Not quite Alexander the Great

  • Scott M. Johnson / Herald Writer
  • Saturday, October 6, 2001 9:00pm
  • Sports

By Scott M. Johnson

Herald Writer

SEATTLE – The last time the Seattle Seahawks played the Jacksonville Jaguars, in November of last season, the final player into the locker room was a rookie running back who had carried the ball just three times for 13 indiscernible yards.

Shaun Alexander came off the Alltel Stadium field following another quiet afternoon and found himself trying to fulfill autograph requests from a couple dozen fans decked out in University of Alabama No. 37 jerseys. As post-games go, Alexander may have felt like he was back at Legion Field in Tuscaloosa.

“His stock in Alabama soared,” said Alexander’s older brother, Durran. “People love him there.”

Of course, Shaun Alexander’s popularity in the NFL is still at infantile proportions. The 24-year-old running back may have an Alabama license plate that proclaims him “ICON,” but he’s been a bit player for the Seahawks.

Until today, that is. He will make his second official NFL start – Alexander and Ricky Watters opened a game last season in the same backfield – and can expect to see the most playing time of his professional career.

The diehard fan base might start creeping its way up to this part of the country before long.

“If you look close, there’s a spattering of No. 37 jerseys up there,” Durran Alexander, 25, said. “Once people get to know him, on and off the field, they love him. The things Ricky Watters has done already, Shaun is going to be a continuation of that. He’s going to be everything the Seahawks wanted him to be.”

As fan clubs go, Durran Alexander is the chairman of the board. His official title is executive director of the Shaun Alexander Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to underprivileged families, but he’s also known as his little brother’s No. 1 fan.

Durran remembers the year when he gave up his own identity and started being “Shaun Alexander’s big brother.”

“The end of his sophomore season (in high school), he busted onto the scene,” said Durran, who was a grade ahead of Shaun at Boone County High School in Kentucky. “He comes in around the fourth or fifth game, and by the end of the year he rushes for like 1,000 yards. After that, it was all downhill for me.”

Despite the high school and collegiate success, Shaun Alexander still feels like he’s the one living life in his brother’s shadow. There was the time he went back to Kentucky for a wedding during his junior year at Alabama.

“Everybody was like, ‘Hey, it’s Durran’s little brother!’” Shaun said. “And I was already being pushed for the Heisman.”

Shaun contends that Durran might have been the better football player, but any debate ended when the older Alexander brother quit football to concentrate on playing the drums. Durran earned an academic scholarship to Notre Dame, where he was a member of the marching band.

“I absolutely love music,” Durran said. “I love marching band; it’s what I do. We played Pee Wee football together and had that little Alexander-to-Alexander connection. But (football) is definitely his deal. If they pumped up marching band like they do football, I’d get the love. That was his thing; God gave him the talent.”

Just like he had in high school, Shaun Alexander waited patiently at Alabama before getting his turn in the spotlight. He became the Crimson Tide’s starter during his junior year, and quickly became a fan favorite.

“You see someone on TV, the collegiate stars, and you wonder what it would be like to know them,” Durran said. “Then to have it happen to my brother, that’s just unbelievable. Everybody’s wearing his jersey, rooting for him, it’s really cool. There are like 85,000 people packed into the stadium, and it makes their day just to see my brother score a touchdown.”

Of course, there have been many college icons who went nowhere in the NFL. The Seahawks have certainly seen their share, from Brian Bosworth to Gino Toretta.

Shaun Alexander’s name can’t be added to that list yet, but his career thus far has been unremarkable. The 19th overall pick in the 2000 draft has spent the first 19 games of his NFL career as Watters’ backup, carrying the ball just 81 times. Alexander has been bottled up this year, rushing for 27 yards on 17 carries in his reserve role.

He can expect to get the ball closer to 15 or 20 times a game now that Watters is out six to eight weeks recovering from a shoulder injury.

“Now this is serious stuff,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said, “so we’ll see how he responds.”

The No. 1 fan is hoping today is the beginning of an era. Although Durran’s parents will make the trip to Husky Stadium to see Shaun play, the older brother is resigned to watching the game with nine friends via a Direct TV hookup in the basement of his mother’s Florence, Ky., house.

“I’ve always had the chance to be there with him, but not this time,” the older Alexander brother said. “I’ll be glued to the TV with my VCR on.”

Durran Alexander won’t be the only one in that part of the country glued to the game.

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