By Jeremy Juhasz / Billswire.usatoday.com
Representing the Buffalo Bills in Atlanta this weekend, linebacker Lorenzo Alexander is taking part in a variety of Super Bowl festivities. But that doesn’t have the veteran thinking about what the Bills could accomplish in 2019, presumably his last season in the league.
“I’m excited. We have a great core of youth on our football team,” he said. “I really do think we have a group of guys that can make a run next season.
“Next year I want to continue to improve, become a better pass rusher from the inside, especially, and help dominate next year so we can get back into the playoffs.”
Of course teams like the division rival New England Patriots, who find themselves back in another Super Bowl, stand in the Bills’ way of success. The outcome of Sunday’s game won’t impact Alexander, he says, either way, but he did offer his take on the game with friends and relationships on both squads.
“My heart is with the Rams, but my mind is thinking that Tom Brady, Belichick and the Patriots, with the way the play the game, are hard to beat,” he said.
As fans wait for Sunday’s game, Alexander is a guest in tonight’s eighth annual NFL Honors show. For the second-straight season, Alexander is the Bills’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award.
It’s been well documented how active Alexander is outside football. He is included in an array of volunteer, community and charitable endeavors, including programs like Character Playbook.
Character Playbook, now in its third year, is the latest innovation in the 45-year partnership between the NFL and United Way. This all digital, in-school program teaches students how to build healthy relationships, make good decisions and stand up when they see questionable activity. To date, more than 350,000 students in nearly 3,700 schools have used the digital program as a tool for personal development and success.
Alexander has been an active supporter of the Character Playbook Program participating in the first ever Character Playbook Virtual school visit in 2017, he visited the Harvey Austin School (Buffalo Public School # 97) in Buffalo in the spring of 2018 as a reward for their participation to talk about the importance of healthy relationships and character with students. He also participated in the first ever Character Playbook Lunch and Learn event at Southside Elementary School (Buffalo Public School # 93) at which students and Bills Players (Lorenzo, Deon Lacey, and Taiwan Jones) helped guide discussions on character development, healthy relationships and the prevention of bullying.