Feb. 18--The unofficial announcement surfaced Thursday morning. Like so much news these days, it broke on Twitter. With a short video and a simple message. There was Jared Allen aboard a horse on a snowy range in a cowboy hat and a sheepskin shearling coat.
"Riding off into the sunset," Allen wrote.
"Well everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for an amazing 12-year career," Allen said in his video. "And this was the part where I was going to ride off into the sunset. But seeing how there's no sunset, I'm just going to ride off."
And away he went.
So that's it and that's all. After 12 NFL seasons with four different teams, Allen appears headed for retirement.
He will leave the game after posting 136 career sacks, tied for ninth most on the league's all-time list. Included in that impressive total were eight seasons with at least 10 sacks, including a career-high 22 in 2011 with the Vikings. He was also selected to the Pro Bowl five times.
Allen's career, it turns out, finished at a destination he was always striving to reach -- in the Super Bowl. Allen played through a broken bone in his foot in that game earlier this month and was left to swallow the Carolina Panthers' 24-10 loss to the Denver Broncos.
Now the 33-year-old pass rusher has decided it's time to walk away.
Allen started his career with the Kansas City Chiefs, a fourth-round draft pick in 2004. He was traded to the Vikings in 2008 and peaked in Minnesota, recording 85 1/2 sacks during his six seasons there.
Allen's short tenure with the Chicago Bears was far less prolific: 18 months, 18 games, 5 1/2 sacks. After attempting a transition to outside linebacker for the Bears this past year, Allen never could find his stride at a new position in the team's new 3-4 scheme and was traded to the Panthers in late-September. He played in 12 games in Carolina and finished his 2015 season with two sacks.
Now, it seems, he's found peace in his decision to walk away.
