There will always be the individual accolades associated with Shaun Alexander’s time with the Seahawks — 100 career rushing touchdowns, the only NFL MVP Award in franchise history.
But when Alexander returns to Lumen Field Sunday for Seattle’s game against Arizona to be inducted into the Ring of Honor, he will also peek up at the banners — four for division titles from 2004-07, one for a Super Bowl appearance following the 2005 season — with an equal amount of pride.
There were few banners when Alexander arrived — just two division titles in 1988 and 1999.
“I love that we changed the culture,” Alexander said. “… (We) created the culture that this is a winning town.”
And that remains the greatest legacy of the Mike Holmgren era Seahawks, which over the past two years has begun to be recognized fully by the team in its Ring of Honor.
Alexander is the third member of that team to be inducted in the last 12 months, following Holmgren and Matt Hasselbeck last year, and the fourth overall — left tackle Walter Jones was inducted in 2014 after he also made the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
All will forever be associated most with the 2005 season, when the Seahawks went 13-3 — at the time the best record in team history — and Seattle’s first Super Bowl appearance.
Alexander won the MVP, setting an NFL record with 27 rushing touchdowns running behind Hall of Famers Jones and Steve Hutchinson.
In a Zoom call with Seattle-area media Thursday, Alexander remembered that “magical” season.
“It was one of those moments where you feel like you’re floating in the air,” Alexander said. “Angels are carrying you. It seemed like every play just worked. … Even the plays we didn’t think would work were working.”
Alexander came to Seattle 19th overall in 2000 with a first-round pick Seattle acquired in a trade with Dallas for receiver Joey Galloway.
Taking over as the starting running back for Ricky Watters in his second season in 2001, he immediately showed a nose for the end zone, leading the NFL with 14 rushing touchdowns.
And if there once was some controversy over Alexander falling a yard short of the rushing title in 2004, and Alexander saying he got “stabbed in the back” for not being allowed to get the yard he needed, on Thursday he expressed nothing but gratitude for the way Holmgren handled him during his Seahawks career.
“He called the plays that he knew that I wanted to run, and he would call them over and over again,” Alexander said. “And he didn’t have to do that. He could have been a coach who says, ‘All right, I threw it 70 times with Joe Montana. I’m gonna do it with Brett Favre. I’m gonna do it with Hasselbeck.’ And he was like ‘Nah, I’m going to have to tweak my offense to go let you be you.’ And I was always thankful for that.”
His big 2005 season led to an eight-year, $62 million contact in 2006. He ended up playing just two more seasons with the Seahawks, then finished his career with four games with Washington in 2008 playing for head coach Jim Zorn and offensive coordinator Stump Mitchell, who had been assistants with the Seahawks during the Holmgren era.
He’s lived in the Washington, D.C., area ever since with his wife Valerie and their 11 children, ranging in age from 19 to 1.
He recalled that one day shortly after his season with Washington he and Valerie visited a grocery story.
“We were there like 30 minutes,” Alexander said. “… And she said ‘When’s the last time you’ve been in a store for 30 minutes and no one said anything to you?’ And it was (when he was) 16 years old. … (This) was a place for me to just kind of take a good, deep breath for a little bit.”
But the Seahawks are never far away. As he talked to reporters Thursday, a big replica of his famous Madden game cover loomed overhead on the wall in the background.
“To be celebrated with all the other guys (in the Ring of Honor), it’s humbling and it’s exciting and it brings back all the great memories of the guys I got to play with,” Alexander said.
What he hopes also may happen is that the honor might help him reach an even bigger goal of making it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Alexander has been named as a modern era nominee nine of the past 10 years, but has yet to make it to the semifinalist stage.
Alexander’s 9,453 career yards is 36th all time, more than Hall of Famers such as Earl Campbell, Jim Taylor, Terrell Davis and Larry Csonka.
But more crucially, his 100 rushing touchdowns ranks tied for eighth. Everyone ahead of him on the list is in the Hall of Fame other than Adrian Peterson, who is not yet eligible, and the six running backs directly behind him are also in the Hall.
“I just busted my tail and we score 100 touchdowns and then for it not to be perceived as Hall of Fame-worthy has always been hard,” Alexander said. “But I hope that this gives me a shot at it.”