Jared Allen's 'bounty bull' competing at Target Center on Saturday

In Jared Allen's sport, it pays to draft and develop young talent. The athletes keep getting bigger and stronger.

And bounties are perfectly legal.

Say what now?

Oh, you probably thought we were talking about Allen's other sport, football. We're talking here, instead, about professional bull riding, a new athletic passion that has emerged alongside Allen's NFL career.

His main gig included six seasons with the Vikings before joining the Bears this season, but Allen will renew a connection with the Twin Cities when his bull, Magic Train, competes in a Professional Bull Riders event 7 p.m. Saturday at Target Center. (See targetcenter.com for ticket information.)

Magic Train, in fact, will be the "bounty bull" at the event. That's not OK in the NFL — "The bull business is different," Allen said with a laugh, and it better be with the Vikings playing the Saints on Sunday — but in the PBR it means a rider can earn $5,000 by staying atop the feisty creature for eight seconds.

Don't count on it, Allen said.

Allen comes from ranching roots, and he got into the business side of bull riding as an offshoot of his foundation. ("It's something a little different than everybody else, which is kind of my M.O., right?" he said.) He has an entire stable of bulls and a rider now — Jared Allen's Pro Bull Team — and proceeds from their earnings go to his foundation.

"It's one of the fastest-growing sports in the world," he said. "Our next goal is to get a coach on board and train our riders and get them to view this sport as being a professional athlete. We watch film of our mistakes [in football], and how we correct our wrongs. We watch film of our opponents, which is kind of like studying the bull."

It speaks to a level of sophistication that the casual viewer might not recognize.

"This isn't just grab a couple bulls from the pen and let the cowboys jump on them. It's very competitive," Allen said. "Bulls like Magic Train are where we started. He was our first big purchase, a top-notch bull. He comes out of the gate, boom, with big explosions. It's going to be fun."

MICHAEL RAND