Allen: Force to be reckoned with

Jared Allen's football résumé, at first glance, makes little sense.

A dominant player in high school, he ended up at Idaho State. Selected the best defensive player in Division I-AA, he lasted until the fourth round of the 2004 NFL draft. Kansas City's team leader in sacks his first two seasons, he played for a one-year contract last year.

That all seems odd until you dig a little deeper and realize the conundrum Allen has forced more than one team to face. A wild and sometimes reckless streak that helped turn him into a premier defensive end on the field -- and has led him to engage in some rather interesting ventures away from it -- also has caused him, and others, headaches and heartache.

Three drunken-driving arrests since 2002, including two within a five-month span in 2006 in the Kansas City area, caused the latest round of doubt. He spent two days in jail in February 2007 and was suspended for the Chiefs' first two regular-season games last season.

Allen says he has changed. He's learned his lesson. The Vikings are banking on it -- literally.

Minnesota sent its first-round pick and two third-round selections in this weekend's NFL draft to Kansas City -- the teams also swapped sixth-rounders -- and agreed to a six-year contract with Allen worth a franchise-record $73.3 million. The deal includes a little more than $31 million in guarantees, although the profootballtalk.com website reports that number could be reduced to $16.3 million if he gets into trouble before March 2009.

The next chapter

Standing at the podium inside the Vikings' Winter Park practice facility Wednesday, Allen assured a gathering of media members the same thing he had told team executives. He isn't about to embarrass the Vikings. He has said numerous times that he's quit drinking alcohol and takes better care of himself.

If anything the one-time party animal is now a boring 26-year-old who has a steady girlfriend and goes to bed early.

"The important thing for me to express to [the Vikings] was these changes were not made just so I would look good in the eyes of the NFL," he said. "These changes were made for me as a man and to be a better man for my family, to represent the name on the back of this jersey. Like I told coach, now that I am a part of this family and a part of the Vikings family, I will do everything to represent that family as if I am representing my personal family."

Allen learned an important lesson about representing his family shortly after being arrested for drunken driving in September 2006 in Leawood, Kan. That May he had been pulled over for the same offense in Overland Park, Kan.

His paternal grandfather, Ray Allen, a member of the Marines for a quarter-century and a guy referred to as Scarface and Master Blaster, had had enough. It didn't help matters that Ray had to find out about his grandson's troubles from watching ESPN.

"I told him, 'You're screwing up this family's name. Now what are you going to do about it?" Ray told the San Jose Mercury News in a story published in February.

Jared Allen said he has not had a drink since that conversation. "After the last DUI, I had to take a long look in the mirror," he told the Mercury News. "I realized I was throwing away everything I love, and for what? I had always been afraid to grow up and have a normal life. But I realized it was finally time."

His own man

Allen, who grew up on a ranch in northern California and now lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., remains a bit on the eccentric side. OK, he's very much on the eccentric side.

This is a guy who has run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, tried his hand at skydiving and last year killed a 200-pound boar with a knife. Not your run-of-the-mill offseason activities.

An avid outdoorsman, Allen has made occasional fishing trips to Minnesota. Allen's father, Ron, a former professional football player who played in the defunct USFL, also spent some time in Minnesota, having gone to training camp with the Vikings in the late 1970s.

Jared Allen was 8 years old when he informed his dad that he would be following the same career path. A lot of little boys dream of playing in the NFL, few make it and even fewer make an impact.

Last season, in his fourth year with the Chiefs, he had an NFL-leading 15.5 sacks and was named to the Pro Bowl. Kansas City, however, went 4-12 and Allen and the Chiefs' front office had their disagreements.

Allen wanted a long-term contract, but the Chiefs slapped the franchise tag on him. That move is usually made to ensure a player doesn't sign elsewhere but in this case it was so the Chiefs could shop Allen.

The Vikings were more than happy to take him -- even at a significant price.

"I got chills right now. It's just starting to sink in," Allen said when asked about his contract. "As a player it's cool because it shows appreciation for what you have done, but at the same time personally I look at it as a new challenge.

"The day I got drafted my dad called me because I told my old man when I was 8 years old that I was going to play pro football. ... [He said], 'You did it, you accomplished a life dream.' That was a scary moment for me because now I've got to come up with new goals. So this is kind of the same thing. I accomplished something I wanted to accomplish but for me it's just a new challenge."