Shaun Alexander: the NFL MVP Who Saved my Behind

I promised not to use this space to shill for my (Smash Internet Hit!) sports column.  If you want to read that sort of thing, you know where to find it.  You clicked here, rather than there, for a reason.

As unfathomable as it is to a someone like me, I know some of you don't care about the Miami Dolphins or Alabama's football team, even when it relates to something important, like who will win the battle to be our back-up nosetackle the season after this one.

I get it. 

Well, actually I don't. 

But I will pretend like I do, so you don't break up with me as an audience. 

But this week's column is a rare exception, because it's about one of my favorite people ever.  The first and only NFL Most Valuable Player who was also one of my friends. 

Before he was a star with the Seattle Seahawks, Shaun Alexander was my college classmate.  We graduated in the same class.  I was the sports editor of my school paper, the Crimson White, so I got to spend a fair amount of time with him before he went on the become one of the greatest players in NFL history.

He was the only player I ever interviewed who answered questions as long as anyone would ask.  A few times, I kept asking until no one else was around, and we moved from talking about football to life, religion and whatever else.

Shaun and I shared a common faith, though his probably exceeded mine. 

Alabama is a party school like few on earth.  Coming from a sheltered conservative Christian background, I struggled with immensely with the alcoholic culture of my school, but the ability to have encouraging conversations with the star of the football team, who faced some of the same issues, made me feel a little less alone.  Maybe at some level he felt the same way, except considerably less in awe of his conversation partner.  

The first time I met Shaun remains my favorite encounter.  As a 19-year-old freshman, I had an short interview scheduled with Alabama’s entire stable of running backs on a hot summer day in Tuscaloosa.

It was my first high-profile article. Alexander was a rising sophomore with promise, but he was buried on the depth chart at that point. I had been assigned to write an article previewing Alabama’s running game for the upcoming season. Alexander who entered the season as the third string backup, was to be a mere sidenote to the story.

Until he was the only one who bothered to show up.

When the other players didn't show, I feared Shaun would leave too.  After all, he had showed up to an interview for a story that couldn't be completed, and his interviewer was a bumbling college kid who probably didn't inspire a lot of confidence or provide any obvious incentive to stay. 

But Shaun not only submitted to an interview, he talked for nearly an hour, providing enough material, even beyond the questions I asked, to bail out a desperate 19-year old rookie writer with enough material to make a good story. And then some.

I became a Shaun Alexander fan that day.  Had he not taken the time to show up and go above and beyond in helping out a kid who obviously didn't know what he was doing (or even successfully schedule an interview), I would have bombed my first big assignment and maybe never gotten another one. 

Shaun saved me that day.  So, I take today to pay him back with a tribute to his career, now that his place in Alabama lore has started to be overlooked (though it will never fade) in favor of more recent stars.  You can find it here.

I still owe him one, though.  We've lost touch over the years since college, but if I ever get a hold of him, I'll thank him again. 

Ironically, while the two other Alabama running backs I was supposed to have interviewed that day were too big-time to talk to me, neither one of them ever went on to accomplish anything professionally. 

Unlike Shaun Alexander.  The NFL MVP who once saved my behind.