Most of the rest of his career was defined by power - first as a tackle, where the Cowboys figured he would be a mainstay, and ultimately as a guard. Late in his rookie season, Allen saved a touchdown by running down Darion Conner when it looked like the New Orleans linebacker only had Troy Aikman to beat down the sideline. He was surrounded by Pro Bowl offensive linemen but didn”t take long to get noticed. The Cowboys were coming off consecutive Super Bowl wins when they drafted Allen in the middle of the second round in 1994. “It was like in the movies where it just goes ”tick, tick, tick, tick” and stops.” “You could have heard a pin drop when he slammed the ball,” Scalercio said. Walsh wanted to see the 6-foot-3 Allen lift his 320-pound frame for a dunk. ![]() They tracked him down on a basketball court, the same place Sonoma coach Tim Walsh took Allen when he showed up on campus. He was out of football and living in Los Angeles when Scalercio sent some of his LA-area players looking for him. “I kinda forgot about the guy I was actually recruiting,” Scalercio said.Īllen ended up tiny Sonoma, a Division II school, because his academic progress wasn”t fast enough to get him to Division I, where he probably belonged. Then an assistant for Sonoma, Scalercio was recruiting another player when he saw Allen throw an opponent to the ground for the first time. That”s the junior college where the lineman landed after attending four high schools in part because his mom moved him around to keep him away from gangs. “Other than that …” Newton said, trailing off.Īllen just played, which is how Scalercio discovered him at Butte College. “Every now and then you”d hear him utter a cuss word or hear him laugh that old funny laugh he had. “He never said nothin”,” said Nate Newton, one of Allen”s mentors on Dallas” offensive line. This was a player who made notorious trash-talker John Randle of Minnesota keep to himself when he faced the Cowboys, for fear of making Allen mad. This is a man who silently bench-pressed 700 pounds - “absurd,” says former teammate Daryl Johnston - in the Cowboys” locker room while players screamed and mobbed him. The soft side of Allen isn”t a familiar one to former teammates and opponents. ![]() “She was one of the biggest reasons I”ll be up there, and I know she”ll be looking down on me,” Allen said. He”s not ashamed to say he”ll probably cry again. The six-time All-Pro has already cried once over the Hall of Fame - the day his name was announced. “Whenever I”d get nervous or had a big game and got nervous, I”d give her a call, and she”d start making me laugh.”
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