Jared Allen Raises $300K For Homes For Wounded Warriors

Yes, in case you haven't seen it, there is new hubbub a-brewin' regarding the new Vikings stadium. We'll get to that later.

Right now I feel like focusing on something positive for once. Jared Allen, fearsome DE and hero to wounded military vets, recently held a "Helping Heroes Gala" in Minneapolis, raising nearly $300,000 for his Homes for Wounded Warriors charity. In case you were somehow unaware, Homes for Wounded Warriors dedicates itself towards either renovating wounded veterans' homes or outright building them new ones in order to make them handicap-accessible based on whatever their injury may be.

We've always heard of the more ‘unique' fundraising efforts that Allen has used in the past, including most famously his nighttime shotgun golf tournaments. As this particular event was billed as the "First Annual", it sounds like Allen is now branching out into more traditional means to raise money as well. Fear not, however- I have a strong feeling Allen's still going to be rocking some glow-in-the-dark golfer equipment when he's doing pushups while a Marine Corps drill sergeant is screaming at him for not making par. (Seriously, those golf tournaments sound awesome.)

Pretty much every NFL player who makes more than one million dollars a year has a charity that they either run or support. However, you don't often hear about a lot of them, and it certainly seems that many an NFLer simply use them for the tax breaks and the positive publicity. This is not the case with Allen. The grandson of a Marine Corps vet (whom he often speaks of very highly and attributes much of his positive development to), there's no doubting Allen is truly committed to this noble cause.

While most of us will likely never be in the position to finagle a ticket to one of his awesome golf tournaments or a future gala, there are still plenty of ways to pitch in. Jump over to his website here, and you can either make a direct contribution of whatever amount you are able, or you can purchase one of his T-shirts. (If you do purchase a T-shirt, make note that 100% of that actually goes towards the charity- which is not always the case.) And as we all know, if you purchase one of the T-shirts you will look exactly like Jared Allen*, which is of course freakin' cool.

So a major SKOL to one of our all-time favorite defensive players here for yet another noble deed done for a noble cause. Thank G-d the Kansas City Chiefs thought it was a good idea to trade him away to us. (Which has obviously worked out great for both teams!)

*Depending on your physique, physical shape, height, muscle tone, facial features, and other distinctive physical traits, you may or may not look anything like Jared Allen at all.