SHAUN's RUSHING TITLE

Shaun Alexander, of the Seattle Seahawks, fell one yard short of tying Curtis Martin (Jets) for the NFL rushing title.

With Seattle at the one yard line and beating Atlanta by one point, Coach Holmgeren opted to let the ball remain in his QB's hand and plunge into the line for the one yard TD.

Alexander's reaction after the game --- "Holmgren stabbed me in the back."

Where do I begin -- First of all, there was 4:32 remaining in the game and the instructions were given (documented) to hand the ball off to Shaun for every play, when the Hawks got the ball back, even if they got it back with three seconds on the clock.

The people Alexander should be upset with are: 1. Himself 2. The defense.

The play before the one yard QB plunge, Alexander carried the ball and was tackled at the 1-yard-line. HE fell short of the record, NOT Mike Holmgren.

Two weeks earlier, in NY, playing the Jets, Alexander fumbled at the Jet 1-yard-line, as HE was about to pick up that ONE yard and score a TD. The ONE yard that would have tied him for the record was in HIS hands, not the hands of Mike Holmgren.

Maybe Shaun should be screaming at his defense that allowed Atlanta to use up the remainder of the clock to get their final TD.

Maybe Shaun should be screaming at his defense which stopped the Atlanta 2-point conversion, as the Falcons attempted to tie the game and send it into over-time.
After all, Shaun's only shot at the title, at that point , was an OT game.

Of course, an OT game would mean that his T-E-A-M would possibly go from NFC West Division Champs to --- NOT Champs --- with a loss in OT.

That would have been OK though, because then Shaun wouldn't feel as though he was being stabbed in the back.

By the way, there were no monetary incentives in his contract, so don't think it was a directive from management to keep Shaun from HIS goal. He did not get screwed out of $2 or $3 million dollars.

I know one thing and I am 99.9% positive of this fact -- If Alexander picked up TWO more yards and won the rushing title, Curtis Martin (the winner) wouldn't have bitched about Herm Edwards not running him more in their game against the Rams, earlier in the day, he would have said one thing ..... "Congratulations, Shaun."