Last May, Minnesota Vikings' cornerback Asher Allen unexpectedly announced his retirement from the National Football League at the age of 24. While he wasn't a great cornerback for the Vikings or anything, he had his moments while he was a member of the team.
Bob Sansevere caught up with the former Viking, as he still lives in Minnesota, and it turns out he's been up to some. . .unexpected. . .things. Among them is writing a blog for the Midwest Dairy Association. He says that he's also spent plenty of time as a full-time minister with the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Sansevere asked him about the concussion issue, and it turns out that it played a role in why he left the game at such a young age with a salary of 600K+ on the table.
Sansevere: Did you retire because of concussions?
Allen: It was part of the equation. I try not to make that the theme of why I left. I was 24 years old and getting out of bed a little differently. We wanted the quality of our lives. I wanted to have a body where I could do more. When I played the game I did it for the love of the game and for fans and the community. We wanted to give back to the community in a different way. We study the Bible with people and decided for our love of God and love of neighbors we wanted to give back to neighbors.
Allen also says that the Vikings are a class organization, and that he still keeps in contact with a lot of his former teammates.
Nice to see that Allen has had no trouble moving on from the game, and that he did so before any serious health issues could take a hold.