Jennifer Allen (born 1961) is an American author and commentator. She has worked for the NFL Network and as an on-air reporter. She is the daughter of football coach George Allen and sister of politician George Allen and football executive Bruce Allen.
Allen grew up the only daughter and youngest child of professional football coach George Allen. She has three brothers. George Allen is a former United States Senator and Governor of Virginia. Bruce was the president and general manager of the Washington Redskins and previously the general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. [1] Greg is a clinical psychologist.
Allen's mother came from French Tunisia and was of a Sephardic Jewish background, which became an issue in her brother's 2006 senatorial re-election campaign in Virginia. [2]
Allen is the author of three books, a collection of short stories, Better Get Your Angel On [3] and a memoir, Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter, describing her childhood as a coach's daughter and relationship that her family had with the members of the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins that her father coached; as well as the author of Hōkūle'a, Mālama Honua, A Voyage of Hope, a chronicle of the worldwide voyage of a Hawaiian sailing vessel, Hōkūleʻa , which is navigated without modern instruments.
Mālama Honua was published by Patagonia, Inc. in 2017. [4] [5] Mālama Honua, which means in "to care for the Earth", Hawaiian, documented the stories of original peoples and environmentalists in countries and island states around the globe. In 2018, the book won the Independent Book Publishers Association Category: Nature and the Environment, Gold Award for non-fiction environmental writing. It also earned Independent Book Publishers Association Silver Award for Coffee Table Book and the Foreword Indies Book Award in the category of Ecology and the Environment.
Pat Conroy called Fifth Quarter "the best book about football I've ever read—and Jennifer Allen never played a down in her life." [6] In The Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley reviewed the book, noting that in writing about her father, she "illuminates his innermost soul and gives us not just a football coach but a human being.” [7]
The memoir contains claims that George held her by her feet over Niagara Falls, [8] struck her boyfriend in the head with a pool cue, [9] threw his brother Bruce through a glass sliding door, tackled his brother Gregory, breaking his collarbone, [10] and dragged Jennifer upstairs by her hair. In the book, she wrote, "George hoped someday to become a dentist...George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession—getting paid to make people suffer." [10]
In May 2006, Allen qualified some of the claims made in the book. [11] With regards to the pool cue incident, she claimed it was a joke and that "Allen was simply testing her boyfriend's reflexes." With regards to the dentist quote, Allen claims that the book was a "novelization of the past" and written from the perspective of a young girl "surrounded by older brothers and a larger-than-life father." She claims to have a great relationship with her brother and noted that George walked her down the aisle at her wedding. [12]
From 2004 to 2010, Allen contributed to the NFL Network as on-air reporter, focusing on the personal lives of coaches and families in the National Football League (NFL). In January 2006, she discussed how the firing of a head coach affects the coach's family, basing her commentary on her own experiences when her father was fired.
Since 1996, she has also periodically narrated and reported for NFL Films, including the 2013 "Fearsome Foursome" episode of A Football Life . Allen has contributed articles to The New York Times Magazine , George , Play , Rolling Stone , The New York Times , and The New Republic .[ citation needed ]
Her journalism has also been anthologized. "Dinner, New Year's Eve, 1968," appeared in Football, Great Writing About the National Sport. "Boys! Give Me Boys!" appeared in Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race, and Themselves, edited by Camille Peri and Kate Moses and published by HarperCollins in 2005. [13] "Euro Disney: A Postcard" was published in Paris In Mind: Stories, Essays, and Reflections on the City of Paris, edited by Jennifer Lee and published by Vintage Books in 2003. [14]
A graduate of New York University (NYU), Allen has taught fiction and non-fiction writing at NYU, Connecticut College, Bennington College, and the University of California, San Diego.
Edward Nathan George Jr. is an American football coach and former player who is the current head football coach at Tennessee State University. He played as a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, primarily for the Houston / Tennessee Oilers / Titans franchise.
Charles Bruce Chatwin was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, In Patagonia (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storyteller, interested in bringing to light unusual tales. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982), while his novel Utz (1988) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2008 The Times ranked Chatwin as number 46 on their list of "50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945."
In gridiron football, a sack occurs when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a forward pass, when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage in the "pocket" and without clear intent, or when a passer runs out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage due to defensive pressure. This often occurs if the opposing team's defensive line, linebackers or defensive backs are able to apply pass pressure to quickly get past blocking players of the offensive team, or if the quarterback is unable to find a back to hand the ball off to or an available eligible receiver to catch the ball, allowing the defense a longer opportunity to tackle the quarterback.
Bruce Bernard Smith is an American former football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football for the Virginia Tech Hokies, where he was a twice All-American, and was selected with the first overall pick by the Bills in the 1985 NFL draft.
Hōkūleʻa is a performance-accurate waʻa kaulua, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, it is best known for its 1976 Hawaiʻi to Tahiti voyage completed with exclusively traditional navigation techniques. The primary goal of the voyage was to explore the anthropological theory of the Asiatic origin of native Oceanic people as the result of purposeful trips through the Pacific, as opposed to passive drifting on currents or sailing from the Americas. DNA analysis supports this theory. A secondary project goal was to have the canoe and voyage "serve as vehicles for the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians and other Polynesians."
Hawaiʻiloa is a mythical Hawaiian fisherman and navigator who is said to have discovered the island of Hawaiʻi.
Marcus LeMarr Allen is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the Los Angeles Raiders. Considered one of the greatest goal line and short-yard runners in NFL history, he was selected 10th overall by the Raiders in the 1982 NFL draft, following a successful college football career with the USC Trojans. He was a member of the Raiders for 11 seasons and spent his last five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Atiim Kiambu "Tiki" Barber is an American former professional football player who spent his entire 10-year career as a running back for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Virginia Cavaliers. Barber was selected by the Giants in the second round of the 1997 NFL draft. Barber retired from the NFL at the end of the 2006 NFL postseason as the Giants' all-time rushing and reception leader. He is one of only four players with 5,000 rushing yards and 5,000 receiving yards. Barber was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
LaDainian Tarshane Tomlinson is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. After a successful college football career with the TCU Horned Frogs, the San Diego Chargers selected him as the fifth overall pick in the 2001 NFL draft. He spent nine years with the Chargers, earning five Pro Bowl appearances, three Associated Press first-team All-Pro nominations, and two NFL rushing titles. Tomlinson was also voted the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2006 after breaking the record for touchdowns in a single season. He played two further seasons with the New York Jets, before retiring. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
Marcus Deon Vick is a former American football quarterback. He played college football at Virginia Tech, following the career path of his older brother Michael. However, several legal infractions and unsportsmanlike play led to Vick being dismissed from the school in 2006. Vick joined the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL) the same year as an undrafted free agent, but was released after appearing in only one game. Since the end of his playing career, he has continued to face various legal troubles.
Pius "Mau" Piailug was a Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal, best known as a teacher of traditional, non-instrument wayfinding methods for open-ocean voyaging. Mau's Carolinian navigation system, which relies on navigational clues using the Sun and stars, winds and clouds, seas and swells, and birds and fish, was acquired through rote learning passed down through teachings in the oral tradition. He earned the title of master navigator (palu) by the age of eighteen, around the time the first American missionaries arrived in Satawal. As he neared middle age, Mau grew concerned that the practice of navigation in Satawal would disappear as his people became acculturated to Western values. In the hope that the navigational tradition would be preserved for future generations, Mau shared his knowledge with the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS). With Mau's help, PVS used experimental archaeology to recreate and test lost Hawaiian navigational techniques on the Hōkūleʻa, a modern reconstruction of a double-hulled Hawaiian voyaging canoe.
Harold E. "Butch" Woolfolk is an American former professional football player who was a running back and kick returner in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines (1978–1981) before playing in the NFL for the New York Giants (1982–1984), Houston Oilers (1985–1986) and Detroit Lions (1987–1988). Woolfolk attended Westfield Senior High School in Westfield, New Jersey. Woolfolk led Michigan in rushing three straight years and set the school record with 3,850 rushing yards while playing for the Wolverines from 1978 to 1981. As a sophomore in 1979, he was the Big Ten Conference scoring champion, and he went on to become a three-time first-team All-Big Ten selection. He had his best season as a senior at Michigan, winning the 1981 Big Ten rushing title and falling just 10 yards short of Rob Lytle's single-season rushing yards record. He was also selected in 1981 as the Most Valuable Player of both the Rose Bowl played January 1, 1981, and the Bluebonnet Bowl played December 31, 1981, as well as the Wolverines' team MVP for the season.
Ghost to the Post is a significant play in NFL history. It refers to a 42-yard pass from Ken Stabler to Dave Casper, nicknamed "The Ghost" after Casper the Friendly Ghost, that set up a game-tying field goal in the final seconds of regulation in a double-overtime AFC divisional playoff game played between Casper's Oakland Raiders and the then-Baltimore Colts on December 24, 1977. Casper also caught the last pass of the game, a 10-yard touchdown pass. The game is currently the fifth-longest in NFL history, and has become synonymous with the play that made it famous.
In Patagonia is an English travel book by Bruce Chatwin, published in 1977, about Patagonia, the southern part of South America.
Lindsay Jane Simpson is an Australian journalist, university teacher and a writer of true crime.
Bruce Allen is an American former football executive. He served as general manager in the National Football League (NFL) for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2004 to 2008 and the Washington Redskins from 2010 to 2019. He first joined the NFL as a senior executive with the Oakland Raiders in 1995.
Bruce Charles Arians is an American football executive and former coach in the National Football League (NFL). Since 2022, he has been a senior football consultant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Arians was previously the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2013 to 2017 and the Buccaneers from 2019 to 2021. He was also the interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts during the 2012 season. Arians is known for his slogan "No risk-it, no biscuit," which encourages aggressive playcalling.
Mark Edward Seay is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers, San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football for Long Beach State 49ers. Seay has the distinction of being the first NFL player to score a two-point conversion in Super Bowl history.
Polynesian navigation or Polynesian wayfinding was used for thousands of years to enable long voyages across thousands of kilometres of the open Pacific Ocean. Polynesians made contact with nearly every island within the vast Polynesian Triangle, using outrigger canoes or double-hulled canoes. The double-hulled canoes were two large hulls, equal in length, and lashed side by side. The space between the paralleled canoes allowed for storage of food, hunting materials, and nets when embarking on long voyages. Polynesian navigators used wayfinding techniques such as the navigation by the stars, and observations of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns, and relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition. This island hopping was a solution to the scarcity of useful resources, such as food, wood, water, and available land, on the small islands in the Pacific Ocean. When an island’s required resources for human survival began to run low, the island's inhabitants used their maritime navigation skills and set sail for new islands. However, as an increasing number of islands in the South Pacific became occupied, and citizenship and national borders became of international importance, this was no longer possible. People thus became trapped on islands with the inability to support them.
The 1940 NFL Championship Game, sometimes referred to simply as 73–0, was the eighth title game of the National Football League (NFL). It was played at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., on December 8, with a sellout capacity attendance of 36,034.