DENVER — Just one month after being named a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, former Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Jared Allen is chasing another piece of hardware.
Allen and his team took down 2018 Olympic champion John Shuster in the opening round of the U.S. Curling Championships Sunday night in Denver. According to NBC Sports, Shuster's team won the last three nationals that they entered, including an 11-0 showing at the 2020 national championships.
Allen, who is a member of 2010 Olympian Jason Smith's team, defeated Team Shuster 10-6 Sunday to kick off round-robin play. The top four teams from the eight-team pool will advance to Friday's semifinals. The championship will be held Saturday.
Allen, a former fourth-round draft pick for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2004, recorded 136 sacks in his NFL career, the 12th-most sacks in NFL history. He joined the Vikings in 2008 and recorded 85½ in his six seasons in Minnesota, including a franchise-record 22 sacks in 2011.
Allen retired from the NFL in February of 2016, and quickly transitioned from running down quarterbacks to running down a spot on the U.S. Olympic curling team. While he has yet to earn a spot on an Olympic team, Sunday's win over Shuster, an Olympic gold medalist and Minnesota native, shows he's making a serious push to be among those competing in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
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