IF CARLISLE UNITED were somehow to reach the Barclays Premiership, they would still struggle to match the media profile of Arsenal and Chelsea on geographical grounds alone. Scale that up to NFL proportions and you have the situation of the Seattle Seahawks.

Nearly a fortnight after reaching the Super Bowl for the first time in their history, the team from the Pacific Northwest are still finding it hard to achieve national recognition. Lofa Tatupu, the rookie linebacker, and Walter Jones, the fearsome offensive lineman, would be big names if they played in New York. Hidden away in a small market three hours behind the East Coast, even Matt Hasselbeck, the quarterback, is only a long one.

If the Seahawks have a star player, it is Shaun Alexander, the running back, who was voted the league’s most valuable player after setting a single-season record for touchdowns with 28. Yet he is attracting less attention than Jerome Bettis, the Pittsburgh Steelers running back, who may not even start.

“It is just a reality,” Alexander said. “We are in a town where no one knows how good our team is. For me, it’s never been about trying to let people know who I am or trying to prove that I am one of the best. I’ve never gotten into that. We just play. We don’t care what people think at all.

“Even though Pittsburgh are a sixth seed, (people) are going to pick them over us. We win 11 games in a row, and they say it was our fault that the other teams weren’t as good. We can’t worry about that. They are not used to saying: ‘The Seahawks are a good, dominant team that plays really, really good on both sides of the ball.’ I understand that.”

On Sunday, the Seahawks have a chance to alter perceptions on the biggest stage of all, and in Alexander viewers will see a player who has tried to augment his own natural abilities by learning from the best. “I’ve been blessed with vision, so I can see a lot of stuff going on that you normally don’t see, and then also I can stop and start a lot better than other guys,” he said. “When I was younger, I would just watch a lot of running backs and just take pieces of their games. I would try to use the (offensive) linemen like Emmitt Smith, burst through a hole like Marcus Allen, and I would try and stay low and break tackles like Tony Dorsett.”

Positive role models are a strong theme for Alexander. The child of a divorce, he has set up a foundation to provide mentoring to young men from single-parent families. He is also almost unfailingly polite, respectful — apart from a brief outburst a year ago when he blamed Mike Holmgren, the head coach, for his missing the league’s rushing title by one yard — and deeply religious. Does he, in fact, lack the nasty streak that all great competitors need? No, he protests:

“I’m not really a nice guy. I’m a man of God, but I have fire, I have passion. The Lord says there is nothing really wrong with kicking a little butt.”

Alexander will be a free agent after Sunday’s game, and the Seahawks could lose him to a more glamorous team. But a victory could help to raise the Seahawks’ own profile, and in any case Alexander has nothing but positive feelings for the sometimes-forgotten city in the top left-hand corner of the continental United States.

“I wouldn’t trade my time in Seattle for anything,” he said. “I met my wife the first day I got there and I have a great family there. We don’t care if we’re overlooked or not overlooked, if we are picked to win or not. It’s just about playing that game and trying to be ahead when the clock runs out.”

GAME DETAILS

SUPER BOWL XL (at Ford Field, Detroit, 11.20pm) Pittsburgh v Seattle

TELEVISION: Sunday: ITV 1: Live coverage from 11.15pm. Monday: Sky Sports 3: Highlights Noon-3pm and 7pm-10pm.

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