Vikings defensive end Jared Allen is a throwback. Not to the days of no facemasks, but to the days of no limits. He’s the loud, proud, life-of-the-party football cowboy madman, who has continued to exude that vibe even after swearing off alcohol, after alcohol threatened to get him kicked out of the league.
Jared Allen’s style doesn’t suggest golf or anything remotely close to it. But Jared Allen recently conducted a charity golf tournament, and he did it only the way that Jared Allen could.
Held in his adopted home of Scottsdale, Arizona, Allen’s golf tournament featured Marines screaming at participants during their backswings, and guys like MMA star Chuck Liddell being forced to ride the Slip ‘n’ Slide after failing to reach the 14th green in regulation.
The “Night Ops” event, with nine holes played in daylight and nine at night, raised money to help build or modify homes for wounded military veterans.
“Unfortunately, people get hurt in war,” Allen said, per Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic. “When they come home, we’re going to be there to fix their house or get them a new house. We want to make them feel comfortable and have one less thing to worry about.”
Allen got the idea for the event after a 2009 USO tour in which he participated.
“I’d just come back from the USO Tour, and it kind of just pummels you a little bit,” Allen said. “Doing this is kind of one way of being part of the military without serving in the military.”
So while the backdrop for the fundraising became, like in so many other instances, a golf course, Allen made it clear that “we tried to switch it up so it’s not just another lame-ass golf tournament.”
That’s Jared Allen. And while the sports world likely wouldn’t survive if there were too many of him, the sports world could use a few more.