Larry Allen, one of the greatest players in Dallas Cowboys history, has died suddenly while on a family vacation in Mexico. He was 52.
“Known for his great athleticism and incredible strength, Larry was one of the most respected, accomplished offensive linemen to ever play in the NFL. His versatility and reliability were also hallmarks of his career. As a result, he continued to serve as an inspiration to many other players and defined what it meant to be a great teammate, competitor and winner,” the Cowboys said in a statement.
“He was deeply loved and cared for by his wife Janelle – who he called his heart and soul – his daughters Jayla and Loriana and son Larry III.”
Allen grew up in Compton, California, where he nearly died at six weeks old after contracting meningitis. He escaped another brush with death at the age of nine when he protected his brother from a neighbor and was stabbed twelve times in the head and neck.
“We heard the gunfire outside our house, we automatically rolled out of bed, lay on the floor until the shooting stopped, then got back into bed and went to sleep,” his mother, Vera, told the Los Angeles Times. 1994. “After a while we got pretty good at that.”
A path to the professional game seemed unlikely after failing to graduate from high school, but he worked his way through community college before starring for Sonoma State, being selected in the 1994 draft second round pick for the Cowboys.
At 6-foot-4, Allen wasn’t particularly tall for an offensive lineman, but he weighed 700 pounds, could dunk a basketball and was known for his strength (he could bench press 1,500 pounds) and ferocity.
Another acquaintance, Michael Strahan, described the effect Allen had on opponents. “Players will see him on film during the week and then quit with some mysterious injury or flu or something. We call that catching ‘Allen-itis,'” Strahan once noted.
But in addition to his physical gifts, Allen was also an avid student of the game.
“I used to tell people that Larry was a quiet guy until the ball broke, but honestly, Larry talked all the time. He was always asking questions, just like every player I coached,” former Cowboys offensive line coach Hudson Houck told the BBC Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine. “And we would talk about football for hours, after practice, watching film. He always wanted to know everything about technique and his favorite question was, ‘Coach, what if this happens?’ He wanted a plan for every possible situation…Larry is one of the smartest players I have coached in over forty years.”
Allen was named to the first of his eleven Pro Bowls in 1995 and won the NFL championship with Dallas the same season. He was also a six-time All-Pro and was named to the NFL All-Decade team for the 2000s. He joined the San Francisco 49ers in 2006 and played his final two seasons with the team before retiring in 2007. His son, Larry Jr. played football for Harvard and briefly joined the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2019.
He was devoted to his wife Janelle and called her his “heart and soul” during his lifetime hall of fame speech. “On our first date she cooked for me,” Allen said. “She cooked me two chickens and fries, baked me a cake and gave me 40 ounces. Then I knew: that was my wife there.”