Shaun Alexander...

[orlans17]

Does anyone know if he is going to play? I heard that he is questionable but I would still like to know for sure. I was keen on picking Seattle anyways because of their flexibility whether its running the ball or passing it because I know Hasslebeck is a great passer..

[BillyBarooooooo]

Alexander stay off the stage? Never

By Les Carpenter
Seattle Times staff columnist







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KIRKLAND — This was three years ago, on the day Ricky Watters' body finally broke down and the time had come for Shaun Alexander. The Seahawks' new running back walked toward the news conference he thought would never come, and a smile broke wide across his face.

"My people," he said.

He has always loved the camera, wondering why the lens never found him more. Nobody in Seattle seemed to know about him and this was perplexing. Didn't they understand he needed police escorts in Alabama, and limousines in New York? He came to the NFL, where the lights are supposed to shine brightest, and stepped into an empty room.

So now that everyone knows his name and the Seahawks let him run for all those touchdowns in New Orleans, does anyone really think he's going to let a sore knee keep him from his people?

Heath Evans, his closest friend on the team, laughed.

"You go down to Florida, back down to the South with friends and family? He's going to play," Evans said.

Maybe this says something about Seattle's football renaissance, that a single knee could cause such anxiety. When Alexander went down late Sunday against the Saints, a city fretted that the lone salvation of an otherwise lost autumn was on the verge of letting it down as well. All week the headlines have churned, sports talk has worried.

Will Shaun Alexander play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday?

How could he let the drama go wasted?

All week he has played it just right, sitting in the trainer's room while his teammates practiced in the cold and the rain, making sure the bruised bone mended in his right knee but also cloaking the days in mystery. He hasn't been available for interviews, always strangely missing in the locker room when his teammates come back from practice. It adds edge. It adds intrigue.




There is a lot of showman in Shaun Alexander, which is part of what makes him fun to watch but also drives his coaches insane.

Gil Haskell, the offensive coordinator, nearly fell from his chair in New Orleans on Sunday watching on a television up in the coaches' booth as Alexander slipped to the ground, then clutched his knee in agony.

By the time Haskell came down at game's end, Alexander was joyfully skipping off the field, holding his helmet aloft, waving to the stands. If he could, he'd play Willis Reed every week, hobbling away in pain only to burst from the tunnel to save the day.

After all, who could forget the Sunday almost exactly a year ago when he pulled his baby girl into the world, held her, cradled her, then jumped in his car and raced to the stadium just as the first quarter against the St. Louis Rams was coming to an end? They make movies like this.

The Seahawks have grown accustomed to Alexander's theatrical entrances. In a league where players twist and pose like Periclean statues during pregame introductions, a little old-fashioned Hollywood melodrama seems harmless enough. Ultimately, the Seahawks' running back always shows up and plays.

In more than four years in the NFL, he has never missed a game. For a running back, that's an amazing statistic. Usually by 27, a running back is beginning to feel the years of helmets in the side and shoulder pads to the knees. His world is breaking down, but it seems Alexander's only keeps getting better.

Last year Alexander rushed for 1,435 yards, eighth most in the league. But it seemed he was invisible, even in the city where he plays. His team seems hesitant to commit itself to him, wondering if he doesn't run up the middle enough, choosing instead to wait for the holes to open and the wide, red-velvet path to the end zone to appear. He is a free agent after this season, and Maurice Morris is a tempting replacement.

Last Sunday, Alexander showed it what it would miss, then grabbed his knee and made it miss him even more. Even coach Mike Holmgren, perhaps the one here who gets most perturbed by Alexander's whimsy, seemed concerned.

But Alexander also carried the ball 28 times on Sunday when it looked like the passing game wasn't going to work for the Seahawks. And he knows they play this weekend a Tampa team with a defense that aggressively takes away pass plays, yet leaves itself vulnerable to the run.

Would he dare miss this chance? When the curtain rises Sunday, you can be certain the Seahawks' running back will be there.