MINNEAPOLIS -- For sheer number of Minnesota Vikings-related subplots, the Super Bowl 50 matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos lags behind some championship games of recent years. The presence of Percy Harvin, Darrell Bevell and Sidney Rice on the 2013 Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl team or Randy Moss' final attempt to get a ring in 2012 with the San Francisco 49ers come to mind.
But in terms of plot depth and character development, it's tough to find one more compelling than what has happened with Jared Allen and the Panthers.
Allen, who compiled 85.5 sacks in six seasons with the Vikings and left for the Chicago Bears following the 2013 season, found himself marginalized in Chicago. That's thanks to a bout with pneumonia that caused him to lose 33 pounds in 2014 and a 2015 shift to a 3-4 defense that left Allen out of place in the scheme. He was traded to Carolina after three games last fall, and while he was on the field for about 64 percent of the Panthers' defensive snaps, the 33-year-old recorded only two sacks in 2015.
That number, as anyone who has followed Allen's career knows, probably stings a little bit. The five-time Pro Bowler never made any bones about how much he valued his stats, keeping a list in his locker of the league's all-time sack rankings and where he stood on it. When he surpassed double-digit sacks for the seventh consecutive year with a late surge in 2013, Allen said it meant "the world" to him; he could recall in vivid detail all of the quarterbacks that eluded his grasp in 2011, when he finished a half-sack short of Michael Strahan's season record.
Now, Allen is a rotational player for the Panthers' sixth-ranked defense who missed the team's two playoff games with a broken foot. He's on track to return Sunday, for a game not far from where he grew up. And after coming within an eyelash of an NFC title in 2009 with the Vikings, Allen is headed to the Super Bowl. And he's talking in a way that sounds markedly different from what he said in his time with the Vikings.
"I truly have been humbled by coming here,” Allen told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I [remember] the time Tony Dungy came to speak to us when we were in Minnesota. And he asked questions like, 'What would you give up to win a Super Bowl?' He asked me one time, 'Would you give up a year with no sacks to win a Super Bowl?' At the time, I'm like, 'Ahh, probably not. I don't know if I can do that.' Just because you're trying to be great.
"You get around a place where it's about the team. I've never been a part of a place where next-man-up was so genuine. You can't help but buy in to what Coach [Ron] Rivera's selling. So for me, at this point of my career, it's about winning. That's all I care about, is winning the Super Bowl.”
Those who were around Allen in Minnesota might look askance at those comments, but after two seasons with just 7.5 combined sacks, the defensive end seems to be approaching the game with a wider focus. His time as a dominant pass-rusher is likely over, and his merits as a Hall of Fame candidate will be in question if he retires after this season, sitting ninth on the all-time sack list with 136.
"At some point that becomes your mindset and you're constantly pushing to be the best. Because that's all I ever wanted to be was the best at what I did," he told the Sun-Times. "And I think the overall spectrum of what football is about -- it's the ultimate team sport -- gets lost. I can honestly say this year has been so humbling. Because … worst numbers, most success.”
It's striking to hear Allen say he's "100 percent" a better teammate than he has been in the past and admit he probably was too caught up in his own numbers. The passage of time, and the chance at winning a Super Bowl, seem to have leavened Allen's bravado with a dash of perspective. Those who watched Allen in Minnesota will have a tough time latching on to a more compelling angle this Sunday.