Mark Ingram’s ‘Lambeau Leap’ ends up meaning more than he could have imagined
By Cody McClure
Published:
Former Alabama and current New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram had never done the “Lambeau Leap” in his NFL career.
That all changed on Sunday when Ingram spotted a pair of Saints fans in the front row of the Green Bay Packers’ famous stadium.
Ingram rushed in a 12-yard touchdown and contemplated doing the leap, which is basically just a jump over the barrier in the back of the end zone to engage with fans. However, as he recalled in a report from The New Orleans Advocate, he didn’t see a lot of black and gold.
It was mainly green and gold — yet Ingram leaped anyway.
“Luckily, it was meant to be,” Ingram said.
As it turns out, maybe it was meant to be, indeed.
A man named Todd Fruge, who has been fighting cancer for over two years, had made the trip all the way from Baton Rouge, La., with his friend, John Hartmann, for the game between the Saints and Packers — which the Saints won 26-17.
“We truly believe that things happen for a reason,” Susan Fruge, Todd’s wife, told The Advocate. “Todd needed a pick me up with everything going on. God knew what he was doing when he put Todd in the end zone right there. Hopefully this is a good motivator to give him strength to keep fighting.”
Todd Fruge was diagnosed with colon cancer in March 2015. He reportedly completed 12 rounds of chemotherapy in December of that year, but just three months after that, the cancer returned, and spread to his lungs and liver.
“It was quite devastating to find that out,” said Todd Fruge.
The cancer returned again in March and spread into his bones, yet he’s still living his life.
“So when Hartmann asked him a week ago if he wanted to make the trip from Baton Rouge to Green Bay to a game in the most storied stadium in all of football, he couldn’t turn it down,” the report said.
He was shocked that Ingram noticed him and his friend.
“He pointed at us and we were thinking ‘Holy crap, he’s coming!” Fruge said. ” … You try to take one day at a time with cancer. I don’t want to call it a bucket list because I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.
“But it was living out a dream because that’s one stadium you always want to go to. It means the world. (Ingram) said it was meant to be for him, but it was meant to on my side as well.”
Cody McClure is an SEC Football Writer for Saturday Down South. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he also co-hosts a midday sports radio show for FOX Sports. Cody previously worked for Athlon Sports.
