Some of the top plays and sacks from Melvin Ingram
Over the coming days, we'll highlight a few notable Chargers with their 2016 Media Guide profile. Up next is outside linebacker Melvin Ingram.
Melvin Ingram blossomed in 2015 as the former first-round pick led the team with 10.5 sacks, 19 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and 29 quarterback hits. He became the first Chargers' player to record a double-digit sack season since 2011 and he tied for 12th in the NFL in sacks. Ingram closed out the year by recording a sack in five straight games and had nine in the Bolts' last nine games.
The 2015 season, the first in which he started all 16 games, was particularly satisfying for Ingram. His two previous seasons (2013-14) were cut short by injuries — first a knee, then a hip. To stave off the injury bug, Ingram worked with a private trainer in Miami who completely revamped his diet and oversaw an intense workout program that included heavy cardio and boxing. Ingram learned to replace fatty meats, starches and carbohydrates with proteins and vegetables and as a result, he reported to camp 20 pounds lighter than he'd been in previous seasons, along with a body-fat count that dropped to eight percent.
Based on what he'd accomplished in 2013, the Chargers were keenly aware of Ingram's limitless potential. That year, Ingram tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during an early offseason practice. A medical marvel, Ingram returned to the field in early December, just five months removed from the injury, and he helped boost the Chargers into the playoffs for the first time since 2009. The Bolts went 4-0 down the stretch with Ingram back on the field and they won their first playoff game since 2008. In that playoff victory, a wild card win in Cincinnati, Ingram was outstanding as he collected his first NFL interception and he led the team with four quarterback pressures.
Off the field, Ingram is an aspiring rap musician who in 2015 released a full-length mixtape entitled "From Nothing to Something." His favorite song on the tape is called "Pops," which is a tribute to his late father, George Melvin Ingram, Jr., who died of a massive heart attack in 1998. It was Ingram's father who many years ago predicted that his infant son would one day play in the NFL.
Following his father's passing, Ingram's mother, Nancy raised him and his two older sisters as a single mom. At Richmond County High School in his native Rockingham, North Carolina, Ingram became a football star and three-year starter at point guard for the school's basketball team where he earned the nickname "SupaMelvin." So gifted was Ingram that he once walked out of a high school math class so he could go to the school's gym to break the hang-clean record in his school clothes. After a brief warmup, he did so with a lift of 380 pounds, five more than the previous school record. And prior to the 2006 Shrine Bowl All-Star Game featuring the top high school seniors from North and South Carolina, Ingram threw the fastest pass during a pregame carnival, posting the fastest throws with both his left and right hands. Ingram can also perform a standing back-flip, spin a football in his hand and dunk it over a crossbar, dunk a basketball with ease and throw a football more than 70 yards without taking a step.
In 2015, Ingram launched the nonprofit foundation, "Mission Possible." Its purpose is to provide inner-city and low-income children with additional educational opportunities and resources. A celebrity waiter event is the foundation's signature event. Also in 2015, Ingram joined professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, BMX Champion Alise Post and County government officials in a public service announcement designed to combat domestic violence. The spots aired on local cable channels throughout San Diego.
TRANSACTION HISTORY: First-round pick (18), April 26, 2012...signed May 11.
