Detroit – Boom mikes leaned in from above the intrusive mass of humanity. Tape recorders were activated. Pens stroked the notepads. Questions were shouted from all directions, usually at the same time.
For one of the first times all season, Shaun Alexander had nowhere to run. It was time for the star running back of the Seattle Seahawks to reveal himself, once and for all, to the national media.
Say this for the Super Bowl hype: Without it, people might never have found out how pleasant Alexander is to be around. To think all this time the perception might have been he was just another star athlete making millions of dollars, but nevertheless disgruntled about his contract situation.
Alexander the man is nothing like that perception.
“That’s one thing that’s really weird,” said Alexander, who posted the NFL’s top individual season and has the most valuable player award to prove it. “Being a man of faith, I must first love people and never judge people. But you get judged really quick when you never judge anybody. I’m like, how did this work out?”
As Sunday’s Super Bowl XL between the Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers approaches, it’s clear that no person benefited more from the exposure than Alexander.
He set an NFL record this season by scoring 28 touchdowns, but not once did he perform a demonstrative end-zone celebration worthy of the 10 o’clock sports highlights. He does not make controversial comments.
“You’d think the league MVP would be this-and-this type of guy,” said Walter Jones, the Seahawks’ superb left tackle. “But he’s a down-home type of guy who is all about his family, and very caring.”
Most football households are familiar with running backs Tiki Barber, LaDainian Tomlinson, Clinton Portis and Edgerrin James. But Alexander? He’s a superstar in fantasy leagues only.
To seemingly everybody else, Alexander is that guy on the West Coast who has the great stats, but few had seen him play until this year’s playoffs.
Alexander, 28, also is about to become a free agent, and considering he has rushed for an NFL-high 5,011 yards the past three seasons, his contract status has become attached to his name like the mountain man look came to identify Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer.
Then came the annual Super Bowl media frenzy. The interviews carried on here day after day after day. Alexander seemed to enjoy each question as much as the first. He has been polite, humble and gracious. He talks a lot about Jesus and his mom, Jesus and his wife and daughters, Jesus and his teammates.
“People have been telling me I’m a nice guy and I tell them, you know, I’m really not a nice guy, I’m a man of God,” Alexander said. “That means I have fire. I have a little passion. And the word says there’s nothing wrong with kicking a little butt now and then.”
He seems to answer even the most delicate, personal questions honestly. The contract situation stalled because the Seahawks’ front office was in upheaval after last season, and it took a while before Alexander’s agents knew exactly who had the authority to negotiate.
“I just said I don’t want to be part of all this stuff and try to lead this team to a Super Bowl and try to play the best game of my life in Detroit while we’re talking about money, and then all the sudden I’m offended or somebody else is offended,” Alexander said.
Growing up near Cincinnati, across the state line in Kentucky, Alexander experienced the divorce of his parents when he was in sixth grade. And no, he said, he doesn’t need pity.
“You could see it coming,” he said. “I had some uncles who had great marriages and some friends who had parents who had great marriages, and our family wasn’t like that. So I was like, ‘Ooh, this is not good.’ But everything can be turned from bad into good. I just adore my wife and I know how my dad did my mother and I learned.”
Later, Mom always said Dad was a great man who did some bad things, he said.
“Because of that honesty, my dad and I have a great relationship,” Alexander said. “My mom and I have a great relationship, and they have a great relationship. I think that is what’s launched me into who I am, taught me how to forgive people.”
So to those who thought Alexander was just another spoiled athlete, he has forgiven. Next question.
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
