Shaun Alexander, Former NFL MVP Running Back

Sean Alexander, appreciate the time. How are you? My brother, Zach, man. How you doing?

We're doing great over here. Well, yeah, I know you have your hands busy. I know last time we talked, you said your wife was expecting baby number 13. So congratulations. Yeah, yeah, number 13 here. It's actually girl number 10.

I'm girl dad times 10 over here. And it's, it's wild. It's wild. You know, I tell everybody, yeah, it's wild. We got too many children on the field now, like well over Sean.

We can run plays and sub people in and, you know, run packages on and off the field. It's pretty cool. So how do you manage all this? Like, I couldn't even imagine being like a father to like two or three children. You have 13. So what kind of car do you have?

How many cars do you have? What's that situation looking like? I mean, I'm a little bit more in college. She's 19.

And the baby's what, six weeks now? So rarely do all of them all go to the same place at the same time. And unless we're taking a summer family trip. So you got to take the 15 passenger van, but you know, how you run it is like how you run a good football team. You know, you get the captain to be on your side, and they start managing some of the players kind of like, hey, this is the culture. We don't do that.

We do this. And, and, you know, having 10 girls, I literally have 10 more moms. And, you know, I'm, I'm a little bit more of a mom. And, you know, I'm a little bit more of a dad. And, you know, I'm a little bit more of a dad. And, you know, I'm a little bit more of a dad. And, you know, I'm a little bit more of a dad. And, you know I'm a little bit more of a dad.

And, you know, I'm a little bit more of a dad. Like we're, we're eagerly excited about this football team, you know, and it's, it's one of the things that people can get old, but there's, there's no saying that, you know, who likes winning, the one who's always doing it. And you know what the best part about this is every year we talk about Nick Saban and he usually gets on the media for, you know, them giving him too much praise.

Now people are, are down at Alabama. So he gets to actually have something to motivate his players with. Oh yeah, we love it. We love it. I mean, we've got a defense that, that's going to be one of those write it down, they're going to tell a story. And so, and so we, we like that. We like the years where people are not sure about the offense and the defense is spectacular and everybody can go make plays. And that chip on your shoulder is always, it's much easier to play with the chip.

You know, it's always easy to be chasing, you know, and so we're at that place and we haven't, we haven't been there really in a long time. So with Alabama, Sean Alexander is here with us. For the last few years, the Alabama fan got accustomed to having this great quarterback on paper.

Now there's questions about Jayla Milro. I know he's up against middle Tennessee, but you can only go up against the teams that you're playing to have five total touchdowns. What do you kind of view, what's your view of the quarterback in Jayla Milro for this year? Yeah, he's a good ball player. I mean, everybody at our school is going to be good. And so it's, it's, can they go perform great in the big game?

And I think he can. I think that, you know, like you said, you go from, uh, to, uh, Jaylin and, uh, uh, March, uh, you know, me like our macro me, you know, you're like, Oh, we've got three great pro quarterbacks to, uh, you know, to Heisman, you know, when you walk in. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. You go, you go to, you know, those four guys just coming back to back to back to back. You're like, Oh, well, this is, this is what we do, but that's not what we've always done. All we've done is play great defense, ran the ball, contain, control the clock and punched it in when we needed to. And so when we look more like that this year, but, uh, those points always so good, you know, so it's kind of a little more, more old school Bama ball. And, and we're going to challenge people to beat us being what we do is, you know, controlling the clock and beating you up for, for 60 minutes.

Yeah. Let me get to your pro team, the Seattle Seahawks. I look at this office on paper with Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet. You got the three receivers, Metcalf Lockett, and now Jackson Smith and Jigba. Uh, this looks like the loaded offense. The only question is, will there be some regression with Geno Smith? Where's your confidence with the signal caller for the Seahawks? You know, I, I, of course I get to be close with all the players and I'm just so proud of Geno's, you know, prep for this year prep for, for every, every day prepped for the off season. You know, he came into all this off season hoping, and for this the first time with like, Hey, there's no pressure on you except go be the best version of yourself. And so like, that's how he's been, been practicing training and he looks great, you know, re like, so like even last year we was like, Oh, okay. You know, but now he even feels more confident about what he's doing. And you know, Pete Carroll is a great coach. He's going to put him in the right place and to go be the best version of himself and it's going to be pretty awesome. It's, it's going to be great cause they too, the field have that defense, they have a chip on their shoulder again. And we know that turned out really, really good about 10 years ago. So, so here, here we go. Pete, Pete kind of reinvented himself again with the same kind of style, unknown quarterbacks, strong defense, great running game, some, some, some more than willing receivers.

And so it's going to be pretty cool. Talking to Sean Alexander right now, I like Kenneth Walker a lot. He was my favorite running back in the draft from two years ago. Then they add Zach Charbonnet out of UCLA. He got some backs there.

So some youngsters, what do you see out of those two running backs? Yeah, you actually, I checked Zach when he first came in. It was like, brother, you can play, you know, it's so good. You just need to hear that from some people that, that, that have played well before and, and he's a hard worker. He's going to get it, get it done.

But, but Kenneth man, he's special. You know, I knew when he first, when we first got him, he has a knack for the end zone. He knows how to burst through holes really, really well. And it's more than just, Oh, just run through the hole.

Like he times up, sets up the blockers and then it's an explosion. So you know, he's going to play well this year. When you look at the running back position now in the NFL, it's more running back by committee these days. There's still star running backs, but the star running backs aren't getting paid.

I know you've been following all the conversation this off season. When, when you look at, at the whole running back and the state of the position, what comes to mind for you, Sean Alexander? You know, I, I said a couple, maybe about four years ago, one of the things I didn't like was that read option that they were starting to do in high school because it was taking the power away from the running back to go control the game. It was almost like the quarterback's going to hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it up. Yeah, but the play works, run, you know what I mean? And so now you can just go get any fast guy to go, go play it. And so, so the guys like me that were like, Hey, I'm seven yards deep handed to me back there.

I'm going to go, Hey, you got BFC gap cut, you know, and if you give it to him enough times, I'm going to eventually take the wheel out of the defense. Well, now it's all in the quarterback's mind. So the kind of running back that was like 30 Ks, it's all going to be on me. Those guys are moving to safety and are moving the linebacker now because it's kind of like a speed kind of guy.

So, so what's happening is now they're like, Oh, well we can still plug anybody in this thing. And so that just trickled on up, that kind of running back trickled on up to the league. And a lot of guys are not getting, um, the respect and the honor, um, the pay that they should get because the thing is still true. A great running back can help the quarterback and makes co-offense great. And I think the NFL is going to have to do something about it. I was, I really tried to encourage and challenge both NFL P and the NFL to, to, to find a way to find the bonus structure, you know, cause if a running back is not playing good, it's okay.

Like let him get what he's getting. But when you got Dalvin Cooks trying to find a job, you got Joshua Jacobs, you know what I mean? Like, come on, like how are these guys, the legal league in rushing, um, the back last couple of years. Um, and they're fine. They're having trouble finding teams and getting paid over $10 million.

No, that's impossible to be able to do that. And so I think that all of them with, with the boys, uh, um, Cyquon and all of them, they all signed like what, 11, 12, I think all of them would take a $10 million deal, but if they led legal rushing, it needs a double like 18 million, you know, 20 million. So now they're paid for the value that they bring and it should not hurt the team. So they got to go figure out something like that where the top guys get super bonuses and it doesn't hurt anybody for a job well done. Sean, I think it could get through.

That's why I see it could get through. Sean Alexander here with us. If you were in high school, like freshman year of high school now, would you change position knowing where this is trending with the running backs in terms of payment?

Yeah. You know, I would play like, bro, uh, I play like a slot receiver and, and, and running back. So I had to go get rid of my big shoulder pads because, because the receiver still get paid a lot of money and, and then you go put, get, go play in the back back field, you know, the, oh, the guy that didn't, when we were there with Heinz Ward, you know what I mean? Like he was like a kind of run the reverse, you know, kind of guy.

And, and, uh, and so, you know, I think that's what I would have done. Wrapping up with Sean Alexander, I want to get your thoughts before we talk about the award. Uh, there was an article out by Seth Wickersham and he said that Sean Payton, uh, told Russell Wilson, you got to focus more on football and less on, on Russell link. And he said, well, you bleep and stop kissing all the babies.

You're not running for public office. I thought that was a good message for Sean because Russ lost his way last year in the NFL. What type of year do you think Russell Wilson's going to have? I know, you know him well.

And what did you make of Sean's comments? Um, there's a little, there's little shoots and everything, you know what I mean? Like, I think like everybody has a thing that makes them great and that same thing could also make them a little off, you know what I mean? And so, so, um, I think that to get a coach by Sean Payton and say, Hey, you pushed me to go be the best and I'm going to go be the best. And that's what Russell needs.

And so, so I think that whatever he's doing, it's going to work because he knows how to go make quarterbacks great. I think Russell's going to play, play lights out this year. You know, my, my son and I, we've watched in the first game when it was the Seahawks versus the Broncos and it gets down to the fourth quarter, you know, four minutes left, two, I think like three minutes left. Russell has the ball, the Broncos are driving and my son looks at me and says, dad, what's going to happen?

I said, we think I'm happy. He goes, man, we've seen Russell do this so many times. Here's a 13 year old little boy that's saying like, he's like, I'm just now starting to really watch the game, know what's going on. And we all know what Russell does with the ball in his hands. And what did Broncos do? They live about two minutes off the clock. They did call a time out and kick like a man, a 93 yard field goal. Come on. Like that breaks the psyche of everybody.

Even the most strongest men start to wonder, well, man, do we ever really believe in me? And so I feel like they, they as a group second guess themselves the whole way through from that point on clearly the kicker, Mr. The kick, the Seahawks win. It goes great for Gino the rest of the way, but terrible for Russell. So I don't think Sean's going to do that.

He's going to have some things that's going to be better for Russell all the way through and Russell is going to play great. Tell me the latest with the Sean Alexander freshman player of the year award. Oh man.

So it's really cool, man. So we, we just announced the hot 37, which is really the watch list and you know, the hot 37 incoming high school kids and, or red shirt guys that we think are going to go, go lights out. And it's all to kind of start to spark like, man, we're looking for the next Prince of college football. Who's going to be that guy that is going to be a name for handful of years.

Like, you know, Trevor Morris was our first winner. He wins national championship at Clemson. And then you got Kenneth Gainesville who was a, you know, with, with Memphis, but went on to play with the Eagles last year and had a great, great year in pro so far that you got will Anderson, the three overall pig Bama. He won the national championship Brock Bowers. He won a national championship. I didn't realize we picked three national champions, but, uh, but, uh, at Georgia, but it's really cool grabbing these guys at their young age of 18, 19 years old and being a part of just a little of their life to watch them grow to be the stars. And we always say we need talent. We need characters.

They need to be an ambassador to the university. And we, and what we call, um, a legend to the NFL. Like we just see NFL talent in them and we've picked the five grade winners.

Drake may want it last year and he's the, he's just a stud. And, and so it's, it's been really cool watching this thing happen, getting to be a part of taking the players and getting to help them mold down and whatever way uncle Sean can do it to, to help them be the best they can be on the field and hopefully have great NFL careers. Any of your boys playing football these days?

Yeah, I'm actually going to leave from here to go, go watch my son. He's eighth grade. Uh, and he's, uh, plays safety, plays corner, uh, that's what I'm hearing. Sean. Yeah.

He does play wide receiver when he is on offense. So, but you know what baby, baby get paid too much through that day. So I'm like, Hey, let's move over there. You know, it's, um, it's, uh, it's my next two sons are probably play off.

They got a little more wiggle where in my oldest son, he's, he's, you know, all downhill, like let's, let's go hit people. So, so yeah, it's going to be fun, man. It's going to show I'm watching them coach prime already on the phone, Nick Saban already on the phone. How's the recruiting going here?

It's really wild. You know, I don't talk to people when you're like family already. So my, uh, my oldest daughter's already a sophomore in college. She writes songs, does music, piano split, like four or five instruments. Um, but the next two, um, they one just graduated. So she'll run track and the third one they're, they're, they're track all Americans. So it's pretty exciting already that they're just seeing the girls become athletes. And so the boys come right behind them.

So they're eighth and sixth grade. So, so we'll see, we'll see as it goes, man. The NIL money, I could already hear it flowing right to the bank account. There we go. Sean Alexander, different, different worlds. We live in now, Sean, I don't want to give any bags of cash now. They can just give it to you all up front. They don't have to hide it anymore, man.

Just like, like it's nothing. Sean Alexander. Once again, the Sean Alexander freshmen play of the year award is given each year to the best freshmen player in college football named in honor of Sean since 2018 due to his tremendous freshmen campaign for the university of Alabama in 1996.

They look for talent character, being an ambassador and also a legend as well. Sean, we appreciate the time. You're the best. Congratulations. You're the family. No doubt, man. Thank you. You're welcome.