The Sheriff may or may not be riding off into the sunset. The Calf Roper is.
Absent the sunset.
In a video posted at his Twitter page, veteran NFL defensive end Jared Allen announced his retirement. On horseback.
“I just want to say thank you for an amazing 12-year career,” Allen said. “This was the part where I was gonna ride off into the sunset. But seeing how there’s no sunset, I’m just gonna ride off.”
And then he rode off.
Allen, who celebrates tackling quarterbacks behind the line of scrimmage by pretending to rope a calf, exits with 136 career sacks and one Super Bowl appearance. In 2011, Allen notched 22.0 sacks for a then-hapless Vikings team. He had 15.5 in 2007, his final season with the Chiefs. Allen then racked up 14.5 sacks in each of his first two years with the Vikings, who acquired him for a first-round and third-round pick in 2008.
A wild child early in his career, a pair of DUIs triggered a two-game suspension of Allen in 2007. Allen thereafter turned his life around, maintaining his loose, fun-loving ways without the alcohol. More recently, Allen has become a major proponent of providing modified and upgraded housing for American soldiers injured in battle.
We’ve already made a request to get him back on PFT Live, especially since Allen provided one of the best moments in show history when he explained in November 2011 why he punched former teammate Ray Edwards “square in the wiener” during a game between Minnesota and Atlanta.
In all, Allen spent four years with the Chiefs and six with the Vikings. He signed with the Bears in 2014, who traded him to Carolina early last year after switching to a 3-4 defense.