Minneapolis (AP) – Jared Allen will wear a cowboy hat next weekend in Canton for his Hall of Fame Induction, signature clothes that inspired his active calf sting after each bag and still serves as an appropriate snaphot of his life out of the field.
Raised in a horseshoe in northern California, Allen was quite daring at 8 years old to tell his father that he planned to become a professional football player.
He Fulfilled that vision with a relentless vengeance on the offensive tackles tasked with blocking him and the quarterbacks who tied to escape, using exceptional quickness, creative moves and pure strength to accumulate 136 Sacks and oven first team all-pro selections as a defensive end over Nfl.
“When you do what you like to do, you want to honor the game by being great, not in an arrogant way, but in a way of showing respect and gratitude for all those who preceded you,” said Allen, who will be honored during the ceremony next weekend with Antonio Gates, Eric Allen and Sterling Sharpe. “I always wanted to go there and let people I really liked to play this game.”
First, make your mark with the Kansas City chiefs, then reach another level with the Vikings of Minnesota, Allen was one of the most fun players of his generation.
It went to his routine to flee the game, falling to a knee, swirling his hand as if he had a lasso and pretending to catch a calf in a rodeo before spreading the two arms towards the crowd. It was a showman who had a lot to show for that.
The crossroads of Allen’s career came to the consumption of trade in 2008 which sent him chefs to the Vikings, his promising start in the NFL bypassing the problems outside the field which followed him from the state of Idaho.
The director general of the chiefs, Carl Peterson, who drafted Allen in the fourth round in 2004, embittered on the prodigious passer of passes after two different quotes for drunken driving in 2006 and declared it “young man at risk”. Allen was upset by the lack of support for the front office and asked to be treated, in the absence of a new contract.
After having accumulated 15 1/2 bags in 14 games in 2007 after having served a suspension of two games, Allen finally obtained his wish. Having abandoned alcohol after the second arrest, he redoubled his packaging efforts to determine his value.
“I loved Kansas City. I wanted to spend my entire career there. Unfortunately, you learn that the commercial side of the game can be a little ruthless, and I’m just stubborn enough to want to do me,” said Allen.
The Vikings sent their first -round choice and two third round choices in 2008 to the Chiefs, then signed Allen to an agreement of $ 73 million over six years which was the biggest in history at the time for a defensive player. He also won every penny, without any salary reduction or his first outings which often follow large money contracts in a league which has little patience for the drop in production by players with safe blows.
“With a contract like this and a business like this does a lot of pressure,” said Allen. “It’s not in my saddle to rest on my laurels. The most impressive thing was that I was able to play. I think I was well represented. ”
Allen has an average of more than 14 bags per season over six years with the Vikings, including 22 best career bags in 2011 which were less than half of the record set by Michael Strahan and later corresponding to TJ Watt.
Allen is officially 12th on the list of career bags, a statistic that the NFL did not compile before 1982. Reference research for professional football During all the matches played before this date, he produced a complete list that went with the 16th most important bags in history, after having completed his career with the Bears in Chicago in 2014 and that he was exchanged at the Carolina Panthers the following season.
While he abandoned his problem of alcohol consumption and cleaned in the field, Allen has never lost his lifestyle in search of thrills, once running with the Bulls in Spain and killed a boar in Texas with a knife. He was a joke life and who lifted the changing rooms with the Vikings, where he formed friendships for life who transcended the bitter disappointment of losing in overtime against the Saints of New Orleans in the NFC championship match after the 2009 season.
Picked up at Minneapolis airport after trade by the defensive line coach Karl Dunbar and the Alpha males of the position group, Kevin Williams and Pat Williams, Allen quickly knew that he was in the right place.
“I am as competitive as possible, and it was brought to another level entering this room,” said Allen. “The minute I entered this car, Pat and Kevin started talking about how I couldn’t play the race.”
Allen formed the alpha center of these Vikings teams with the Williamsses on one of the best defensive lines in the League. He was often at his best when the lights were on, including a 4 1/2 match on Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay when Brett Favre a quarter the Vikings at a 2009 victory in his first revenge match against the packers.
The Vikings have a long story of dominant defensive line players, with Alan Page, Carl Eller, Chris Doleman and John Randle all devoted in front of Allen to Canton. The famous eaters of purple people – Page, Eller, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen – helped the Vikings reach four super bowls and have established a high level for their successor.
“You will never run them, but I wanted people to talk about me, Pat and Kevin,” said Allen. “We wanted to be the four fiercest and most nasty frontal fronts you can be, and that was everything to pay tribute to the guys who did it before us.”
