Running For Help
Explosive running back Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks picks up people as well as he picks up yards.
by Gail Wood
As an NFL running back, Shaun Alexander runs to win. Runs to score touchdowns. You already knew that.
But the Seattle Seahawks tailback, who crashed through the Oakland Raiders defense for 266 yards in 2001 and scored an NFL-record five touchdowns in the first half against Minnesota earlier this season, also runs for a less obvious reason—one you may not have heard about.
He runs to help others.
Two years ago, Alexander used some of the $3.8 million rookie signing bonus he received from the Seahawks to start the Shaun Alexander Family Foundation, which was set up to help families and young people who need a hand up.
"I play to make a difference in their lives," Alexander says of the people his foundation helps. "It's not just about football. It's also about helping others."
In his hometown of Florence, Kentucky, which is just on the other side of the Ohio River from Cincinnati, and in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he played college football, Alexander has established offices to help the needy. Next summer, Alexander plans to open another office in Seattle.
Alexander's foundation assists families with a variety of needs. It helps them pay the rent and electric bills, buy school lunches, and even purchase school clothes. At Thanksgiving, the foundation delivers turkey meals to homes. At Christmas, families receive ham dinners, wrapped gifts, and a tree. Last Christmas, the group served nearly 300 meals, and 200 children received gifts. He's also started a college scholarship fund.
"It's all about giving back," Alexander says. "A lot of people around me are asking me why am I doing this? And they're telling me I shouldn't be doing this, but you know what? You can't out-give God."
Alexander understands what it's like being without. He and his brother, Durran, grew up in a single-parent home. But Alexander remembers that his mother, Carol, although her cupboards were never brimming, would help others who were without a meal or needed help in getting clothes.
"My mom was always giving and helping others," Alexander says. "That's where I learned about giving. So now that I'm so tremendously blessed, I wanted to do what my mom has always done."
To do that, Alexander needed someone to run his foundation. He didn't have to look far. He chose Durran, who graduated from Notre Dame with a marketing degree. Durran left a job with Campbell's Soup as a territory manager to operate his brother's non-profit organization that now employs four people.
"Shaun and Durran are a great team," says their cousin Ben Brown, who also works in the foundation. "It's amazing what they've done. They've helped a lot of lives."
The Alexander brothers work through established state and city government agencies, as well as local churches, putting their name on the list of places to get help. Last year, the foundation gave out $22,000 to help 250 families in northern Kentucky and Alabama. Shaun does not know how much the foundation has spent this year.
"I don't want to count numbers," Alexander says. "My advisory people are telling me I shouldn't do this, but I don't get into how much I'm giving. I just feel that if I'm supposed to give, I'll pray about it and I'll just let it rip."
But it's not just about money. The foundation also passes on a message of hope.
"A lot of times when people come in to get money, we'll share Bible verses with them," Brown says. "We also pray for them in the office."
Brown also hands them a pamphlet about the foundation and about Shaun Alexander's testimony.
When Alexander first started thinking of playing in the NFL, he began planning on ways to help people.
"In college he talked about helping people," Brown says. "It was one of those ministries he knew he wanted to do. It hasn't just been about football for Shaun. It's also always been about helping people."
At first, Alexander considering building homes for needy families. But that was already being done.
"My brother and I were thinking we've got to do something to help people," Alexander says. "A friend of our family who played for the San Diego Chargers built houses for families who couldn't afford one. I thought, let's do something different. So we came up with the idea to help kids."
Besides helping families pay the bills and put clothes on the kids, Alexander's foundation also helps send kids to Fellowship of Christian Athletes summer camps. Alexander said the camps are a chance to help plant seeds of discretion.
"When you're young, it's 'How far is too far?' " Alexander says. "Because you don't know better. Let's say you're out with your friends, and they're drinking. You say, 'I guess it's all right because they aren't drunk.' That's a lack of knowledge."
Alexander said he accepted Jesus into his life when he was 10 at an Easter service. When he was 18, he memorized a Bible verse that he says helped shape his life. The verse is Psalms 37:4: "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."
Alexander accompanies his autograph with that verse.
"That's the first Scripture I ever memorized," Alexander says, "other than John 3:16 and 'Jesus wept' (John 11:35). He's going to give you the desires of your heart. He's promised that."
On the football field, Alexander wears No. 37, but not because of Psalm 37. At Boone County High School in northern Kentucky, his number was 44. But when he went to the University of Alabama, a linebacker already had that number, so Alexander opted for 37. "He chose that because it was different," says Brown, who played defensive end with Shaun for the Boone County Rebels and later played at Morehead State University.
Alexander made that number famous last year when he moved into the starting lineup after Ricky Watters got hurt. In his first three starts, Alexander, the 19th player picked in the 2000 draft, rushed for 266, 176, and 142 yards. He scored 10 touchdowns. Alexander's 1,661 all-purpose yards for the season included the fourth-best single-game rushing performance in league history. That was the 266 yards against the Raiders.
Although Alexander started just 12 of the 16 games, he finished with the fifth-best rushing season ever for a Seahawks running back with 1,318 yards.
Just like his unique running style, Alexander has never been the one to do something just because everyone else was doing it.
"I'm always the oddball compared to everyone else," he says. "That's because I don't live by their rules. I go by God's rules."
Alexander says the best day in his life was when he led someone to Christ, commenting that he realized the impact he had on that person's life. "I just thought it was way bigger than anything else I had ever done before."
For a guy who has achieved so much already at the age of 25, that's quite a statement. Yet he maintains that despite all the physical trappings of his NFL success, his best achievement is helping others.
"A rich man thinks of himself as being rich," Alexander says. "Well, I just think of myself as being blessed. If I'm just blessed, then I'll go out and bless other people."
Especially the children.
"We just want to help kids," he says. "Most kids don't know that they're supposed to be something that's awesome in this world, or they don't believe they can be. I play to help them understand that they are special."
Setting out to change kids' lives may seem to be too lofty a goal for a football player, but Alexander is not afraid to set high goals for himself.
That's why he sat down before his senior year at Boone County High School and wrote down his goal of scoring 50 touchdowns.
He scored 54 of them-good for sixth all-time in American high school football history.
Then, while at the University of Alabama, he became the school's all-time leader in rushing yards (3,565), 100-yard games (15) and touchdowns (50).
"I've always been a big dreamer," says Alexander.
And now, because of his success on the football field, he's a big sharer.
Gail Wood is a freelance writer who lives in Lacey, Washington.
Inspiration from Sports Spectrum at www.christianitytoday.com
