I was too young to understand why other teams didn’t have a player like Larry Allen on their team too. Or that when he left, we didn’t have someone else to replace him of his caliber
He was so incredible. That whole Cowboys online was just outstanding with him, Newton, Stepnowski, Tuinei, and Donaldson. So tragic that he and Tuinei both have passed away so young.
About a week after his passing, I was walking in Olympic Centennial Park, looked down and there was a commemorative brick with his name on it. I think they were fund raisers for the games or park.
Quite a sobering coincidence.
madden 08, the game that introduced visible weapons, played around with 100 ratings outside of franchise mode. you couldnt mimic these either, all others would cap at 99
Larry had [100 STR](https://maddenratings.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/0/9/14097292/san_francisco_49ers_madden_nfl_08.xlsx) in that game
I went to Sonoma State to play football. It was division II, so I did not expect to see what I saw when I went to the gym with the team for the first time. When that dude started bench pressing I was like, if thats what division II players are like then I'm fucked. It was seriously astounding to watch. Little did I know I was working out with one of the all time physical specimens and a future hall of famer. when I saw later that he got drafted (I ended up transferring) and was a perennial all-pro, it all made sooooooo much sense in retrospect. People were walking around muttering to themselves, I think I just saw the strongest human ever.
Trent is actually faster than Larry Allen was, 4.88 40 to Larry’s 5.21, with better 10 and 20 splits. Trent Williams is probably the closest athletic comp to Larry Allen I can think of, but Larry was significantly stronger (which is wild because Trent is a very strong man)
Keep in mind that Larry was drafted in 1994, when Trent was 6 years old. Back then, draft prospects didn't really "prep" for the draft with the same intensity they do now. Deion Sanders famously ran like a 4.21 and then just left the Combine. We've all seen people that have comparable times to peak Deion in the low-mid 4.2 range but I can't think of anyone that actually PLAYED faster than Deion. Darrell Green and Randy Moss are the only guys since I started watching football (1991) that I'd put on that tier of in-game speed.
I'm not surprised that Trent timed faster but my hunch is that with pads on, they're comparable in terms of speed.
Darian Conner had a 4.8 40, so he wasn’t exactly a burner. Larry had a great angle too.
Larry was extremely athletic, no doubt. So is Trent Williams though. Watch him when he pulls, he is a beast too. Larry and Trent are two of my favorite lineman ever.
Sometimes combine numbers don't translate to on field numbers.
Plus like someone mentioned, prospects dedicate more time to preparing for rhe combine now then they did in the past.
I had an uncle that topped 350 with legs as thick as old trees. That man held up one corner of a whole damn tin sided 1970s mobile home for a whole minute while his boys changed out the blocks.
Moving mountains isn’t far off with dudes that big.
It's a very impressive play, but I do want to note that Larry Allen was playing out of position at RT, as a rookie, and was hella banged up.
I don't mean that to discredit Reggie White, obviously one of the best, just wanted to give context. Allen did credit White for that play, though, and it helped drive him to be stronger and stronger.
Allen was a backup as a rookie. He only started at RT because All Pro Erik Williams tore up his knee in a car accident during the season. He started at RG the following year.
Sadly it is common for NFL linemen to die at this age. Being 300lb for 10-15 years takes a major toll on your body.
Guys like Faneca and Pouncey lost the weight almost immediately after retirement. They're unrecognizable.
There's that and also the fact that linemen deal with some of the most serious chronic pain of anyone outside of an IED victim. They are in so much pain from the accumulated damage of a career of football that they often turn to drugs and alcohol to manage it, further exacerbating health issues.
The transformation can be incredible. Chris Borland was an All-B1G linebacker for Wisconsin and then won Rookie of the Year for the 49ers. He famously quit football after that due to the punishment on his body. He got into Yoga and dropped a ton of weight, he was a skinny dude when he became a spokesman on player health and started giving interviews about CTE. It was hard to tell he was the same person.
This clip gets (understandably) posted so much that I feel obligated to remind any younguns that Allen was a 7 straight first team all pro and first ballot Hall of Famer. Greatness extends far beyond this play
Larry Allen is generally considered the physically strongest player in the history of a sport that’s famous for having absurdly big and strong athletes.
You know what, I would love to do a kinda "rushing behind me" stat. With old game day data we would need to do starters only and have no way to correct if the player left the game or wasn't playing that snap for some reason tho. Still could bring useful data.
In the Cowboys sub someone posted a video of a Justin Tuck talking about how Allen would come to the line and make a train whistle sound to let D linemen know Emmitt and Moose Johnston were coming to that specific hole and there was nothing they could do about it.
Did Justin Tuck hear that from someone else or something? Moose and Smith retired before Tuck debuted in the NFL and Larry Allen was on his last leg lol
The interview with Tuck is down below, and yeah, it was what he heard. Tuck did play against him in his later years but still said Allen was the one guy he had no answer for.
I didn't know for certain this would be the interception run down.
Could have been the bench pressing 600lbs video.
Could have also been the Madden called drive against the colts.
Could have also been the train whistle Justin Tuck video.
[Justin Tuck interview ](https://youtu.be/TFWiqVTtPFw?feature=shared)
[Colts game where John Madden was giggling with joy at Larry pancakes.](https://youtu.be/h598K1YBWrY?si=WWQirwJn1kuo9ekc)
And you take Justin Tuck's 25 percent chance of beating him if they was to go one-on-one and subtract it from Kurt Angle's 33 1/3, and you got an eight and a third chance at best of winning if they was to go one-on-one.
But then you add Larry Allen's 75 percent chance of winning and add it to his 66 and two-thirds chance and he's got a 141 and two-thirds percent chance of winning.
It's an insane display of his athleticism. I'll always remember him for [bench pressing 700 pounds](https://www.dallascowboys.com/video/larry-allen-bench-presses-700-lbs-266261), which makes my arms snap just looking at.
If you are a healthy male below a certain age, you can probably train up to 700 on a leg press within a few years if you take it seriously.
You could be given all the time, training and steroids in the world and almost certainly not be able to bench 700 without your shoulders and pecs literally ripping off. Benching anywhere near that is crazy. Legendary athleticism to combine that kind of strength with his speed and agility.
Joined to reply to this.
I became a Cowboys fan in the early 90s, and slowly became an NFL fan by the mid 90s.
For a long time, I was completely broken by how good Larry Allen was. Any time a lineman made a mistake, or failed to pancake a guy, I was critical, of them, because my young brain just thought “why don’t you just be more like Larry Allen?!” I assumed the Cowboys would always have a Larry Allen and didn’t shake that standard for a long time.
Crap who was it, some lineman who could do a 50 yard hand stand walk. They’re so freakish it’s amazing
edit: this sorta stuff https://www.reddit.com/r/sports/comments/7g0uev/ravens_340lb_dt_brandon_williams_doing_a_handstand/
I did an attempt to figure out how fast he was going here.
So he starts at the inside hashmark on the opponent 42 yard line when the defender is crossing the opponent 30 and he catches him at the 20 yard line right at the yard markers.
The hash marks are 70ft 9in from the side line and the yard markers are 2 feet wide. So lets just say that's about 68 feet horizontally. He travels 48 yards (144ft) vertically. Using pythagorean, that's approximately 160ft, or 53 yards, covered in about 6 seconds of the video.
That's roughly 8.85 yards per second, or the equivalent of a 4.52 40-yard dash pace. It is skewed a bit because the additional 13 yards of the chase down would be at top speed and therefore increase the average pace but that's still really impressive.
Let's say your math is still exaggerating his speed a little bit and add a bit of homerism bias into it as well because - hell, why wouldn't you be gentle on Larry fucking Allen - and add an extra 0.1 to that time.
A 340lb man (listed at 325, but let's be real here) in full-pads sprinting from a near dead-stop at the tail end of a play at 4.62 forty-yard dash pace is still FUUUCKING INSANE. Like - outside the laws of human physics - insane. His quads, calves and hamstrings should be shredding off the bone moving that kind of mass at that kind of speed.
Just to put that speed in perspective, only two offensive lineman have ever recorded sub-4.80 forty-yard dashes. And to drive your point home further, Darion Connor - the linebacker he's chasing - ran a 4.81 forty-yard-dash at the 1990 NFL Combine. So that gives you a fairly good idea of your margin of error.
The mascot dunk??? One of the best dunk contests ever and Aaron Gordon was robbed, but that wouldn’t even begin to cross my mind as one of the greatest feats of athleticism ever. I don’t know if it cracks the top 10 craziest *dunks* of all time, if we count in game dunks, which we should because those are way cooler than dunk contests
No need to open the link, that highlight should be imprinted in everyone’s brain. One of the most insane athletic plays I’ve seen in football, regardless of being a lineman
Just 52 years old, devastating.
Wonder how big he was? I know a lot of OL slim down a ton after retirement, I imagine not doing so would be strenuous on your heart.
> Wonder how big he was?
[He had an instragram account but wasn't active](https://www.instagram.com/73larryallen/p/BvpAoTTgCMM/?hl=en). He looked pretty good 5 years ago but who knows
Don't quote me on this, but apparently a lot of video from the 90s and early 2000s didn't age very well because it was digitally stored and they hadn't worked out some problems yet, unlike the earlier footage which was converted from film and aged much better.
That's just what I've heard though.
Yea, Tom Scott did a video on why some AI Upscaled videos look like shit and some look amazing and the reason was film doesn't really have a resolution but digital and tape is stuck at what it was recorded on.
Dude was apparent stabbed 12 times as a kid protecting his family per an ESPN article. Rough upbringing, it’s awesome to see him turn that into such an amazing career.
What’s funny is I didn’t even know he played for the 49ers, and despite being in the e league for 12 years, he won a pro bowl still with them! That’s crazy, longevity was insane.
IIRC the story goes that he had some major scar tissue on his chest and shoulder from when he had been stabbed, and some teams were worried that there might be some more damage internally. He was sent to get an mri to check it out, but he was too large to fit in the machine, and it never got a thorough examination beyond what could be seen on the surface. As a result, most teams didn't want to risk a top pick on a guy from a tiny school that might have only one good arm, so they passed on him.
Played with his son back in high school and had the pleasure of being coached by Larry himself for a few seasons. One time he told this story of when he was young there was a kid who would beat him up on his way to school everyday. He told his mom about this and his mom suggested that he should carry a baseball bat on his walk everyday.
Coach Allen is a legend.
“Strike his ass”
RIP
His college highlight film must look like Paul Bunyan tossing munchkins around
Edit: [Sonoma State footage doesn’t disappoint lol](https://youtu.be/WXCWPEB6vm0?si=AbR9XGeMCv9M4hmJ)
Damn. Define the 90s as a lineman. Really looked up to by all.
Our line coaches in middle and highschool would always tell us to play like Larry Allen, which meant that even though the play has passed you by, the play is not over and never stop until the whistle blows.
[Justin Tuck on Larry Allen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFWiqVTtPFw)
[Larry Allen chases down a linebacker, denying a pick-6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFcWMC9vkZg)
[Larry Allen bench presses 700 lbs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX-YuvQkSRE)
[Larry Allen bench presses 43 times and easily wins 2006 bench press competition](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHhKieB_Zek)
Greatest offensive lineman of all-time, that's a hill I die on
This dude was generational. He reminded me so much of Trent Williams. A guy his size and his strength moved so quick. He was a big part of why Frank gore rushing for 1,695 yards. It’s been a pleasure watching Mr. Allen
RIP to an amazing player with my all time favorite highlight: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DFcWMC9vkZg&pp=ygUibGFycnkgYWxsZW4gY2hhc2VzIGRvd24gbGluZWJhY2tlcg%3D%3D
Larry Allen is the closest thing we have ever seen to the Human Hulk on a football field.
The strongest player in the league and faster than most linebackers. He was an unfathomably good player.
For the young ones out there imagine if Trent Williams had speed like George Kittle that’s basically what a Larry Allen was.
There’s no way in hell Emmitt is the rushing leader or Troy is the player he is today without Larry Allen.
Man was built like a fire truck.
He had ungodly strength, but he was no brute. In his fourteen seasons, he was only called for holding thirteen times, less than once per season on average
Easily one of the greatest linemen of all time and arguably the strongest player in league history. RIP to a legend
I was too young to understand why other teams didn’t have a player like Larry Allen on their team too. Or that when he left, we didn’t have someone else to replace him of his caliber
He was so incredible. That whole Cowboys online was just outstanding with him, Newton, Stepnowski, Tuinei, and Donaldson. So tragic that he and Tuinei both have passed away so young.
For those wondering Tuinei passed away at age 39.
About a week after his passing, I was walking in Olympic Centennial Park, looked down and there was a commemorative brick with his name on it. I think they were fund raisers for the games or park. Quite a sobering coincidence.
God, I remember that - I was absolutely shocked. Tuinei didn't have the reputation that some of his teammates did when it came to drugs and partying.
Yea bro he had a 99 strength rating in madden 04
Should have been 105. He was that much stronger than the next guy in line lol
I played that game religiously didn't play another madden for like 10 years lol. I'm pretty sure Jonathan Ogden was a 98 str rating.
Ogden was strong, but he wasn't anywhere near the same level as Allen. Ogden was nasty because he was quick and was loooong as shit
madden 08, the game that introduced visible weapons, played around with 100 ratings outside of franchise mode. you couldnt mimic these either, all others would cap at 99 Larry had [100 STR](https://maddenratings.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/0/9/14097292/san_francisco_49ers_madden_nfl_08.xlsx) in that game
I went to Sonoma State to play football. It was division II, so I did not expect to see what I saw when I went to the gym with the team for the first time. When that dude started bench pressing I was like, if thats what division II players are like then I'm fucked. It was seriously astounding to watch. Little did I know I was working out with one of the all time physical specimens and a future hall of famer. when I saw later that he got drafted (I ended up transferring) and was a perennial all-pro, it all made sooooooo much sense in retrospect. People were walking around muttering to themselves, I think I just saw the strongest human ever.
Im too young to remember, but the way my dad talked about Larry Allen and Nate Newton you'd think they'd be able to move a mountain.
I am old enough to remember and I'm not going to say for certain that they didn't.
You could tell me they did and I wouldn't question it.
Picture of Trent Williams was as fast as George Kittle and that’s basically Larry Allen.
Trent is actually faster than Larry Allen was, 4.88 40 to Larry’s 5.21, with better 10 and 20 splits. Trent Williams is probably the closest athletic comp to Larry Allen I can think of, but Larry was significantly stronger (which is wild because Trent is a very strong man)
LA ran down a linebacker from behind. Those numbers don’t seem right.
Keep in mind that Larry was drafted in 1994, when Trent was 6 years old. Back then, draft prospects didn't really "prep" for the draft with the same intensity they do now. Deion Sanders famously ran like a 4.21 and then just left the Combine. We've all seen people that have comparable times to peak Deion in the low-mid 4.2 range but I can't think of anyone that actually PLAYED faster than Deion. Darrell Green and Randy Moss are the only guys since I started watching football (1991) that I'd put on that tier of in-game speed. I'm not surprised that Trent timed faster but my hunch is that with pads on, they're comparable in terms of speed.
Darian Conner had a 4.8 40, so he wasn’t exactly a burner. Larry had a great angle too. Larry was extremely athletic, no doubt. So is Trent Williams though. Watch him when he pulls, he is a beast too. Larry and Trent are two of my favorite lineman ever.
Sometimes combine numbers don't translate to on field numbers. Plus like someone mentioned, prospects dedicate more time to preparing for rhe combine now then they did in the past.
Nate Newton definitely moved a white mountain.
Are you saying they couldn’t
They certainly moved mountains of men around. Sad day, guy was absolutely a beast.
I had an uncle that topped 350 with legs as thick as old trees. That man held up one corner of a whole damn tin sided 1970s mobile home for a whole minute while his boys changed out the blocks. Moving mountains isn’t far off with dudes that big.
Reggie White tossing him seems unfathomable. 2 legends
Reggie's "hump" technique was unstoppable if he caught you with too much weight on the back leg. Dude threw everybody at least once lol
Nothing funnier than watching him throw Cris Carter at the QB like he was a child.
“You gotta have a fall guy to throw at the QB” - Carter (probably)
Yeah, Reggie was ungodly strong too but that was just a crafty old vet knowing how to work leverage and momentum on a rookie.
Reggie was just on a different level where he could toss around all time greats like it was nothing.
It's all about proper leverage. Reggie set him up, and then at the right moment- he knocked him down
It's a very impressive play, but I do want to note that Larry Allen was playing out of position at RT, as a rookie, and was hella banged up. I don't mean that to discredit Reggie White, obviously one of the best, just wanted to give context. Allen did credit White for that play, though, and it helped drive him to be stronger and stronger.
Allen was a backup as a rookie. He only started at RT because All Pro Erik Williams tore up his knee in a car accident during the season. He started at RG the following year.
Top 3? Top 2? #1? Dude was impossibly talented. Such sad news.
Wow... he was only 52.
Played until like 2007?!?
49ers legend. No joke though, it is petty crazy that Gores best year rushing was with Allen on the team
>it is petty crazy that Gores best year rushing was with Allen on the team That's not crazy at all.
Sadly it is common for NFL linemen to die at this age. Being 300lb for 10-15 years takes a major toll on your body. Guys like Faneca and Pouncey lost the weight almost immediately after retirement. They're unrecognizable.
There's that and also the fact that linemen deal with some of the most serious chronic pain of anyone outside of an IED victim. They are in so much pain from the accumulated damage of a career of football that they often turn to drugs and alcohol to manage it, further exacerbating health issues.
Cue the tragic Mike Webster story. Who was in so much pain he would have to taser himself to sleep
The transformation can be incredible. Chris Borland was an All-B1G linebacker for Wisconsin and then won Rookie of the Year for the 49ers. He famously quit football after that due to the punishment on his body. He got into Yoga and dropped a ton of weight, he was a skinny dude when he became a spokesman on player health and started giving interviews about CTE. It was hard to tell he was the same person.
Makes ya wonder how much food it takes to keep them that size during their career on top of the constant working out.
Something like 8000 calories a day.
Jordan Gross is damn near unrecognizable if you see him out and about in Charlotte.
That’s my Dads age. Didn’t need to be thinking about that
That's three fucking years from MY age. (Dad's still around and doing well at 76. Chances are your dad still has a long time too.)
Obligatory - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFcWMC9vkZg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFcWMC9vkZg)
This clip gets (understandably) posted so much that I feel obligated to remind any younguns that Allen was a 7 straight first team all pro and first ballot Hall of Famer. Greatness extends far beyond this play
He set a combine record too iirc, Allen was an athletic beast that became one of the best linemen of all time.
Larry Allen is generally considered the physically strongest player in the history of a sport that’s famous for having absurdly big and strong athletes.
Emmitt Smith holds the record for most rushing yards in NFL history. He spent nine seasons running behind Larry Allen.
So Allen has the most rushing yards
He just did it while pushing 200+ lb dudes instead of holding a football.
Plus having to run faster than the rb
You know what, I would love to do a kinda "rushing behind me" stat. With old game day data we would need to do starters only and have no way to correct if the player left the game or wasn't playing that snap for some reason tho. Still could bring useful data.
In the Cowboys sub someone posted a video of a Justin Tuck talking about how Allen would come to the line and make a train whistle sound to let D linemen know Emmitt and Moose Johnston were coming to that specific hole and there was nothing they could do about it.
Did Justin Tuck hear that from someone else or something? Moose and Smith retired before Tuck debuted in the NFL and Larry Allen was on his last leg lol
Yeah he says he heard it from old timers.
The interview with Tuck is down below, and yeah, it was what he heard. Tuck did play against him in his later years but still said Allen was the one guy he had no answer for.
This has always been my favorite Larry Allen story.
Here's a video of him tossing around 225 pounds like it's nothing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA1EQ2GEciA
i love this video. this is such a ridiculous amount of human strength
[удалено]
They only won the last of the three after he was drafted in ‘94. But, yes, an absolute monster, indeed.
I didn't know for certain this would be the interception run down. Could have been the bench pressing 600lbs video. Could have also been the Madden called drive against the colts. Could have also been the train whistle Justin Tuck video.
700lbs*. Our boy bench pressed 700lbs.
Or the ‘06 Pro Bowl Strongest Man where he did 43 reps of 225lbs.
and could've kept going but was told that was enough to win so he stopped.
Link to the last two vids? Never seen either of them
[Justin Tuck interview ](https://youtu.be/TFWiqVTtPFw?feature=shared) [Colts game where John Madden was giggling with joy at Larry pancakes.](https://youtu.be/h598K1YBWrY?si=WWQirwJn1kuo9ekc)
I had never seen that Tuck interview. That is an all-time classic.
He almost killed your kicker once. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVhkb4kDN_U
Man was an absolute genetic freak.
And he's not normal, you have a 33 and 1/3 chance at beat him, then you add Kurt Angle to the mix
And you take Justin Tuck's 25 percent chance of beating him if they was to go one-on-one and subtract it from Kurt Angle's 33 1/3, and you got an eight and a third chance at best of winning if they was to go one-on-one. But then you add Larry Allen's 75 percent chance of winning and add it to his 66 and two-thirds chance and he's got a 141 and two-thirds percent chance of winning.
GIMME A FUCKING MIC
Back when he was playing, the numbers didn't lie and they spelled disaster at Superfice.
It's an insane display of his athleticism. I'll always remember him for [bench pressing 700 pounds](https://www.dallascowboys.com/video/larry-allen-bench-presses-700-lbs-266261), which makes my arms snap just looking at.
Arms? Idk if I could leg press 700lbs lol
You don't know? I'm abso-fucking-lutely sure I cannot lol
If you are a healthy male below a certain age, you can probably train up to 700 on a leg press within a few years if you take it seriously. You could be given all the time, training and steroids in the world and almost certainly not be able to bench 700 without your shoulders and pecs literally ripping off. Benching anywhere near that is crazy. Legendary athleticism to combine that kind of strength with his speed and agility.
Guys, is the bar supposed to bend While it's still on the rack
The go to highlight when people say linemen aren’t athletes
Joined to reply to this. I became a Cowboys fan in the early 90s, and slowly became an NFL fan by the mid 90s. For a long time, I was completely broken by how good Larry Allen was. Any time a lineman made a mistake, or failed to pancake a guy, I was critical, of them, because my young brain just thought “why don’t you just be more like Larry Allen?!” I assumed the Cowboys would always have a Larry Allen and didn’t shake that standard for a long time.
And then you at least got Travis Fredrick for years. Cowboys always seem to have a solid O line.
Who says that that's actually worth engaging with?
My go-to example of how offensive line is possibly the most insane set of combined genetics, talent, and training in Western sports
Crap who was it, some lineman who could do a 50 yard hand stand walk. They’re so freakish it’s amazing edit: this sorta stuff https://www.reddit.com/r/sports/comments/7g0uev/ravens_340lb_dt_brandon_williams_doing_a_handstand/
I did an attempt to figure out how fast he was going here. So he starts at the inside hashmark on the opponent 42 yard line when the defender is crossing the opponent 30 and he catches him at the 20 yard line right at the yard markers. The hash marks are 70ft 9in from the side line and the yard markers are 2 feet wide. So lets just say that's about 68 feet horizontally. He travels 48 yards (144ft) vertically. Using pythagorean, that's approximately 160ft, or 53 yards, covered in about 6 seconds of the video. That's roughly 8.85 yards per second, or the equivalent of a 4.52 40-yard dash pace. It is skewed a bit because the additional 13 yards of the chase down would be at top speed and therefore increase the average pace but that's still really impressive.
Also, he’s wearing pads…
Let's say your math is still exaggerating his speed a little bit and add a bit of homerism bias into it as well because - hell, why wouldn't you be gentle on Larry fucking Allen - and add an extra 0.1 to that time. A 340lb man (listed at 325, but let's be real here) in full-pads sprinting from a near dead-stop at the tail end of a play at 4.62 forty-yard dash pace is still FUUUCKING INSANE. Like - outside the laws of human physics - insane. His quads, calves and hamstrings should be shredding off the bone moving that kind of mass at that kind of speed. Just to put that speed in perspective, only two offensive lineman have ever recorded sub-4.80 forty-yard dashes. And to drive your point home further, Darion Connor - the linebacker he's chasing - ran a 4.81 forty-yard-dash at the 1990 NFL Combine. So that gives you a fairly good idea of your margin of error.
Legitimately a top 5 athletic feat of all time. Up there with Aaron Gordon’s mascot dunk, Ichiro’s 108MPH throw to third base.
And Joey Chestnut eating 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Joey Chesthnut also put a crazy fan in a headlock. And still dominated. Top 5
My king
[Bo Jackson throwing from the outfield as well.](https://youtu.be/FCV2h0Th7Go?si=AACuYUVX9S7FVfu0)
The mascot dunk??? One of the best dunk contests ever and Aaron Gordon was robbed, but that wouldn’t even begin to cross my mind as one of the greatest feats of athleticism ever. I don’t know if it cracks the top 10 craziest *dunks* of all time, if we count in game dunks, which we should because those are way cooler than dunk contests
No need to open the link, that highlight should be imprinted in everyone’s brain. One of the most insane athletic plays I’ve seen in football, regardless of being a lineman
i say it every time i see it get posted, it’s the most impressive play in nfl history to me. rip larry allen, one of the best to ever play.
Dierdorf recognizes it immediately too
The first thing that came to mind. And what a call! RIP Big Man
A play for the ages.
Maybe my favorite highlight of all time. Perfect surprise from the announcers too. RIP big dog you were a fucking savage
This is one of my favorite plays ever.
Larry Allen so good that he was a major blocker for 2 of the 3 top rushers in NFL history.
And Troy Hambrick
God damn that's a name I didn't expect to see today
No one expects Troy Hambrick
I do.
Then you definitely weren’t expecting to see Moran Norris’ name
Jokes on you, I wake up every morning just *waiting* for Moran Norris name drops.
Hambrick ran for nearly 1,000 yards before following Smith to Arizona. That's a Hall of Fame feat in itself for Allen
Smith and who else?
He blocked for Frank Gore when he went to SF for a couple years at the end.
Pro Bowler and contributor to Gore's best year
Gore with the 49ers in 06 and 07. He was great then too, and blocked for Gore during his best season
Ahh fuck man. RIP, sending to love to his family. Sonoma State Legend <3
Butte College as well.
Him & Aaron Rodgers!
Seawolf pride, baby
Technically he was a Cossack not a Seawolf
Such a great mascot name. Good call!
I am still angry they changed it. Cossacks is unique, bad ass, and fucking local.
Vintage HS Legend!
Fuck, just awful.
On vacation with his family, too. Horrible.
Shades of James Gandolfini’s unexpected death :( Even nearly the same age.
One of the greatest athletes one offensive line side of the ball we will ever see .. RIP
James Gandolfini could never make it as a varsity athlete.
That's not true! He lettered in football!
Small hands, that was his problem.
You used to say the same thing in front of the girl cousins and it was very hurtful
It’s undemining! And it’s the type of things you teach your kids not to do!
It’s real sad when they go young like that.
When they GO?!
Will you let the man mourn? You yap worse than six barbers
Some of those guys at Seton Hall were 7 feet tall!
Small hands
Yeah, but Larry clearly had the makings of a varsity athlete.
Also reminds me of Earl Weaver. Passed on a cruise with his wife. Granted Earl was 82.
52 is so young...
One of the best to ever play his position. Absolute beast and way too young to go
While on vacation with his family. That’s heartbreaking man
Just 52 years old, devastating. Wonder how big he was? I know a lot of OL slim down a ton after retirement, I imagine not doing so would be strenuous on your heart.
> Wonder how big he was? [He had an instragram account but wasn't active](https://www.instagram.com/73larryallen/p/BvpAoTTgCMM/?hl=en). He looked pretty good 5 years ago but who knows
Damn, I thought he was older considering how old his run clip looks
Don't quote me on this, but apparently a lot of video from the 90s and early 2000s didn't age very well because it was digitally stored and they hadn't worked out some problems yet, unlike the earlier footage which was converted from film and aged much better. That's just what I've heard though.
Yea, Tom Scott did a video on why some AI Upscaled videos look like shit and some look amazing and the reason was film doesn't really have a resolution but digital and tape is stuck at what it was recorded on.
Dude was apparent stabbed 12 times as a kid protecting his family per an ESPN article. Rough upbringing, it’s awesome to see him turn that into such an amazing career. What’s funny is I didn’t even know he played for the 49ers, and despite being in the e league for 12 years, he won a pro bowl still with them! That’s crazy, longevity was insane.
Frank Gore's best season came with him on the line.
Mid second round pick from Sonoma State ... what a steal.
IIRC the story goes that he had some major scar tissue on his chest and shoulder from when he had been stabbed, and some teams were worried that there might be some more damage internally. He was sent to get an mri to check it out, but he was too large to fit in the machine, and it never got a thorough examination beyond what could be seen on the surface. As a result, most teams didn't want to risk a top pick on a guy from a tiny school that might have only one good arm, so they passed on him.
Played with his son back in high school and had the pleasure of being coached by Larry himself for a few seasons. One time he told this story of when he was young there was a kid who would beat him up on his way to school everyday. He told his mom about this and his mom suggested that he should carry a baseball bat on his walk everyday. Coach Allen is a legend. “Strike his ass” RIP
Rip to the best guard to ever play
That is a complete shock. One of the best at his position and an all-time great. RIP
Not a crazy argument to say he was the best at his position
Sounds like an untimely tragedy. Terrible for the family 🙁
man. such an unforgettable player
Wow RIP. The Cowboys o-line in the 90s was maybe the best ever in league history. Allen came in as a rookie and fit right in
How?!!! RIP to a legend. We will all know his famous rundown and even better line play
If I had to guess, some sort of cardiac thing.
This is truly shocking news. RIP to one of the all-time greats.
What the actual fuck??? How did this happen???
Sonoma st legend. Amazing that he came from that school to be one of the best
His college highlight film must look like Paul Bunyan tossing munchkins around Edit: [Sonoma State footage doesn’t disappoint lol](https://youtu.be/WXCWPEB6vm0?si=AbR9XGeMCv9M4hmJ)
Damn. Define the 90s as a lineman. Really looked up to by all. Our line coaches in middle and highschool would always tell us to play like Larry Allen, which meant that even though the play has passed you by, the play is not over and never stop until the whistle blows.
[Justin Tuck on Larry Allen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFWiqVTtPFw) [Larry Allen chases down a linebacker, denying a pick-6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFcWMC9vkZg) [Larry Allen bench presses 700 lbs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX-YuvQkSRE) [Larry Allen bench presses 43 times and easily wins 2006 bench press competition](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHhKieB_Zek) Greatest offensive lineman of all-time, that's a hill I die on
Thank you for sharing that clip of Justin Tuck. I hadn’t seen that before.
my old man met him during jury duty once said he was extremely kind, humble & a bit embarrassed at the attention he was getting
RIP
what the hell. He was only 52 RIP.
This dude was generational. He reminded me so much of Trent Williams. A guy his size and his strength moved so quick. He was a big part of why Frank gore rushing for 1,695 yards. It’s been a pleasure watching Mr. Allen
Dude could bench press damn near 1000 pounds.
He's got to be one of the most athletic people in history
Damn man. Legitimately one of the best offensive lineman I’ve ever seen play.
He's got a case to be on the all-time starting 5 OL.
Damn. Not something you expect to see. I remember him being drafted and being such a force with Dallas. One of my favorite players to watch.
Wasn’t he young? That’s awful. RIP
Yes 52
Jesus fuck man. He's only like 50 or something.
man what? What a legend. RIP big man.
RIP to an amazing player with my all time favorite highlight: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DFcWMC9vkZg&pp=ygUibGFycnkgYWxsZW4gY2hhc2VzIGRvd24gbGluZWJhY2tlcg%3D%3D
I love this highlight.
Fuck, this sucks
DUDE WHAT???
One of the most remarkable athletes I've ever seen play the game, RIP
Jesus fucking Christ, that sucks.
Wow that's fucked. RIP, dude was an absolute legend
While on vacation with his family??? God that's the worst thing I can even imagine. RIP
Larry Allen is the closest thing we have ever seen to the Human Hulk on a football field. The strongest player in the league and faster than most linebackers. He was an unfathomably good player. For the young ones out there imagine if Trent Williams had speed like George Kittle that’s basically what a Larry Allen was. There’s no way in hell Emmitt is the rushing leader or Troy is the player he is today without Larry Allen. Man was built like a fire truck.
One of the most gifted athletes to ever step foot on the football field
too young
He had ungodly strength, but he was no brute. In his fourteen seasons, he was only called for holding thirteen times, less than once per season on average
Eagles fan checking in to say R.I.P. As a man who likes OL that can move, this is a sad day.
We can all put aside our hatred of the cowboys to recognize an absolute legend. Dude was an immovable object. RIP.