Rufus Alexander (born April 12, 1983 in

Breaux Bridge, Louisiana Breaux Bridge (;Jack A. Reynolds. "Breaux Bridge" entry i"Louisiana Placenames of Romance Origin."LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses #7852. 1942. p. 77. french: Pont-Breaux; frc, Pont-(de)-Breaux ) is a small city in St. Martin Parish, Louis ...

) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

. He was drafted by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansio ...

in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft and later played for the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 20 ...

and

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

. He played college football at Oklahoma.

Early years

Alexander was raised by a mother who worked all of the time to support her family while his father was in prison. His oldest brother was in and out of legal trouble and the middle brother was following suit. Alexander met the Barham family, David and Melinda, while he was in

junior high A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

. In need of a stable living environment, the Barhams spoke to Alexander's mother, Seine, about having Alexander move in with them. The Barhams never legally adopted Alexander. David Barham accepted a job as the football coach at Christian Life Academy in

Baton Rouge, LA Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of countie ...

and he brought Alexander with him. Alexander became a dominant player, leading his team to district titles his junior and senior year. Barham began to actively pursue colleges on his behalf as Alexander was listed as a top 20 high school linebacker. Barham initiated contact with Oklahoma's

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

Brent Venables in December 2001. The Sooners offered Alexander a scholarship and he chose Oklahoma over several other offers.

College career

He played for the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

Sooners football team from 2003 to 2006. In 2006, Alexander was named to the All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

First-team, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and an AP and AFCA All-American.

Professional career

Minnesota Vikings

Alexander was drafted by the

in the sixth round (176th overall) of the 2007 NFL Draft. Alexander was injured in the Vikings first preseason game of 2007 and suffered a torn ACL, resulting in season-ending surgery. After the 2008 preseason, Alexander was released. He was re-signed to the practice squad on September 23. The Vikings promoted him to their active roster on October 19 when they waived

Erin Henderson. The Vikings waived Alexander two days later and re-signed Henderson. Alexander was signed back to the practice squad on October 23.

Indianapolis Colts

Alexander was signed off the Vikings' practice squad by the

on December 2, 2008. On December 26, 2008, he was cut from the Colts' active roster and then signed back onto the Colts' practice squad on December 30, 2008. Following the season, he was re-signed to a future contract on January 5, 2009. He was waived by the team on May 4.

Detroit Lions

Alexander signed with the

on August 28, 2009. He was cut by the Lions on September 5, 2009.

Personal life

Son Darrien Alexander was born May 17, 2007 He is a cousin of NFL

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly di ...

Gerald Alexander.

References

External links

Indianapolis Colts bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Rufus 1983 births Living people People from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana Players of American football from Louisiana American football linebackers Oklahoma Sooners football players Minnesota Vikings players Indianapolis Colts players Detroit Lions players