Alec Ingold, Miami Dolphins Fullback

What's the strangest thing you're afraid of?

Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know people who get surgeries to look like an animal, to giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants.

Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your merch with your friends. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast Your Weirdest Fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people hybrids, you know people who get surgeries to look like an animal, to giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants. Listen and subscribe giant statues.

I probably would poop my pants. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. Alec, how you been? What's up, Zach? I'm good, man. It's good to get one in the win column, man. It was a little tumultuous there for a little bit. How's that for a vocab word?

But no, it's good. Excited to be in the playoffs. Excited to be back one more week with the boys guaranteed. And yeah, we'll strap up and let it rip. Obviously, it's just an elated feeling for you guys to clinch the postseason birth, especially with how it looked like it was going the other way down the stretch in a five game losing streak. Just take me inside that locker room. You guys got the job done, what you could control.

You got the victory. Then you watch the Patriot game wind down and then you officially know you're going to the postseason. What was that locker room like? It was really cool, man. It's cool to be a part of a team that, you know, obviously it's my first year there, but a lot of these guys been together three, four or five years, right? And to see all the work kind of epitomized in that moment, we put it all out on the field.

We controlled what we can control. Like, just like you said, seeing Thomas Morstead's kids in the locker room, you know, celebrate. And there's a lot of guys where we're all at different journey, different journey spots along this way. So to be able to kind of sit there with the guys, with the whole staff and kind of see that one three kneel downs by the bills, it was cool to see.

Yeah, it's a proud feeling. Obviously it's kind of a roller coaster of emotions, but definitely really excited to be able to get one more with these guys at least. For you individually, you got hurt last year when you were with the Raiders. What is this year just kind of when you look back and reflect the grind coming back from rehab, joining a new team to be off to the postseason? Personally, how do you kind of just reflect on this past year? I mean, it has been, I haven't really had those moments of reflection.

You ask that question. It's like, yeah, it kind of been through a lot, I guess. It's been cool, but at the same time, it's definitely had an impactful mindset from Coach McDaniel. Just the whole growth mindset that he's kind of given our locker room to always be working on improving, never-ending self-improvement, the strive for perfection, knowing you're never going to arrive. All of those kind of thoughts have been with me and the rest of this team for 20, 25 plus weeks now. Just being a part of that locker room, it almost turns your brain off to the retrospect. It turns your brain off to looking back and seeing how far you've come because you're always just so dialed into what day it is and how you can get better.

He's all about mindful, intentional, deliberate work every single day. Yeah, it's been cool. I think I'll be able to look back on the journey of being a free agent and choosing this team and them choosing me and having to go through an injury, watching a playoff game from a coach's booth was not fun. So getting to play in one this year is going to be awesome.

Just really thankful for that, for sure. Take me through from week 16 to week 17, because this is like one of the best kept secrets, but it's crazy. You got surgery after the week 16 game, and we all know fullbacks are tough, Alec Engel, but to be able to play in week 17 and not miss any time, if that was me and I needed thumb surgery, I would have been out for like a month. Yeah, I think the whole decision to get surgery was tough.

I break my hand trying to tackle a Green Bay Packer, just thumb hits the ground, whatever. Okay, so it's dislocated and it's fractured. So we're trying to put it back in. We're trying to hold it back in place and cast it up there. It's not working.

It's coming out. So we have to get surgery has to get fixed. And doc was pretty cool, calm, collected, put a couple pins in and he was like, you're good to go. Like, wow, we'll be good. Surgery went awesome. You're a champ. And I took my vitamins.

I've been drinking my milk, getting that calcium up. And no, it's just one of those moments where we're towards the end of the season. So many guys have put so much into it.

You're on this losing skid. And it's really a test to your character. It's a test of who you are as a locker room guys, a teammate and trying to strap up with those guys, bring that physicality, that presence, the 21 two back personnel up to Foxborough and leave it all on the line there to try and clinch was big and you fall short, but you get right back on it and you try and go again.

And the second time was a charm. Was there at all a thought of, oh, here we go again because you got hurt, different injury last year. And that team went on to go to the playoffs. You're fighting for your playoff lives. And then you get hurt again, was, did you at all think, oh, here we go again, where my season's going to be over. Yeah.

And I think you learn a lot about how your mind works like that and to be able to stop that spiral and not let your gut mind get go to that spot. Right. Because an ACL is immediately you're down eight, nine months.

This is going to be a journey. Right. And then say, okay, it's a thumb. This isn't the same injury.

It's not the same deal. Let's take it for what it is. Let's not make it more than what it is or what, or less than what it is. And, and let's just listen to the doctors. Let's listen to the coaching staff and let's go play ball.

If we can play ball. And I'm just really thankful for the training staff and the surgeon, everybody that played a, played a role in just getting this thumb right. Now you're playing, but that does not mean that you still aren't feeling pain. How is the hand doing right now? Cause this is insane that you're still able to give it a go. Yeah. Everyone has said, once you have a club is going to be like a weapon.

And I don't know, I don't know where these guys had like hard sided, like mine's real nice and padded and soft. And I'm sure anyone that I block is like, what is this guy doing? Like just let's get this club out of here. So haven't been able to use it to my advantage too much, but learning the game within the game, just overcoming it and being able to play different techniques, working on using my hands, different ways, body leverage, different ways. It's been a challenge. So it's been, it's been a new wrinkle to the season.

That's for sure. And just thankful to still be able to, to get on the field with these guys. What can you tell us about your quarterback and Tuatunga Vailoa? Cause the whole sports world is wondering if he's going to be able to get cleared and play this weekend. Man, I just, I hope to his, you know, I obviously he's, he's listened to all of the experts and everything like that. I think everyone in our locker room just, just wants dude to be safe, dude, to be healthy. He's happy.

He's joking around with the guys again. It's cool to see him in the locker room and whatever that means for, for this game moving forward, like we'll, we'll be all right. And just making sure that guy's healthy and, and for the longterm is cool with us. So I know coach has been in the media talking about that.

The trainers to himself. So I'm just really excited to see the guy happy moving around in the locker room. Like I think playing golf, this off season is going to be fun. And if we can get them, that's going to be great. And it's going to be really fun for our offense to, to go up to Buffalo. And if we can't just hopefully he's progressing the way that he has been so that we can we can be teammates and friends for a long time.

Do you guys hear the outside noise? Cause it seems like going into this one, even before we find out who's going to be playing quarterback for the dolphins this weekend, that no one's really given you guys a shot in this game. I mean, I think that's, that's something where it's there and you can pay attention to, or you cannot, and everyone's going to have an opinion.

Everyone's going to have feelings. And you know, at the end of the day, we, we get to focus on details. We get to go into work and improve and play against a team that we've played twice down to the wire two times. And you just gotta be thankful for that opportunity and get ready to go play your best game, put your best foot forward, put great stuff on film, be detailed. And, and if we can put four quarters of ball together, I mean it's going to be fun and it's obviously a really big challenge for us, but it's going to be fun to be able to get this opportunity with the guys. We earned it. It took all 18 weeks, but, but we're in the tournament. And I think that's, that's all anyone asks for is just a shot to get in the tournament and see what we can do from there. Alec Ingold here with us.

Yeah. What type of team do you guys have? Because it seems like whenever I'm just about to buy in and you guys look like you're going to be a shooting for a playoffs at eight and three, then you guys go on that losing streak. There's been ups and downs. Obviously there's been injury when you guys now go into the playoffs.

What type of team do you think the Miami dolphins are entering wildcard weekend? We're a bunch of fighters. And I think that's, that's pretty indicative of the injuries that we've had overcome the adversity we've had to overcome. Everyone's sticking together.

I think a lot of people could have thrown in the towel a number of different times and nobody's tapping. So we had a standard of hard work, discipline, you know, that mindful, deliberate practice all the way in training camp, just good on good offense versus defense, you know, not afraid of competition, embracing that. And I feel like that's something that we've been doing all year long and the results have been up and down, up and down, like you've been saying, but at the end of the day, like I still think that we're improving as teammates, we're coming together.

We're still learning each other. And I think that's, that's what's been the cool part is you lose all the way down the stretch. It's so easy to quit. It's so easy to throw in the towel.

It's so easy to listen outside noise and for guys to be resilient, to find a way to win, to come together and win in different ways. I think that's, that's really what our team's been this year. It's definitely been about the process.

And I think that's the way we got to look at this one and just keep on keeping on Alec Ingold here with us. So I saw you have a book that just came out seven crucibles. Tell me about that entire process and what the book is about, man. The seven crew crucibles really just started as journaling.

You know, if you're in an ACL injury, anybody that's had a big piece of adversity in your life, I think a crucible is, it's a, it's a test that takes everything out of you. And that's kind of how I was feeling. And, you know, I got some advice from a lot of guys to journal your thoughts out, just write it out on piece of paper. And I started to think like, maybe some other people could use this. Maybe this could be something where we could share this experience. And I could just be relatable to anybody that's going through a big injury, anyone that has a big challenge in work or as an athlete and the journaling turned into audio, turned into transcriptions that turned into a manuscript that turned into a copy of a book headed to a publisher. So it was just real raw emotion, channeling all of that to try and inspire somebody else to, to share that, to keep myself accountable of having a good mindset and overcoming these little obstacles along the way in this, this rehab journey. And yeah, so we got a book together and it's really exciting. It's, it's really something where people will be able to read this, relate to it whether you're injured or not, whether you're a business person striving to be the best of the best, the best you can be and embracing that, not being afraid of that. And there's a lot of lonely nights and lonely mornings on a training table where no one is there to, when you can't even straighten your leg, there's no one there to help you.

And it hurts and you have to have that process all locked in mentally, physically, emotionally. So hopefully that book can really relate to a lot of people and just help be a little, little bit of inspiration or motivation whenever you're going through a trivial time so that you can really just push through, kind of see that light at the end of the tunnel and stay close to your goals and your priorities and your standard. And I think that's what it's all about. And it's really just taking the curtain back behind the NFL and what a rehab process looks like and how challenging it is. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you, cause we're on a bunch of stations right now in Wisconsin. What are your thoughts on Luke Fickel joining your Badgers? Man, Coach Fickel is bringing a lot of juice to Madison. It's, it's been fun to watch from afar. Obviously I'm out in Florida, but just seeing that entire athletic department embrace him.

I know they're at a wrestling meet recently against Penn State. And it's just like, it just seems like there's a lot of energy there and it's really cool to see that. And also just really proud of the guys in the, in the whole program. I know last, this last year was crazy tough for the coaches, the alumni, the players that have all been a part of that. And for them to stick together to do, to fight all the way through to the end to have a bowl win on top of all of that, I think is really cool to just show what Wisconsin's all about of just, you know, constantly raising the bar.

And I think coach Fickel is obviously raising the bar in his own way in the, in this recruiting trail right now. So it's going to be exciting to see. Now, I don't know if you could do this with your, your injury right now, but you're playing, can you throw a football still with this injury or no? I mean, if I stretch the fingers out, maybe I can rip it a little bit different. We'll have to, maybe I could go lefty too.

I've been working on like eating and writing left-handed. So maybe I'm ambidextrous now we'll see, because I don't want to do Mike McDaniel job, but I could kind of see a little full back pass two yards out little trickery where you're throwing the ball this weekend in Buffalo. That's what I just have visions now, since you get a little bit of that Zach Gelb show karma. I like it. I think I'm gonna get double-sided tape on the club. So then when I throw it, it'll just like, it'll just kind of catapult the ball forward. We'll, we'll work on that.

Now we need to go viral off this. So we need you to be a bad teammate and just go into coach's office tomorrow and say, coach, we got to throw the football this week. Cause this would be a pretty bad ass to have talked it through. It's going to be two yards. We know where it's going to be.

We already got this playing out. Yeah, for sure. Well, Alec Engel, once again, congratulations on the book seven crucibles. Congratulations on making the post-season all the recovery and that, and good luck the rest of the way. We appreciate you joining us today. Thanks for the time, Zach.

Appreciate it. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, your weirdest fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of everything from animal people, hybrids, you know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal to giant statues. If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants, listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app, your trusted local radio stations coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about like leagues and teams, pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later. There's a lot to listen to.

So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. What's the strangest thing you're afraid of Tails without fur on them, such as rats or possums? I'm Larry Mullins, host of the podcast, your weirdest fears, where we dig into the crazy things you're afraid of. Everything from animal people, hybrids, you know, people who get surgeries to look like an animal to giant statues.

If I ever saw one of those giant statues, I probably would poop my pants. Listen and subscribe on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from.