Jared Allen: The Minnesota Vikings have a big shot at an Olympic Curling spot
Ever heard the one about the daredevil plasterer who lit an Olympic flame in a four-time first-team All-Pro defensive end?
Jared Allen roars at the mention of Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, the face of the 1988 Winter Games and embodiment of Pierre de Coubertin’s mantra. The radiant, bespectacled British ski jumper finished last in the 70 and 90 meters in Calgary, but won hearts and minds around the world.
After 136 sacks in 12 NFL seasons, a happily retired Allen and an old friend watched the feel-good 2016 biopic celebrating the life and times of Michael David Edwards. It had consequences.
“Yes! Eddie the Eagle! Great movie,” says Allen The Athletics on the phone from Nashville. “That’s what inspired me to make a bet with my friend to try to make it to the Olympics!
“Eddie the Eagle had to work hard to qualify and become a ski jumper, which was the inspirational side of it. But the thing I liked about it was, ‘Oh yeah, I’m just going to have to find a sport that’s not on the books and that we’re not really good at and get involved in it,'” Allen says, speaking in bursts out laughing. .
And what about the bet?
Allen said he was inspired by Eddie The Eagle (Mike Powell/Allsport via Getty Images)
“The song was meaningless. My friend threw away a number. I thought, ‘Sure, whatever.’ Yeah, it was about beer… It’s more of a gentleman’s bet. But no one wants to make a bet! I don’t want to have to tell him he was right – I want him to have to eat crow and tell me I was right!
So Allen went to work. In 2018, he made the All-Pro Curling Team with three former NFL players – quarterback Marc Bulger, linebacker Keith Bulluck and offensive tackle Michael Roos – and set his sights on Beijing.
“I started as a skip, no one had ever curled – there were four of us. Life took off and I ended up joining some other teams. I had no ego, so I ended up playing the lead and I played quite well in the lead and quite well in the sweep. So I kind of found my place there. I really enjoy playing second; I think the second position is a nice position. But wherever they tell me they need me, I fit in.”
Although he didn’t make the 2022 Games, Allen has experienced some small miracles on the ice.
“I beat (John) Shuster two years ago at the national championships in Denver, we beat a team ranked in the top 30 in the world last year, we had some success in Switzerland and Canada, I’m up against some really tough teams play and it was a nice deal.”
But brace yourself. Just as the Milan-Cortina Winter Games come into view, here comes the plot twist.
“I probably won’t play this year,” said Allen, 42. “My team kind of fell apart. One guy on my team retired. Another man has moved on. And then I was actually invited to play this year with Korey Dropkin as his alternate, but USA Curling and the USOPC put the kibosh on it and said I didn’t have a good enough curling resume.
“Their exact words. We won the national championships and all the trials, but they replaced me as an alternate.
“And then they changed our rules – we used to have a two-year points run-in for Olympic Trial qualification and now they take the top three points earners of the year based on their year to date, and then we do a play-in of one tournament.’
Does this mean the Olympic dream is… over?
Allen plays in London (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
“No! No! I still have time. I still love curling, I’m still going to practice, we’ll figure it out,” says Allen. “A lot of people aren’t playing this year. Unless you can go to the Slams, you have Shuster, Dropkin and (Danny) Casper almost lock down the top three spots.
“Everyone says, ‘Why are we traveling, wasting our time on tournaments that mean nothing to us for the next year and a half?’ So everyone is just trying to practice for the coming year, build a team for The Challenger and try to win the play-in.
Should Allen win his bet, it would be a new story for one of the NFL’s greatest personalities of the 21st century.
Allen was drafted by Kansas City in 2004 and traded to Minnesota four years later as the then highest-paid defensive player.
The 2009 Vikings are one of the NFL’s best teams, with quarterback Brett Favre steering them to the NFC Championship in the Superdome. There they were defeated by themselves (six fumbles, three losses, two interceptions and twelve men in the huddle in the fourth quarter to knock them out of field goal range) and the New Orleans Saints, who were later punished for the Bountygate -scandal.
“If we beat the Saints and win the Super Bowl, our 2009 season will go down as one of the greatest seasons in NFL history,” Allen said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the Super Bowl because we lost that controversial game.”
Allen left for the Chicago Bears in 2014 and was traded to the Carolina Panthers in September 2015 for one last hurray. The 15-1 Panthers almost went all the way, losing Super Bowl 50 to the Denver Broncos.
“It was great. It’s one of those surreal moments. I tell people that statistically this was the least productive year of my career – I was dealing with injuries and all kinds of other things – but it was the most successful year of my career because the goal is to get to the Super Bowl.”
All after setting the Vikings franchise single-season sack record (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
Allen’s career is worthy of Canton (he was a finalist the last four years). He led the league in sacks twice (2007 and 2011), the second with a total of 22, leaving Michael Strahan sweating over losing his all-time record (22.5).
The highlights of the reel are numerous. They include his one-handed sack of Eli Manning and the tête-à-tête with Donald Penn. And then there’s his contribution to one of the most infamous plays in NFL history. You know that one.
It was 2008, and while quarterback Dan Orlovsky was playing for the winless Detroit Lions, he stepped out of bounds in the Metrodome for safety. Orlovsky – now a great ESPN analyst – can look back and laugh. Allen still chuckles about it.
“I wish he hadn’t run out the back; I could have really hit him! It was my pocket. I was actually laughing because Kevin Williams had four sacks that game, so I tried to catch up with him. He was angry. We were in a tight sack race that year. I have a cheap one. I have a free copy!
“To my credit, I made the tight end. I was wide open! Could have strangled him. It was a good job, they called safety,” says Allen.
Johnny Knoxville wasn’t so lucky. As the general public embraced Allen with his signature mullet and everyman appeal, he was invited to California in 2010 to film a segment called The Blindside for Jackass 3.
“That was a nice deal. Knoxville is a great guy; I still talk to Johnny. I later found out that I had separated his sternum when I tackled him from behind.
“We filmed the run where he catches the ball over the middle a few times. He says, ‘Man, come on!’ If you want to see what I actually do, let’s go back a second and I’ll hit you from behind. So we did that. There was only one take on that one!”
Allen, who returns to England for the first time since the Vikings defeated Pittsburgh at Wembley in 2013, will be inducted into London’s Ring of Honor during Sunday’s match between the New York Jets and Minnesota.
He likes what he has seen from his former team so far this season.
“They are aggressive. What’s most impressive is that they’re getting what they need to get out of their new signings, which are already making a huge impact. That’s what you like to see when you pick up free agents.
“Hats off to the coaching staff for getting the players that fit their system and creating a system and environment in which they can be successful.”
And it’s entirely possible that he’ll come face to face with a familiar enemy. It will be almost exactly 15 years ago to the day that Favre and the Vikings defeated the Packers on Monday Night Football. Allen had a career-high 4.5 sacks against Aaron Rodgers in a raucous Metrodome. “That was a great day,” he says. “Goodness. Time flies. Every time I see Aaron, it’s very warm!
But first he wants to find some decent food. “My wife and children are coming, so I want to show them some sights. I want to find some good pubs, have a few pints and some bangers and mash.
Who knows, maybe he’ll meet Eddie the Eagle.
(Top photo: David Berding/Getty Images)
