamara will be eligible to participate in all preseason practices and games. And he will be permitted to return to the active roster on Monday, Sept. 25, following the Green Bay game.

Kamara and Colts DB Chris Lammons both received the same punishment for violating the league’s personal conduct policy during the February 2022 incident in Las Vegas, during which Kamara was seen on video punching a man during an altercation in the early morning hours outside of an elevator as they left a nightclub. Others in Kamara’s group then stomped on the man.

"Poor judgment on my end, definitely a bad decision, but I'm a man,” Kamara said in his first public comments on the incident Friday. “Anything I've ever done in my life, I've stood on, and I can take accountability for. I can say when I'm wrong, and I was completely wrong. I embarrassed the Saints. I embarrassed my family and my mother. I embarrassed myself. I embarrassed this city and ... I embarrassed the NFL."

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tough," Kamara continued. "I lost a lot throughout this ordeal. I'm not looking for any pity, not looking for somebody to give me a pat on the back and say, 'It's OK.' I know what I did; I know what I was involved in. I take responsibility.

"That's part of being a man and growing. From here, I've got to make the right decisions and make the right choices."

Saints observations: Alontae Taylor shines amid tight CB battle; Derek Carr endures down day https://t.co/3cU1dKq8I3— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) August 4, 2023

Kamara said he never wants to be in a position where he “put my hands on somebody,” especially as a leader and role model for children, and recognized that he is “blessed that it wasn’t worse."

“I hate that it happened. I hate the whole situation,” Kamara said. “I mean, I was out at five in the morning. What’d Tony Dungy used to say? 'Nothing good happens after midnight?' It’s gauging those situations and being able to make the right decisions, being where you’re supposed to be and sometimes taking yourself out of that position.”

Kamara added that the “whole team has been supportive.”

“It’s unfortunate when you make a decision like that, but I know my character, I know who I am,” Kamara said. “Luckily I’m somewhere where these people know who I am. This city knows who I am; that kept me going. But I’ve definitely learned that in the blink of an eye, a lot can change.”

Later in Kamara's conversation, when the subject had shifted to his thoughts on teammate Cam Jordan signing an extension with the Saints earlier Friday morning, Kamara joked, "I don't want to talk about Cam. I want to talk about me. I want a lifetime contract. I want to be here forever. I think y'all (media) need to put some pressure on Mickey (Loomis) how y'all did for Cam when he said (he wanted to be a Saints for life)!"

Although Kamara said that in a joking matter, he followed up more seriously, insisting that he truly is interested in spending his entire career in New Orleans.

"Of course I am!" Kamara said. "Like I said, I love it here. There's a lot of support here."

Nobody should try and downplay the significance of Kamara's offense off the field — just as he himself stressed repeatedly Friday. But if you're looking for the football ramifications of where the seventh-year veteran stands after just turning 28 last week, it's hard not get the impression he's in a good place, both literally and figuratively. And that could help give the entire offense a needed boost.