Religion can be great, but it doesn't replace doctor's, physical therapy, or running like you're in the last year of your contract.

I'm only bringing it up because it jumped through to me from his book and from the foot injury debacle last year.

When someone brings faith into the public sphere it's fair game, and I was not trying to criticize it but just understand how it affects his recent performance (which we're all not satisfied with, him included).

To John:
If running backs were a perfect function of O line, age, carries, and FB, they'd be a lot more interchangeable than they are.  He didn't have any of those in college and he was an incredible back.  If you plugged in another RB during Shaun's MVP season they wouldn't have done as well as he did, short of LT or some other future HOF'r (I'm not sure SA is HOF material, jury is still out).  

In general:
He had an elusiveness that is now gone.  He had balance and sipped 'YAC (yards after contact) for tons of his yardage.  Stiffarm?  That is no more.  He's now hitting his tackle in the back and falling down, or getting tackled by the turf.

I thought it might be him needing rehab but maybe it's his faith contributing to the problem as well.

John, you do an amazing job of throwing data analysis behind a lot of your posts, but a lot of the rest of us pretty commonly post something that we just believe or feel from personal observation, nothing verifiable, etc.

I thought (and still think) that the point cooshawkfan was making is entirely plausible and interesting.  I'm not going to take it as gospel (ha!  pun intended!), but I have heard Shaun go on a few lengthy spiels about the importance of religion in his everyday life, and how much it's meant to him in shaping his outlook on life.  Alexander seems to truly believe that he's been the recipient of a good measure of grace from God, that he's had such success because of the way he's lived his life and the way he's done things within the game.

Now here's where I think cooshawkfan's point is somewhat interesting/relevant.  No, obviously we can't say that Alexander sucks because he's religious.  But it lends some insight into why he perhaps continues to struggle, refuses to take blame, and doesn't adapt his style even in the face of repeated and continuous failure.  We can't know why, but it's pretty obvious that Shaun isn't changing anything about his approach, an approach that isn't working and drives us all batty watching.  It makes sense to me that the approach that Shaun's taking might be heavily or entirely influenced by his religious mentality.

I'm not (and I don't believe cooshawksfan was trying to, either) trying to give Alexander a hard time for being religious.  It's an interesting discussion to have, though, and might help us form some idea of what to expect from him in the future.  If Shaun hasn't changed his running style yet because of a religious perspective, we can't really expect him to do so ever, no matter how many times he rushes for no gain.

Does that make sense to everyone else?  I'm not trying to get in anyone's face or get anyone up in arms, I can understand disagreeing with the idea that religion has influenced Alexander's running style.  But I still think it's an interesting idea worth discussing for a couple of different reasons.

Meanwhile, let's please beat the Rams!

See, you could just as easily state that it is a "possibility" that the reason Matt Hasselbeck has a hard time trusting other receivers is that he is politically conservative, and thus more prone to think of himself as an individual, needing to look out for #1, as you will (I'm just making this example up as I go..... sorry if it's terrible).

The point isn't that something is possible. The point is that it is usually kinda nicer to examine an athlete's results with what is observable and identifiable, such as decrease in speed or increased fragility or tentativeness, instead of going to possibilities that look at a more personal trait and attribute the negative outcome to that.

There is no way to prove that Shaun's faith has anything whatsoever to do with his decline, as there is no way to prove that Shaun's faith had anything whatsoever to do with his MVP season. In that case, I just don't see the need to, I guess, go there.

Basically, the simpler explanation in all this is that Shaun hasn't changed because Shaun doesn't have the physical tool anymore TO change. He can't GET faster, he can't hit the hole harder, etc., etc.

I understand that there was no malicious intent with the post, and you can feel free to disagree with me on this and any diary, but those were my two cents (actually about 12 cents).

On a final note, I'm a tad disappointed that no one addressed my final line, in that I found people's lack of faith disturbing. I was proud of that joke, darn it!