Devon Allen, Fly Eagles Fly?
by Steve McGill

I was born at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in Philadelphia in 1966. I grew up in the nearby suburb of Glen Mills for my childhood and adolescence. Every member of my family was a sports fan, especially of the local professional teams — the 76ers in the National Basketball Association and the Eagles in the National Football League. So I’ve been a diehard Philadelphia sports fan my whole life. When Eagles’ starting center Jason Kelce sang at the Super Bowl parade in 2017, “We’re from Philly, f**kin’ Philly, no one likes us, we don’t care,” I was watching from my home in North Carolina and singing right along with him.” So you’d think that when I heard a few months ago that hurdler Devon Allen had signed a contract to play for the Eagles, I must’ve been ecstatic, right? One of the best hurdlers in the world is joining my Philadelphia Eagles? Hell no I wasn’t ecstatic. And after he ripped a 12.84 in New York on June 12th, making him the third-fastest 110 hurdler in history, I was distraught.

Perhaps I was naive. Allen, who was a two-sport athlete at the University of Oregon several years ago, always professed to love football more than track, and always said he’d like to play football professionally at some point. Coming out of college, he was good enough as a hurdler to turn pro, but he was a 13.2-13.3 guy and wasn’t really a threat to win medals at major meets. Back then, it wasn’t a sure bet that his professional track career would be elite-level successful, as he was mainly just a lane filler in most Diamond League meets. The big names in the 110’s were Omar McLeod, Grant Holloway, Daniel Roberts, Orlando Ortega, Hansle Parchment, etc. Allen, though good, wasn’t considered a true threat to any of those mentioned above. So, in the early part of his career, it made sense that he might want to ditch track for football.

But the current Devon Allen, the 27-year-old Devon Allen, is a hurdling monster. That 12.84 was one of the greatest races in the history of the event, not just because it was the third-fastest time ever, but because it was such a good hurdle race. Allen’s progression throughout his professional career to get to this point is nothing less than remarkable, even astounding. As a hurdling purist, who puts technique and rhythm at a high premium, I love watching Devon Allen run the hurdles. In the New York race, he showed why technique and rhythm matter just as much as speed and power. Grant Holloway was in the lane right beside him, and though they got out evenly, Holloway opened up a good-sized lead off of hurdle one. From there, he continued to build upon it through hurdle five, and then Allen started reeling him in. Running from behind against someone as good as Holloway is like falling behind to the Michael Jordan Bulls of the 1990’s. The assumption is, you don’t have a chance. And in the attempt, you’ll rush things and fall even further behind. But Allen kept his composure, didn’t try to cover all the ground at once, and maintained his precision-perfect technique. Holloway, meanwhile, ran into the same late-race problem that plagued him at last year’s Olympics. The lead arm slightly crossing the body caused a slight delay in the trail leg which led to being a little off-balance upon touchdown off of hurdles, and that loss of balance led to a loss of speed and forward momentum. 

Allen’s success looks sustainable. I say that because he’s not just a great athlete, but he’s a great hurdler. It took him a while to master the 42’s (which is a topic I discuss at length in another article in this month’s issue), but now that he has done so, the sky is the limit. We saw it coming last year when he broke 13.00 for the first time; not only is he picking up where he left off, but he is building upon it to the point where he is putting himself in the conversation of being among the greatest hurdlers ever. Let me make this analogy: If you’re a fan of classic rock, you remember the legendary group Genesis, which, in the early 1970’s was led by singer Peter Gabriel. After their most successful album up to that point, Gabriel left the band, and everybody feared the band would fall apart. But not only did they not fall apart, but they thrived even more and achieved even greater popularity. When asked years later about his departure, Gabriel said he knew the band would be okay without him “because they’re all good songwriters,” he said, and a band of good songwriters will thrive because it’s not reliant on “hits.” In my analogy, being a good hurdler is the equivalent of being a good songwriter. You’re going to be able to do well consistently because your technique will always put you in position to run fast races. Guys like Roberts and McLeod are what I refer to as hit-or-miss kinds of guys. When they run mistake-free, they can dominate. But too often they make critical mistakes. Even Holloway is a question mark, though to a lesser degree. Allen reminds me of Allen Johnson and Liu Xiang in their primes in the sense that you’re never going to see him run a “bad” race simply because he’s so technically sound.

And now he wants to play professional football? Now, when he’s at the top of his game, in the peak of his prime?  Now, he wants to be a 28-year-old rookie receiver? It doesn’t make sense to me. The Eagles have Devonte Smith, who they drafted in the first round last year. They traded for A.J. Brown at this year’s draft, so they have two stud starting receivers. Their third receiver, Quez Watkins, is the deep threat who stretches the field. And they’ve got three other vets. Where does Allen fit in? From the Eagles’ point of view, there’s no such thing as having too much speed, so I get why they signed Allen. But from Allen’s perspective, a sub-13 hurdler can make more money running track than he can as a backup wide receiver on the football field. Dude must really love himself some football; that’s the only explanation that I can come up with.

But everybody has a right to live their own life and make their own choices. So I’m not mad at him. I’m just disappointed that the hurdling world will be losing one of its most special athletes.