Allen Jerome Pinkett (born January 25, 1964) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player who played

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

for six seasons for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

. He grew up in the

Sterling, Virginia Sterling, Virginia, refers most specifically to a census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The population of the CDP as of the 2010 United States Census was 27,822. The CDP boundaries are confined to a relatively s ...

, area and attended Park View High School from 1978-1982.

College playing career

Pinkett was a two-time All-American at Notre Dame who played in the

Gerry Faust Gerard Anthony Faust (born May 21, 1935) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1981 to 1985 and at the University of Akron from 1986 to 1994, compiling a career ...

era. In 1985, he was eighth in the Heisman balloting. He was Notre Dame's career rushing leader with 4,131 yards until

Autry Denson Autry Lamont Denson (born December 8, 1976) is an American gridiron football coach and former player. He was most recently the head football coach at Charleston Southern University, a position he has held since 2019. Denson played college footbal ...

broke his record in 1998, with 4,318 yards. Pinkett was the first Notre Dame player ever to rush for 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons. He had 1,179 in 1983, 1,268 in 1984 and 1,176 in 1985. He remains the Irish career scoring leader with 53 touchdowns, including 49 rushing. He is tied with Vagas Ferguson (1976–1979) for the most rushing touchdowns in a single season. Pinkett had 17 touchdowns in 1984 and Ferguson had 17 in 1979. Pinkett scored 4 touchdowns against Penn State at Happy Valley on November 12, 1983, and scored 3 against the Nittany Lions at Notre Name Stadium on November 17, 1984.

Professional playing career

Pinkett played six seasons for the

, from 1986-91. In his career with the Oilers, he gained 2,624 yards rushing with 21 touchdowns, and caught 119 passes and 5 touchdowns. He was the team's leading rusher in his final year, 1991, with 720 yards.

Post-playing career

Pinkett served as the

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and t ...

for Notre Dame's football games broadcast by

IMG College LEARFIELD, formerly Learfield IMG College, is a large collegiate sports marketing company, representing more than 200 of the nation's top collegiate properties including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA Football, leading conferences, and ...

from 2006-2018. He was removed from the broadcasting team on August 30, 2012, following inappropriate remarks.Allen Pinkett suspended 3 games
/ref> In 2010, he split play-by-play partners with

Don Criqui Don Criqui (born October 1, 1940) is an American sportscaster. He holds the record for longest-tenured NFL broadcaster in U.S. TV history, calling NFL football for 47 seasons (1967-2013) on NBC and CBS. Criqui's final NFL broadcast came on Dec ...

, who did home Notre Dame's football games, and

Dick Enberg Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...

, who did road Notre Dame's football games. He was also a sideline reporter for the

NFL on Westwood One ''The NFL on Westwood One Sports'' is the branding for Cumulus Broadcasting subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League. These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada (the latter through TSN Radio ...

and did color analyzing with Jim Henderson on radio broadcasts for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

Suspension

On August 29, 2012, Pinkett appeared on

WSCR WSCR (670 AM) – branded as 670 The Score – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, servicing the Chicago metropolitan area and much of surrounding Northern Illinois, Northwest Indiana and parts of the Milwa ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and said that there's nothing wrong with having "a few bad citizens" on Notre Dame's roster, and that a team "full of choirboys" wouldn't win many games. Given a chance to clarify his remarks, Pinkett claimed that winning teams always had "a couple of criminals" on their rosters. Notre Dame's athletic department harshly condemned Pinkett's remarks, and IMG suspended him for three games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinkett, Allen 1964 births Living people American football running backs College football announcers Houston Oilers players National Football League announcers New Orleans Saints announcers Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Notre Dame Fighting Irish football announcers People from Sterling, Virginia Players of American football from Virginia Players of American football from Washington, D.C.