Vikings' Jared Allen, even after 118 sacks, says, 'I don't feel I've arrived'
"I still don't feel I've made it; I still feel like I'm disrespected around the league," Allen told the Pioneer Press. "I don't have the respect that other players do. They make up stats for guys. Oh, 'He leads the league in sacks, hurries and pressures.' I go three games without a sack, and it's like I've fallen off the face of the earth. I have a 12-sack season and I'm a bum.
"But that's what really drives me. That's what's going to keep me being good in my later years. I don't feel I've arrived."
Some guys' motivation is money. My motivation isn't money. My motivation is to be the best at what I do. My motivation is to have a guy like Jack Youngblood call me on the phone and say, 'Hey, you play the right way.' I have a relationship with Dick Butkus. Are you kidding me? Dick freaking Butkus? The fact that Dick freaking Butkus knows my name? For me, to have the respect of guys who played before me -- the guys I watched and said, 'Wow, these are the guys I want to play like' -- means everything.
My respect for this man went up by leaps and bounds after reading this article. I really hope we're able to keep him for another few years and have him go down as a Viking great.
