Jared Allen doesn’t miss football. In fact, he’s too busy to even think about rushing the quarterback anymore. The former Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs defensive end played 12 seasons in the NFL, but these days he’s worried about bucking bulls and taking his kids to various sports practices.
We chatted with Allen about fatherhood, how he got into Professional Bull Riding and what it was like playing his final season with Cam Newton and the Super Bowl-bound Carolina Panthers.
I was reading about your post-playing days activities and found out you’ve really gotten involved with Professional Bull Riding. How did that come about?
I got into bull riding through my foundation. We look for different avenues to raise money and someone out of Minnesota approached me about donating a yearling bull to our foundation to raise money. And one thing led to another and I own bucking bulls and we’re doing business with PBR and then my competitive side took over so I wanted to have the best bulls and all that good stuff. So yeah, we’re having some fun with it.
Are you sponsoring riders or the bulls themselves?
Both. So we have a team conference . We actually have a rider, Tanner Byrne, who is actually coming off an injury to his back half. So we basically have a one-stop shop for sponsors where they can come and e part of the team and get you logos and stuff onto the best riders and get naming rights to bulls.
So what else have you been doing in retirement?
Well I’ve been staying busy with friends and family stuff. With swim practice and soccer games and all that good stuff. Trying to play a little golf. But right now my foundation we build and remodel homes for wounded veterans coming back home from Afghanistan/ We just give away one last week. We have eight different homes going on in eight different states, so it’s busy busy busy busy.
Politically, taking care of veterans has come up a lot lately. Are you encouraged by the direction we are moving with getting them proper care and support?
I am. I have to go back and read and see all the different VA bills that passed the other day, but I am excited that they’re finally getting the attention that they need. There’s a lot of gaps in the system and it’s unfortunate. There’s a lot of great military non-profits that try to fill those gaps and the more the government can do the either aid us nonprofits in filing those gaps or filling them themselves the better off we’ll be.
You’re coming up on two years removed from the game now. Do you miss football?
No, not at all. I barely watch it. I joke that I need to go back to playing so I can get some more free time. But no, I thoroughly enjoy what I’m doing now and being wit the family all the time and all that good stuff.
Obviously football is great and Sundays are fun, but the daily grind I do not miss whatsoever.
You’ve made your life busy with your family in retirement, and that’s something you stressed in a video you did with Courtyard for Father’s Day. What made you want to address the issue of being an active father and celebrate fathers like that?
Fatherhood is such an amazing part of my life. I’m so grateful to be able to celebrate dads and do it the right way. So I’d like to encourage people to watch the video and if you have a great dad tell him how much you love him and how mjuch you appreciate him. There’s statistics out there that show kids having an active father in their life their chances of living in poverty diminish by like 70 percent. So it’s such an important role. I can’t think Courtyard enough. I’m glad I got to be part of that.
A lot of players struggle with that when they leave the game. They gravitate toward broadcasting or at least reminisce about their playing days. Do you think you just have a different personality than other players?
I think part of it. There are guys that will want to continue to work. I’m a guy that generally likes to do nothing if I can. But I think the other part is too that for me, football was never my identity. My first identity is with Christ, my second was with my wife and my kids, and football was down the line. So I always knew as much as I loved football, I had no regrets. I got to play my way. I never planned on being on four teams whatsoever but the way it shakes out at least it shook out on my terms, you know.
So I have no regrets there and I’m perfectly content at home helping to raise my kids with my wife and trying to be the best husband I can be. The best father I can be. The best Christian I can be.
Besides, the game of football is ever-changing. It’s not the same game s it was when I was playing. I’ve never been a fan of being on a broadcast and having to judge guys for this that and the other. I’d rather be fan, you know? And watch some guys that I appreciate and I like play.
But everybody’s different. Everyone has different reasons why—none are right and none are wrong but it’s never been the deal for me and I figured heck, I made enough money playing football I can enjoy it now.
It’s a good perspective to have given how much the game has changed. You played in an era where it became much harder to tackle the quarterback legally. Was that something that was difficult to adjust to?
Very much so. I just didn’t do it. I just figured I’d pay the fine. And for me it’s changed now. Everyone rotates now. Thirty or 40 snaps a game and I came in and we played 60, 70, 80 snaps of smash mouth football. And that’s how I loved the game. Because you get to work on people. You can set them up and eventually that person’s going to make a mistake and I’m going to take advantage of it. That was my whole game. My technique is going to outlast your technique and if I’m in better shape I’m going to outwork you.
And so especially these last couple years being on teams where we were rotating and stuff like that, it was really hard for me to stay in rhythm, to stay at a level I wanted. Then my back got ripped up twice so you just get to a point where you sit down and you talk with your family and you say ‘you know what this is the kind of league I want to be a part of. This is where I see it going.’ And you have to be honest with yourself when you turn 34, 35 years old coming off some injuries—a broken back and a foot. You’re probably not going to find a team—at least a good team—that’s going to let you play 60-70 snaps for them.
And I’ve never been a guy where it’s been about the money. Or about the stats. At some point, then, you’re just chasing stats. You’re trying to be top five. You’re trying to be this or that and I just didn’t want to get to that point in my career. I had so much fun with Carolina last year. It was such a great experience and a great team. I wanted that to be what I remembered. That’s when I left the game. A Super Bowl loss, unfortunately, but it was a great year and a great team and a great organization that I can walk away with that as my last memory.
You played with some great teams and some great players. Who’s the craziest guy you’ve been around when you were playing?
Oh, goodness. That’s a laundry list. I got to play with Boomer Grigsby. I got to play with some knuckleheads, some big time characters. Dustin Colquitt, actually, the punter for the Chiefs. He was hilarious.
Does Cam Newton stand out as one of the more charismatic players you’ve been around?
Cam is definitely a very polarizing figure and one thing I think that I didn’t realize about Cam—and that I figured out when I got there— is Cam is a very hard worker. For all the flash and everything you see, he genuinely puts the time and effort into being a franchise quarterback.
I really got to know him. He has fun. I honestly think he’s a young version of Brett Favre in my view. As far as his enthusiasm for the game. And his emotion toward the game. That’s how I always picture him. And his toughness, because that kid does get beat up. And he keeps coming back play in and play out.
It was good to get the whole picture when I was there. I have a lot of respect for him.
So you played in a few different places that were known for having loud crowds. But what’s the loudest crowd in the league?
You know what, I would have had to say the Chiefs but I’ll never forget 2008 we played the Philadelphia Eagles in the Metrodome. A playoff game. That — and the following year, 2009 against Dallas — that was the loudest two stadiums I’ve ever been in. Minnesota in the Metrodome. That was insane.
It’s got to help defensively, right?
A hundred percent. Absolutely. That was amazing. There’s nothing better when you hear that. When you feel the noise coming off the carpet. They can’t hear a thing, you get a jump on them and usually it’s lights out for the quarterback (laughs).
You were born in Texas but grew up in California. Did you have a favorite team growing up?
I was a Bills and Raiders fan, if you can believe it.
Are there teams you gravitate toward now? Is it the Chiefs or Vikings because you played there a long time?
It’s more so guys I played with. If I know guys that are still playing I’ll watch them or coaches or something like that. I don’t really have a huge attention span now. I like to watch a little college football, that kind of stuff.
When you watch as much footballs as I’ve watched on film, it’s hard to watch a game just as a fan and not always gravitate toward just watching the left tackle and thinking in my mind about how badly I can beat him.
Injuries are a topic that’s looming over the NFL. You dealt with your share of injuries and said it was a factor in you retiring. Just managing pain in the league still seems like such an issue the isn’t talked about a lot. Is that something you’ve seen change over the years?
It’s tough, you know. You have to know your body. You have to put the work in. Obviously different generations managed it different ways. And now with the crackdown on pain meds and opioids it’s bringing the attention to the issues with that. The best way is on Monday to get in a workout, flush the body.
But pain management week to week is a struggle in the league. Your body feels like crap. It flat-out hurts when you get into the car after a game, and you got to do what you got to do to get through.
A lot of guys now, there’s so many different training methods. With hot tubs, cold tubs, ART, massage, there’s just so many different variations of recovery that I think it’s probably getting a little easier than it was for some of the old timers. You would sit in an ice bath and pop a couple of Vicodins and see you next week.
