FLORENCE, Ky. — Their timing was perfect. Shaun Alexander was in the sixth grade, the right age to fall hard for his hometown football team. And his team, the Bengals, was headed to its second Super Bowl in seven years.

        “Everybody loved them,” Alexander said of the 1988 Bengals. “Ickey Woods. James Brooks. Boomer Esiason.”

        Alexander was a regular at Riverfront Stadium, “the Jungle.”

        But by the time he was in the 10th grade, Alexander stopped following pro football. He almost had to. As one of the country's top prep running back prospects at Boone County High School, he was being bombarded with recruiting letters from colleges.

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH SHAUN ALEXANDER

Florence native Shaun Alexander, who rushed for 1,318 yards and 14 touchdowns in his second season with the Seattle Seahawks, makes about 20 appearances a year at churches and youth centers.     Alexander, 24, appeared Wednesday night before about 400 youths at the Fellowship of Believers non-denominational Christian community in Florence. After speaking to the large audience, giving away footballs and other prizes and praying with teen-agers, Alexander signed autographs for another hour.     Three hours after he started, the former Boone County High School and Alabama star answered five questions from Enquirer NFL writer Mark Curnutte.     Last month, Alabama's football program was placed on probation for five years with a two-year bowl ban for recruiting violations. Your feelings?     That's terrible, but the guys will rise from it. Alabama's just one of those schools that, no matter how much they beat on us, we will rise. The Tide will rise again.     What does your faith mean to you?     I think that a lot of people think Christians can't have fun. I want to let them know that I'm constantly having fun.     What's your favorite Bible verse?     It's Psalms 37:4. The first one I memorized. “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”     Your hometown named a street after you. Would you complete the following sentence? Florence is ...     “... my home. Florence is the best place to grow up and raise a family. Everybody doesn't know everybody else. But they all know a way to get to your parents. You might do something wrong, and it might take a month for it to get back to your parents, but it will get back. So it's not small, but it's not big. It never will be big. It's the perfect place. Good neighborhoods. The kids, the same thing is on them that was on us before. There's a need for something to do, and once the kids find that thing to do, they're going to be all right.”     What's your prediction for the Seahawks in 2002?     Super Bowl. That's my prediction every year. It's not even a prediction, it's a goal. And I have the same goal every year: to win the Super Bowl.”

        “You start following the college game, all the teams,” said Alexander, who was in Kentucky this week for two public appearances.

        But the Bengals' hook on Alexander seems to have survived.

        He maintains an offseason home in Northern Kentucky, and the Bengals are still his hometown team. After Alexander starred at Alabama, the Bengals even talked of drafting him in 2000. But they already had Corey Dillon at running back and took wide receiver Peter Warrick instead. Alexander went to the Seahawks with the 19th overall pick.

        Alexander knows he has a strange symmetrical relationship with Dillon, his Bengals' counterpart who played at Washington, and he's now even a contemporary of Dillon's in the NFL record book.

        Would he ever play for the Bengals?

        “I've thought about it,” Alexander said. “But I go where I'm supposed to go and play hard. Seattle's all right. It's grown on me.”

        He has grown on Seattle. In 2001, Alexander rushed for 14 touchdowns and 1,318 yards, sixth best in the NFL and 3 yards better than Dillon.

        “Me and Dillon, we have a lot of stuff that's kind of funny. I think that when we meet each other, we'll become good friends,” said Alexander, a Greater Cincinnati native who plays in Dillon's hometown. “It's kind of ironic. I go get my haircut (in Seattle), and I hear them talking barber-shop talk about him all the time. I know he'll go to the barber shop and end up hearing the same thing about me. I hear great things about Corey, how he's a great guy and his life has been changed. I really can't wait to meet him. I think we'll end up being buddies.”

        There's another link. Dillon owns the single-best rushing game in NFL history, 278 yards in 2000. A year later, Alexander ran for 266 against Oakland, the fourth-highest of all time.

        Alexander is a close friend of Kitna's. Kitna came to Cincinnati a year ago as a free agent.

        “I knew one game he threw for a lot of yards,” Alexander said of Kitna, who, like Alexander, is an evangelical Christian. “And I knew there was some games that were real close, but they lost. They did better this year than usual, and I think sometimes people will say things like, "You should have done this.'

        “But, hey, if you're better, you're better. Forget it. (Kitna's) a really smart guy, and I know he's got things going in the right direction here. Hopefully, they'll be good and I can play against Jon and Corey in the Super Bowl.”

        Realignment has shifted the Seahawks to the NFC West after 26 seasons in the AFC.

        But the Seahawks probably won't shift Alexander to another team any time soon. Besides his skills as a player — he had another 343 receiving yards and two touchdowns — he has quickly established himself as one of the NFL's model citizens.

        In January 2000, before he played a snap in the NFL, he established the Shaun Alexander Family Foundation to provide for needy families and youths and lead youth rallies and motivational camps.

Seattle Seahawk and former Boone County High School football star Shaun Alexander preaches a sermon to several hundred youngsters at the Fellowship of Believers Church. (Mike Simons photo) | ZOOM |

        Alexander's involved more than in name. He spent in excess of three hours at Fellowship of Believers church in Florence on Wednesday night. Alexander was the attraction that drew more than 400 people — most of them teens — to a prayer service, during which Alexander prayed with the audience. He gave away football jerseys, autographed footballs and caps beforehand, and afterward he gave away 2002 Seahawks poster calendars and signed autographs for every person who wanted one.

        “I like touching lives,” he said. “I know every kid who comes up is not going to turn around and be solid for Christ. Some will. Then there are some who I know the seed was planted. It might be 10 years, 20 years from now. Through praying, God has taken a lot of the pressure off me that I have to do something. All I have to do is share. And after I share, God takes care of the rest.”

        Alexander shares and shares some more. He's getting ready for what he says will be the first of many golf tournaments to benefit several charities. It will be later this month in Huntsville, Ala.

        Then there's this matter of his wedding, May 18 in Northern Kentucky.

        Alexander's already looking even farther down the road. The Seahawks will visit Cincinnati to play the Bengals during the 2003 season. Local hero comes home.

        “Get your tickets now,” he said. “It will be a sellout.”

A season inside the Bengals Bengals' QB pool gets smaller Football, faith and Florence Bengals Q & A with Mark Curnutte Bears re-sign QB Miller

Don't worry, we're happy, Reds assert
Jr. one slugger who values health over homers
Reds Q & A with John Fay
Reitsma fastball showing some pop
Rangers 4, Reds 3
Reds notebook
Baseball notebook
Cowboys make big splash at state swim meet
An unsung player saves McNicholas
Mercy gives coach 499th career win
St. Ursula earns Beavercreek rematch
Purcell gets half-court buzzer-beater
Undersized MND ousted
Dixie girls cruise to 34th District title
Lakota West 7th in state gymnastics
NewCath edges past Highlands
Regionals rev up this week
Ohio boys basketball scores
Ohio girls basketball results
Kentucky boys basketball scores
Kentucky girls basketball scores
Wrestling: Division I
Wrestling: Divisions II-III
Regional Schedule
Hungry cats set for battle
Logan is expecting an emotional finale
XU beats UMass, wins A-10
XU notebook
Battle won, but Smith loses war
Basketball brothers sharing dream
Buckeyes claim share of Big 10 title
Indiana wins share of Big Ten
Miami comes up short
OSU's Arden arrested for driving under influence
Top 25 roundup
Wildcats nail down SEC bye
Women: Waugh keys Xavier upset
Ducks win 4-2
Enquirer Page Two power rankings
Request for Parole wins Battaglia Memorial
Cavaliers can't contain Kukoc
Hospitalized Buck suffers setback
Pens' Lemieux: I shall return next season
Role reversal for Els at Doral
Stewart tries to rebound after Daytona
Coming up this week

• Return to Bengals front page...