Jared Allen was stuffing his clothes in these special packing boxes — stuffing in so many clothes that every so often you could hear plastic cracking — and he was trying to come up with a sensitive way to say that he would love to get away from the Chiefs.
“I love this town,” he was saying. “The people here are great. The fans are the best. But … I’m excited about going somewhere new. I’m looking at this as a new challenge. I mean, it would be really cool to go play somewhere else, like a new adventure.”
This was in December, just before the Chiefs’ season ended, and no matter how many different ways I asked the question, Jared kept giving the same general answer: He was ready to get out. He felt as if the Chiefs — and especially Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson — had slighted him by not offering a long-term contract and (in his mind) publicly embarrassed him by suggesting that he was too risky a bet after he was caught driving under the influence twice in 2006.
“I made mistakes,” he said. “But I paid for those mistakes. I’ve given everything I have for this team. I didn’t hold out like Larry (Johnson). I didn’t demand to renegotiate. I’m a big believer in loyalty. But the Chiefs …”
He stopped. He didn’t want to turn the talk into a complaint session, and he didn’t want to rip the Chiefs. But he was not backing off either. He wanted out.
For a while, the Chiefs seemed determined to ignore that. Peterson made his now famous, “We will not lose Jared Allen,” statement. Well, here we are, four months later, and it looks as if Allen might get out after all. The Chiefs and Peterson admit they’re listening to offers.
This was a long time coming. The Chiefs and Peterson backed themselves into a corner a year ago. Allen was still a young, talented and inconsistent defensive end who’d never made a Pro Bowl and who had some off-the-field trouble. He also seemed genuinely apologetic about it, and he worked very hard, and the Chiefs might have signed him at a pretty reasonable rate. Peterson decided it wasn’t the right time.
Then everything changed. Allen quit drinking, he focused, he changed his diet, and he became a monster. He led the NFL in sacks despite missing the first two games because of a suspension. He scored a couple of touchdowns as a goal-line receiver. He continued to be outspoken and utterly intolerant of losing. In other words, at 26 he became precisely the kind of defensive player that every team in the NFL would like to build around.
Only, he has not forgiven. He will not forget. The Chiefs may have had their sound reasons for being cautious, but they broke something in Jared Allen.
“I’ll never be able to think of this organization the same way,” he said.
And now, the Chiefs are stuck. They can keep Allen here — they have that option. They slammed the franchise tag on Allen, which is sort of a set of golden handcuffs. It means the Chiefs can force him to stay by paying him $8.9 million next year or by matching whatever contract is offered by another team. But nobody would be especially happy with that.
Allen, while he’d no doubt be happy with the money, would still be playing for a team that he thinks disrespected him. And Chiefs coach Herm Edwards would be stuck with a star player who everyone knows wants out. It’s not a great situation for a young Chiefs team trying to rebuild or a young player trying to become a superstar.
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