MINNEAPOLIS -- His bid for a Super Bowl ring with the Carolina Panthers gave Minnesota Vikings fans an interesting subplot to follow in Super Bowl 50. Now, as he prepares to turn 34, former Vikings star Jared Allen has decided to call it a career.
The five-time Pro Bowl pass-rusher announced his retirement as only he could Thursday, tweeting a video on horseback under the caption, "Riding off into the sunset." In the clip, Allen thanked fans for his 12-year career, and closed by deadpanning, "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 with that, one of the most colorful and popular players in Vikings history turned and his horse galloped away.
It was a fitting send-off for Allen, who always did things his own way and rarely apologized for being who he was. He never made much attempt to downplay the attention he paid to his statistics -- it's why his admission before the Super Bowl that he had focused on his stats too much was so compelling -- and for the better part of his six years with the Vikings, Allen was among the game's most dominant pass-rushers. He posted at least 11 sacks each season with the team, falling a half-sack short of Michael Strahan's single-season record in 2011, and paired with Kevin Williams, Pat Williams and Ray Edwards to give the Vikings their best defensive line since the "Purple People Eaters."
Allen retires with 136 career sacks, which places him ninth on the all-time sack list he kept in his locker. His Hall of Fame credentials will be a matter of some debate, though it's worth noting that every eligible player on the top 10 all-time list has received the call to Canton, Ohio. It might take Allen a few years, considering Kevin Greene and Chris Doleman (third and fourth all-time, respectively) had to wait more than a decade apiece after retirement. But he figures to reach the Vikings Ring of Honor before too long, and he'll likely receive a warm welcome whenever he returns to Minnesota. As his retirement announcement reminded us, Allen was certainly an original.