Another side of Seahawks' Alexander

He loves to play chess and help out fatherless teenage youths.
DETROIT (AP) -- There is somebody who can beat NFL MVP Shaun Alexander at his own game.
Erik Anderson, the founder of the American Foundation for ... Chess?
Alexander said the Seattle-area entrepreneur is the last person to beat him at one of his many loves outside of football.
"Yep, first or second week of the season. But he got lucky," Alexander said, feigning disgust.
Alexander is at the top of his day-job profession this week, a potential Seahawks free agent, league rushing champion and NFL record holder with 28 touchdowns this season. And he is about to play in its ultimate game, Sunday's Super Bowl against Pittsburgh.
Yet chess is just one of the many sides to Alexander that the nation never sees.
Clash with Holmgren
Much of it remembers Alexander for lashing out at Mike Holmgren after the 2004 regular season finale, after the coach called a quarterback kneel-down instead of one additional run that could have given Alexander the rushing title.
Instead, Alexander finished 1 yard behind the New York Jets' Curtis Martin and infamously said Holmgren "stabbed me in the back" -- an incident both men now say was overblown.
Much of the nation doesn't know Alexander has a foundation in his name that focuses on leadership and character modeling for fatherless, teenage men.
"I love seeing young men go finish high school, going to college, getting married. It's a great honor to help kids do that," he said.
Loves Eddie Murphy movies
It doesn't know the 28-year-old Alexander is in many ways a kid himself. That he loves Eddie Murphy movies and puts them on one of the four DVD players aboard the team plane for each Seahawks road trip.
That he devours M & amp;Ms just before he slithers past defenders on one of his many cutback runs or ducks his heads for first downs and touchdowns each week.
That there is more than pawns and bishops to Alexander's relationship with Anderson.
Anderson's nonprofit chess federation has also started a program to teach chess to grade-school children across the country to improve critical thinking, math and problem-solving skills.
Hanging with kids -- now that's another game Alexander loves to play.
During a recent midweek off day, Alexander was inside a children's playroom in suburban Seattle. A television camera caught him working up a sweat while rolling around on mats, dancing, clapping to music and playing miniature basketball with a small group of kids who treated him like just another playmate instead of a multimillion dollar NFL player.
Hosted cancer patient
Before that, he hosted a young cancer patient from a Seattle suburb at a Seahawks practice and told him, "Man, I see more people win that battle than lose it."
Alexander's aunt died in her early 50s last month from cancer. But his mother was diagnosed with colon cancer when he was in high school in Florence, Ky. She is still living and is a huge inspiration to Alexander.
"She taught me about being bold in your commitments to being excellent, on the field and off the field," he said.
Much of the nation doesn't know all this, partly because these sides of Alexander are tucked into the far, upper-left corner of the country.
That could change Sunday.
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