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Before joining our Access Vikings team, Dan Wiederer covered Atlantic Coast Conference basketball for the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer and was named North Carolina's top sports columnist in 2010. His previous reporting experience includes covering the Chicago Bears. Follow him on Twitter @StribDW.
Mark Craig has covered football and the NFL the past 20 years, including the Browns from 1991-95 and the Vikings and the NFL since 2003. Since 2008, Craig has served as one of the 44 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors. He can be followed on Twitter at @markcraignfl.
Allen makes list of dirtiest players
Posted by: under Quarterbacks, Vikings, Lions, Packers, Vikings defense, Vikings players, Jared Allen Updated: November 4, 2009 - 3:44 PM
Vikings defensive end Jared Allen received 3.2 percent of the votes in a Sports Illustrated poll of 296 players aimed at identifying the dirtiest players in the NFL. That placed Allen 10th on a list of players that was led by Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, who received 11.6 percent of the votes.
In the NFL there is a fine line between aggressive and dirty and a player such as Allen certainly also has received more than his share of cheap shots from opponents.
Allen, who leads the NFL with 10.5 sacks this season, was fined $80,000 last season for various hits on quarterbacks.
The league fined him $50,000 for two hits on Houston's Matt Schaub during a November game in 2008. Schaub suffered a knee injury on one them. Allen received a $5,000 fine for jumping on a pile against Chicago in October of last year and was docked another $25,000 for a hit on Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in November. Allen was summoned to the league's offices in New York after that Green Bay game to explain his side of things.
Allen played much of 2008 banged up because of questionable hits he took. The first came in that Nov. 2 game against the Texans when he suffered a third-degree sprain, or separation, of the AC joint in his right shoulder when he was hit by guard Chester Pitts. Allen then sprained his knee on Dec. 7, 2008 at Detroit when Lions right guard Gosder Cherilus him Allen low while he chased a play.
Here's what Allen had to say about his style of play a year ago: "I don't ever go out and try to maliciously do anything. I just play football hard. If I get penalized for playing football hard then that's what it's going to be. I'm not going to apologize for the way I play. It's the way I've been playing since I was 8 years old."
Here's how the voting broke in the SI poll down: Ward (11.6 percent); Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth (6.0); Miami linebacker Joey Porter (6.0); Cincinnati safety Roy Williams (5.1); Tennessee center Kevin Mawae (4.6); Tennessee cornerback Cortland Finnegan (4.2); St. Louis guard Richie Incognito (3.7); Atlanta guard Harvey Dahl (3.7); Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu (3.7); and Allen.
Ward being No. 1 is not a major surprise because of his reputation for blocking. The poll was conducted in September. No other Vikings were mentioned in the story.
To the best of our knowledge, Allen has not been fined for any hits this season.
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