Ex-NFL star turned curler Jared Allen on 2026 Olympic dream: "I know what we have to do to accomplish what we want to accomplish"
Since he took up curling as part of a bet following his NFL retirement five years ago, Allen has gone from outsider to contender, defeating US Olympic champion John Shuster earlier this year. In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, the American talks about technique, tactics, and why everyone deserves to follow their dreams.
Curling
Sitting on the patio of his home with the fire crackling away, Jared Allen began his negotiations.
Not long after his retirement from American football, the five-time NFL Pro Bowler had entered a bet with his long-time friend Brandon Moles.
Allen had said he would make a PGA Tour event a few years after retiring. But after his golf game plateaued, the man who played in Super Bowl 50 decided to meet Moles’ demands to pay up with a parlay.
If his golf dreams couldn’t be realised, how would the Olympics be as a target instead?
Having just watched 'Eddie the Eagle', a film based on the British plasterer Michael 'Eddie' Edwards who had made it to the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games in none other than ski jumping, Allen felt inspired. And Moles agreed.
"'This is going to be the easiest bet ever'," Allen told Olympics.com, recalling his thoughts at the time.
The first challenge was finding a sport. He started combing through the events the United States had always struggled with and then the ones he might be able to sway with his popularity and celebrity charm.
First, it was trap shooting: “That field was full,” he said. Then it was badminton.
“I started watching videos, and I'm like, Oh, man, I don't know if my body has this much movement in it.”
Along with his other recently retired NFL quarterback friend Marc Bolger, the two eventually landed on curling, given that, at the time, the United States had only ever managed a bronze at Turin 2006. It was their chance.
“We started getting a team put together. I started getting coaches and stuff put together, then [John] Shuster goes on the miracle run and wins gold [at the 2018 Olympics]. I think it was like a month after something came out that I was trying to make it to the Olympics in curling, so I just looked like the world's biggest jerk, like I’m better than a gold medallist,” Allen said with a grin.
“But at this point, I was already so far down the rabbit hole that I had to keep going with it. And to this day, I don't welch on a bet and don't plan to start now.”
Jared Allen and the unexpected curling challenges
Even when the Covid pandemic threatened to slow his progress, Allen continued to learn to curl.
Despite trusting his muscle memory from some 12 seasons of learning new, bone-crunching defensive plays week-in and week-out in the NFL, just being on ice tested Allen’s capabilities as an athlete.
“Sweeping on ice is not that easy,” Allen said laughing, when asked what he underestimated about curling. “They make it look so easy.”
Reaching out to an array of coaches from the curling community, Allen began learning the necessary skillset for curling. From sweeping to releases, mastering techniques in months that other curlers had spent years honing. But, the American said, only now he is onto understanding the nuances.
The mental dimension is another aspect of the sport that he finds demanding.
“I can use negativity in football as a motivator, right? You can go out there, use the crowd, use that adrenaline to your advantage. In curling, you don't want that adrenaline because you might have to sweep into it and then come back and make a draw shot. So, you really kind of check that.
“Then, for me, understanding my teammates and who you're playing with. On the football field, I could go dog-cuss somebody, and that'll probably motivate them to have a good play. They'll take that aggression out on someone else. If I go dog-cuss my teammate in curling, and he's in the dumps, then I probably won't help our team win. It's something I'm still trying to learn. I've got to be a little less intense with my teammates sometimes.”
One thing Allen is confident his NFL experience does help him with is the ability to mentally wipe the slate clean and go again. In three-hour-long curling matches patience and composure are essential traits.
“Being a professional athlete, you understand you have to have a short memory, right? You have to move on to the next snap, next place, the next throw, and then my competitiveness that I have, I think those are the things that transfer from the NFL into curling.
“I liken it to a short game of golf. You can't putt and chip if you're still trying to worry about hitting the 300-yard drive, it's not going to work. You don't have soft hands. So, the ability to adapt, to get your heart rate down, is something that you have to be cognisant of."
“The whole thing was a lot tougher than what I originally thought it was going to be” - Jared Allen on learning to curl.
On 5 February this year, Allen, as part of a team skipped by Jason Smith, registered their first win over Team Shuster during the round-robin stage of the 2023 US National Championships.
The rest of the tournament didn’t go the way of Allen’s rink. After rising to 3-1 the team then dropped three games to finish 4-3 and out of the play-offs.
The PyeongChang 2018 Olympic champions, meanwhile, rebounded to win the title and the right to compete at the 2023 World Men’s Curling Championship in Ottawa, Canada, taking place from 1 to 9 April.
Though it ended in a disappointing finish, the tournament was still something of a turning point for Allen: it was proof that he and the team could legitimately go toe-to-toe with the best.
Having taken other scalps this year including Team Dropkin, the top-ranked US team according to World Curling rankings, the focus for Allen's rink now is closing the gap.
“The next big thing is to always play your level and not up or down to your opponent's level. A lot of that comes with confidence.
“I think a lot of those top teams have teams beat before they even get into the match because you're wondering like, 'Oh, how am I going to score on Shuster?’ For us, it's having that mindset that we belong, that we belong in this picture and then going out there and proving it and not letting the moment get too big.”
Allen drew on the way his rink was unable to seize the opportunity in front of them when they were sitting 3-1 up this year’s nationals:
“That right there is a team that doesn't understand where they're at and how to capitalise and how to grab what is in your grasp.
“It sounds kind of cliché, it sounds kind of simple but once you get those team dynamics where everybody has confidence in each other, those things kind of start happening. And I think that's where we're at, right on the precipice of doing some really great things.”
Jared Allen: "The curling community has been the most supportive"
If there is a group of people not surprised by Allen’s Hollywood-style life turn from sacking quarterbacks to throwing curling rocks, it's his family.
“They’re like me. They’re all in,” he said with a smile. “My wife and kids got to come out and watch a couple of matches this year. It took them a while to understand it."
“My wife is just as competitive as I am and I'm getting those texts like, ‘What’s happened?’ My kids are like, ‘Dad, if you are going to be away from home you better win this thing.’ They love it.”
Grateful that he gets to enjoy their support, another group Allen feels indebted to is the curling community.
If there are concerns about Allen proceeding with curling because of a bet, then the former Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, and Carolina Panthers star says he hasn’t felt that reaction among curlers. At every stage of his journey, he said, they have helped him find his way.
“The curling community has been the most supportive. What we try to do is show them respect by putting hard work in. Never did we once, ever show up just go out there and try to make a mockery of it, just goof around and see if we are going to do something. I think people saw improvement week after week, year after year, and realised the effort that we were putting in.
“I mean, we have no ice here. We're practicing on hockey ice, flying coaches in twice a week, going to Minnesota for camps, trying to get with as many of the high-performance and high-level teams as we can. I think people understood, you know, right there that our work ethic was serious and we're taking it seriously and trying to be valid competitors.”
Allen’s respect for his curling colleagues also extends to their abilities and playmakers. With his curious and competitive mind, the American often studies the world’s best and their strategies as he looks for the margins to improve.
“I do like to go and look at the game strategy of other teams. I mean, Niklas Edin, he's been at the top for a long time. You know, Shuster was a gold medallist. You look at [Brad] Gushe and all these guys from Canada, [Kevin] Koe, what are they doing? Because everybody's going to have habits. Everybody's going to have something that they're doing. How are they setting up their ends to be so successful all the time? They're very, very consistent, but I think you can go back and look at different facets.”
Jared Allen on targeting 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina
With the 2023 men’s curling season coming to its conclusion with worlds starting this weekend, Allen is already beginning to contemplate next season.
Though there is no schedule yet in place for next year, he expects it will involve attending enough events to have another hit at nationals and preparing for Milano Cortina 2026.
The bet, once for 2022, is now for the upcoming Winter Games, but the way Allen searches for excuses to keep going, he might just be on the ice for a little while longer:
“I mean, if we were to lose in a nail biter, you know, we'll see what the family says,” Allen mused. “I'd like to say maybe Shuster will age out, but I'm just as old as he is,” he added, laughing.
Still, the Olympic ambition burns bright and even if the odds are stacked against him, Allen is as optimistic as ever about making an appearance at the Games:
_"_We are completely humbled to know that we have a long way to go still. But you know what? What is good and bad about curling is that the pool is small, the field is small. I know my competition. I know, obviously, they're getting better, but I know what we have to do to accomplish what we want to accomplish."
No matter if he does end up losing the bet, by chasing his dreams Allen knows he has stayed true to his authentic self. He hopes others might also be encouraged by his journey.
“My whole life has been about chasing dreams. My wife jokes and calls me Peter Pan because I'm a dreamer.
"When I was eight years old, I told my dad I was going to play professional football and he was like, ‘Cool, go get it, son’. I've always put astronomically high goals for myself in life and in sports because if you shoot for that and miss, you're still doing okay,
“I think for me, I hope I'm an example for people to follow your dreams. Dare to do it. No matter what your age, whatever it is. My biggest fear would probably be living life with regret. Obviously, I'm not telling people to be reckless; you've got to balance your own life and your responsibilities, but I think too many people think about doing something but are afraid to act.
“Hopefully, I can be an example or a motivator. Here's a guy that had a great career and then goes out and just throws himself in the deep end to something he knows nothing about and has a little success at it.
“I think that's hopefully the biggest takeaway: don't be afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to try something and chase dreams.”