Jared Allen, other ex-NFLers hoping to make U.S. Olympic curling team
Nearly three years after retiring from the NFL, five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Jared Allen has set his sights on another dream: competing with the U.S. curling team at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The whole thing started off as a bet between friends, but then Allen started taking it seriously.
"My friend told me I couldn't become an Olympian," Allen told Dane Mizutani of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "It was kind of just talk, and then I started looking at some of the sports I thought I'd be capable of doing. I was actually looking at badminton at first, and then it kind of transpired into curling. That's kind of how everything got started."
Allen reached out to former NFL quarterback Marc Bulger, former NFL linebacker Keith Bullock, and former NFL offensive lineman Michael Roos about forming a foursome, which they've dubbed the "All-Pro Curling Team."
"I threw the idea out there like, 'Wouldn't it be cool if a group of former NFL players tried to make the Olympics in curling?'" Allen said. "They all said, 'Yes.'"
View this post on InstagramWe're about to go stones deep in the curling world! #stonesdeep #AllProCurlingTeam
A post shared by Jared Allen (@jaredallen69) on Oct 4, 2018 at 11:46am PDT
Allen competed in his first professional curling tour event Friday night at the Curl Mesabi Classic in Eveleth, Minn., going up against Olympic gold medalists Team Schuster. He and his teammates plan to participate in World Curling Tour events next year with the hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Trials.
"A group of retired NFL players taking up curling at a competitive level; we know how it sounds," Allen said. "We are having a lot of fun with it; we also take it really seriously. We aren't coming in to disrespect the curling world. We just want to be a part of it."
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