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Book Review: Touchdown Alexander
- 12/09/06
- 8
Shaun Alexander is undoubtedly one of the best football players in the game today. Though he plays for the Seattle Seahawks, a team that does not get the attention of some of the franchises in the major markets, his name is known to any football fan. Last year he set a new single season touchdown record, scoring an amazing 28 times (though it appears that this record will stand for only one season as LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers seems likely to overtake it. With 4 regular season games remaining, L.T. has already scored 27 touchdowns and has thrown for 2 more!). Since his sophomore campaign in 2001 he has been a force to be reckoned with, piling up the yardage and scoring at least 16 times in each season.
While Alexander is an exceptionally talented athlete and may be one of the best to ever play the game, this is not what he wants his legacy to be. Touchdown Alexander tells his story of “faith, football, and pursuing the dream.” Written with Cecil Murphey, who co-wrote the bestseller 90 Minutes in Heaven, this is Shaun Alexander’s autobiography. While it is not particularly well-written, it is enjoyable nonetheless.
Born into single-parent family, Alexander began to play football in the second grade. It did not take him long to get noticed as a talented athlete and, by high school, he was a star, destroying record after record. He chose to attend the University of Alabama where he was a standout and where he still holds 9 different records. He was drafted in the first round of the 2000 NFL entry draft (behind names such as Sebastian Janikowski, Ron Dayne, Plaxico Burress, Jamal Lewis and the first selection overall, Courtney Brown) and began his career as a Seahawk. While he played little in his first season, he broke out in his second and has been a superstar ever since.
Despite the millions of dollars he earns (he recently signed a contract that will pay him over $60 million and earns millions more in endorsements) and despite the endless accolades, he refuses to define himself by what he does. “My name is Shaun Alexander, and I’m a running back for the Seattle Seahawks football team. That’s what I do, but that’s not who I am. Football is something I’m good at, but it isn’t my total life. I’m also a husband, a father, and a Christian man. I’m a mentor to younger men as well, because they are our future.” This book is framed around those two aspects of Alexander’s life: who he is and what he does. He focuses both on his faith and on his profession. He often focuses on the times where his faith intersects with his profession. And really, it’s quite a good story.
While Alexander’s faith is made clear in this book, it is also shown to rely heavily on mystical aspects. He speaks often of hearing directly from God, of receiving revelatory dreams, and so on while seeming to receive less guidance from the Bible. He speaks often of mistakes, but never of sin. While he seems to know and to love the Word, the gospel is never clearly presented. And to be honest, at times the book seemed to lack just a little bit of the humility we’d hope to see in the life of a believer. I know that it is difficult to write an autobiography that portrays humility, yet this one often seemed just a little presumptuous.
Despite a few misgivings, this book was an enjoyable read and one I would have little trouble recommending to others. It may be especially well-received by fans of the game and by teens who are eager for a little light reading. Alexander’s story is not a story of tragedy and overcoming. Rather, it is a story of redemption and, as he makes clear, a story of God’s incredible outpouring of blessing in one man’s life. And so far it seems to be a life well-lived.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (8)
i like shaun! thanks for doing this review, i’m going to read the book.
Tim,
Where did you get that Gene Stallings co-wrote 90 Minutes in Heaven? His name isn’t on the book…I was so surprised when I read that!Jeri
You meant Cecil Murphey. Gene Stallings was the head coach at Alabama when Shaun Alexander was there. I couldn’t see him as co-writer of the 90 Minutes book!
Oops. I wrote the name of the guy who wrote the foreword rather than the guy who co-wrote the book! My bad.
Tim.The reason that Shaun talks about all that mystical stuff is because he is a member of Casey Treat’s church. A co-laborer of men like Benny Hinn and Oral Roberts.
I live up here in Seattle and when he was injured he said that he and his pastor prayed over the ankle and said because of his faith he would be healed, doesn’t sound so bad, unless you know the background of the health and wealth gospel so prevalent today, which he is a part of. By the way, he was out longer than expected with the ankle injury, still waiting for an explanation on that one.
I would not condone this book just on those grounds, you never know where the reader will be led to next.
Tim,
It has been my personal experience with the black church community in America that it is mostly Charismatic. There is a theology and a faith practice that is deeply rooted in the Black American culture. In a lot of cases church is more of a community center that offers inspirational and motivational music and preaching that often includes very bad exegesis.
But on the other hand, there are some aspects to the American Black Church that I’ve always liked. I like the fact that there are many local Black American Churches in every city who have life long members and they do “function” as an extended family. These churches do a lot for the community and it’s members.
I have had a few jobs in the past few years and I’ve worked with many inner city black Americans who faithfully attended worship every Sunday and what you described about Alexander’s book pinged exactly on the attitude that I found predominate in all of these individuals that I worked with. They seemed very “passionate” about their church and it’s music. They were able to quote certain well known and well used scripture versus. They all loved T.D. Jakes other “prosperity” teachers and preachers and they were very dependent on how they “felt” about their faith rather then on what they “knew” to be true about Gods Word.
Now all of this wouldn’t concern me if it weren’t for one fact. That the level of immorality that seems to exists in the Black American Church is a bit alarming. I have had many discussions with married and non-married black males who attended church every week faithfully but were very relaxed when it came to lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, fornication and so on.
But I have also met black Americans who did know their Bibles very well and did have a good sense of sin and repentance and holiness. But the Charismatic element was still there and there was still a high level of focus on personal revelation, prosperity, a faith of works, up tempo praise music, feelings and so on, that seems to accompany the more Charismatic worship.
So I believe that a book like this from a “current” NFL football player is great. I work at a Christian Bookstore and we sell a lot of copies of this book. I haven’t read it myself but it seems to be a very good witness for the younger generation. I’m sure God is using it.
( this reply was done with sincerity and honesty. It was not meant in any way to be intolerant or racial. Even though I have pointed out some of the problems that seem to exist in the Black American Church, I also make a habit of pointing out problems that exist in Christ Church everywhere and every community and denomination. Not to tear down but to help build up. As Tim pointed out in this post, I believe that a main focus with any Christian should be Gods Word. I also believe that we should always be sharing the gospel with everyone which means we need to know the gospel message. But I have found that many people who call themselves Christians can not explain to me what the gospel is. I feel and think that this is a problem. I’m not denominational, I could feel comfortable in a Lutheran, Anglican, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal and even the Catholic church just as long as truth and the gospel are being proclaimed. My only intent with my reply was to just share my personal opinions with Tim to verify some of his observations in this book about Shaun Alexander. If anyone took anything I had to say offensive, then I am sincerely sorry.
In His grace,
Dave.
I met him on only a couple of occasions in school at Bama. At first I didn’t even know he was a football player as he carried himself in a very humble way. All I can say is ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!
cool, i don’t watch nfl football but that’s great to hear. soli Deo gloria