Jared Allen, famed edge rusher who didn’t stop there for the Vikings, is elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame

NEW ORLEANS - Jared Allen’s long, hard wait has ended in the Big Easy.

With Thursday’s prime-time NFL Honors show as his glitzy backdrop, Allen’s recognition as one of the most relentless edge rushers in league history finally arrived when the former Viking bolted across the stage inside the Saenger Theater as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s four-person Class of 2025. The sheer joy and exhale of exhaustion comes in Allen’s fifth year of eligibility, fifth year as a finalist and one year after he admitted to being “hugely disappointed and shocked” by a selection process that had left the four-time first-team All-Pro hanging as peers at his position leapfrogged him in fewer years of eligibility.

“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s still the greatest honor there is,” said Allen, who learned of his selection when Hall of Fame President Jim Porter and now-fellow Vikings Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson, wearing the matching gold jacket Allen will receive this summer in Canton, Ohio, knocked on his door in Nashville late last week.

Joining Allen in this year’s class are Eagles cornerback Eric Allen, Chargers tight end Antonio Gates and seniors candidate and Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe. Changes in the process this year resulted in the 49 selectors, including this reporter, choosing the smallest class since four were selected in 2005. And no first-ballot finalists were chosen.

The selection committee met virtually Jan. 14. Eliminated first among Allen’s 14 modern-era peers were Eli Manning, Steve Smith Sr., Fred Taylor, Reggie Wayne and Terrell Suggs. The second cut to seven eliminated Darren Woodson, Marshal Yanda and Jahri Evans. Selectors then voted for their final five of the seven remaining. A minimum of three and a maximum of five could make it. The four who did not receive at least 80% of the vote and were eliminated were Luke Kuechly, Adam Vinatieri, Torry Holt and Willie Anderson.

Born a free spirit and self-proclaimed wild child on April 3, 1982, in Dallas, Allen grew up on a horse ranch in Morgan Hill, Calif. He played football at Live Oak High School until his senior year, when he transferred to Los Gatos High after being expelled for selling stolen yearbooks and refusing to name his accomplices. “Just dumb kid stuff I thought was funny but ended up not being funny,” the grown-up version of Allen recalled.

When the University of Washington pulled Allen’s Division I offer, little Idaho State pounced. Allen became the best defensive player in Division I-AA, but NFL teams were leery of the competition. Leery of that wild child reputation. Leery of what Allen admits were too many off-the-field scrapes that too often drew police intervention.

The Chiefs took Allen 126th overall in the fourth round in 2004. At the time, no one was predicting 136 career sacks, good for 12th best since the league began tracking them in 1982. No, the Chiefs actually liked Allen more as a long snapper — a skill Allen had been honing with his father, Ron, since second grade — and a backup lineman.

“We’ll maybe give him a shot at defensive end,” coach Dick Vermeil said at the time.

Well, Allen had nine sacks in 10 starts as a rookie. He had 11 in 2005, 7½ in 2006 and led the league for the first of two times in his career with 15½ in 2007, his last year with Kansas City. Allen would post seven consecutive years with 11 or more sacks, including a Vikings franchise-record 22 — half a sack shy of the league record — in 2011 as NFL Defensive Player of the Year runner-up to Suggs, a finalist in his first year of eligibility this year.

“I’m really, actually, the only guy in NFL history with a 23rd sack,” Allen said, laughing, referring to a famous tale of how the league stripped him of a sack of Aaron Rodgers the Wednesday after a Packers game, saying Rodgers was trying to run after muffing a snap.

Rodgers — who was sacked 15 times by Allen, including Allen’s career-high 4½ on that magical night in 2009 when Brett Favre beat his former team at the Metrodome — agrees with Allen on the 23rd sack.

“It was definitely not a run,” said Rodgers, one of many former opponents who spoke up on behalf of Allen and his Hall of Fame case. “Jared was always a game-wrecker. An absolute game-wrecker. He was all over the place.”

Allen also was an every-down defender who played on five top-10 run defenses; the Vikings ranked second in 2008 and first in 2009. Leslie Frazier, Allen’s defensive coordinator from 2008-10 and head coach from 2010-13, was a strong voice in helping convince the selectors that Allen was not a one-trick pony.

“I played with Richard Dent and coached Dwight Freeney and Von Miller, and Jared had the same identical impact in his ability to single-handedly take over a game,” Frazier said. “But the thing that separates Jared from other great pass rushers was his ability to play the run. He got 22 sacks in a season and was excellent against the run. We may never see that combination again.”

Allen had 648 tackles in 12 years. That’s 298 more than Freeney had in 16 seasons. Allen also had 12 more sacks, 80 more quarterback hits and 43 more tackles for loss in four fewer seasons than Freeney, a Hall of Fame selection in his second year of eligibility in 2024.

Allen’s path to Minnesota was influenced by a couple more mistakes off the field in 2006 and then a six-year, $72 million deal that Freeney signed with the Colts in 2007 to become the highest-paid defender in league history.

First, Allen got two DUIs six months apart in 2006. He remembers them as the “reality check” that changed and perhaps saved his life.

“My grandfather [Ray Allen] said something at the time that will stick with me forever,” Allen said. “He said, ‘I didn’t drag this last name through three wars just so you could screw it up.’ ”

Allen was suspended for the first two games in 2007. Week 3, he had two sacks — one of 35 career multisack games, fourth-best all-time — in a 13-10 win over the Vikings.

Freeney’s role in Allen’s journey north on I-35 came after the 2007 season and Allen’s first All-Pro selection. Allen wanted a bigger contract than the one Freeney got from the Colts. Carl Peterson, Chiefs president and general manager, said no, refusing to take a historic financial gamble on a guy who was facing a lengthy NFL suspension if he messed up again off the field.

Allen asked for a trade. Rick Spielman, Vikings vice president of player personnel at the time, stepped in. He rolled the dice in what was considered a huge character risk at the time but will now be forever stamped in gold as one of the greatest moves in Vikings history.

Spielman dealt a first-round pick and two third-rounders to the Chiefs. He made Allen the highest-paid defender in league history at six years, $72.36 million. Allen paid him back by playing six years in Minnesota, never missing a game, averaging 14 sacks, 17 tackles for loss and 26 quarterback hits while being named first-team All-Pro three more times in his first four seasons with the Vikings. Allen left via free agency in 2014, playing two more seasons with the Bears and Panthers and finishing his career in Carolina’s Super Bowl loss two weeks after breaking his foot.

Allen not only got his act together off the field, he also became a team leader and the most reliable player a team could ask for. In 12 seasons littered with serious back and shoulder injuries, Allen missed only three games because of injuries and one game because of pneumonia.

“I grew up,” Allen said with a nod to the day Grandpa Ray called him to shake some sense into him.

“He passed away a few years ago,” Allen said. “He was a hardcore Marine. Served in Korea, did two tours in Vietnam. I think he would be absolutely proud of me today, but I think more importantly he would be proud of the man I am today.

“That meant more to him than anything. But I think he would be absolutely stoked. He’d be sitting right here with my Vikings jersey on rooting me on.”

Growing up meant marrying Amy. Having two girls, Brinley, 13, and Lakelyn, 10. And starting his foundation, Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors, in 2009.

And now, at the still tender age of 42, Allen soon will have a bronzed bust made that will reside in Canton, Ohio, long after any of us are around.

“Yeah, but I could have gone in when I was 39,” Allen joked. “But, honestly, now that it’s over, you appreciate it maybe a little more. I’ve talked to a lot of guys through this whole process. [Vikings Hall of Famer] Cris Carter, it took him six years. He told me the sting goes away. And no one can take this away. I’m in there forever.”