Larry Allen is the only Cowboys’ rookie to see his name everywhere at The Star, the team’s training facility. His father, Pro Football Hall of Famer Larry Allen Sr., is a Cowboys’ legend, of course.
“Sometimes I’m just focused on trying to prepare and everything, and then, like the next moment, I’ll turn a corner and see something and it’ll kind of see dreamlike again,” Allen Jr. said. “Yes, it’s very surreal.”
Allen Jr. has more to prove to the Cowboys than his father did to stick on the 53-player roster. The Cowboys made Allen Sr. a second-round pick even tough he played his college ball at Sonoma State. Allen Jr. played at Harvard and went undrafted.
“I’m just try to show who I am, what kind of player I am and what I can do,” Allen Jr. said.
After Allen Jr. signed with the Cowboys, he called his father, who yelled into the phone, “How ‘bout them Cowboys?!”
Allen Jr. remembers spending time on the Cowboys’ sideline and in the locker room while he was growing up. Allen Sr. retired after the 2007 season following two seasons with the 49ers.
He chose to follow in his father’s footsteps by playing guard. Who better to learn from than one of the best ever at the position?
“In a way, he’s just my dad,” Allen Jr. said. “He’s taught me the way he teaches anyone, but he’s also taught me as his son, and you can’t replace that. He’s been extremely helpful, and just trying to do what I can to make him proud and do what he did.”
Allen Jr. has finished his degree in biomedical engineering and will walk the stage at Harvard on May 30. Allen Jr., though, will exhaust his NFL chances, before going into the real world.