Jennifer Allen (born 1961) is an American author and commentator. She has worked for the
NFL Network and as an on-air reporter. She is the daughter of football coach
George Allen and sister of politician
George Allen and football executive
Bruce Allen.
Childhood
Allen grew up the only daughter and youngest child of professional football coach
George Allen. She has three brothers.
George Allen is a former
United States Senator
The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...
and
Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
.
Bruce
The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...
was the president and general manager of the
Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
and previously the general manager of the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...
. Greg is a clinical psychologist.
Allen's mother came from
French Tunisia
The French protectorate of Tunisia (french: Protectorat français de Tunisie; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في تونس '), commonly referred to as simply French Tunisia, was established in 1881, during the French colonial Empire era, ...
and was of a
Sephardic Jewish
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...
background, which became an issue in her brother's 2006 senatorial re-election campaign in Virginia.
Books
Allen is the author of three books, a collection of short stories, ''Better Get Your Angel On'' and a memoir, ''Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter'', describing her childhood as a coach's daughter and relationship that her family had with the members of the
Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...
and the
Washington Redskins
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...
that her father coached; as well as the author of ''Hōkūle'a, Mālama Honua, A Voyage of Hope,'' a chronicle of the worldwide voyage of a Hawaiian sailing vessel, ''
Hōkūleʻa
''Hōkūlea'' is a performance-accurate ''waa kaulua'', a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, it is best known for its 1976 Hawaii to Tahiti voyage completed with exclusiv ...
'', which is navigated without modern instruments.
''Mālama Honua'' was published by
Patagonia, Inc.
Patagonia, Inc. is an American retailer of outdoor clothing. It was founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973 and is based in Ventura, California. Patagonia operates stores in 10+ countries globally, as well as factories in 16 countries.
History
Yvo ...
in 2017. Mālama Honua, which means in "to care for the Earth", Hawaiian, documented the stories of original peoples and environmentalists in countries and island states around the globe. In 2018, the book won the Independent Book Publishers Association Nature and the Environment, Gold Award for non-fiction environmental writing. It also earned Independent Book Publishers Association Silver Award for Coffee Table Book and the Foreword Indies Book Award in the category of Ecology and the Environment.
Pat Conroy
Donald Patrick Conroy (October 26, 1945 – March 4, 2016) was an American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs; his books '' The Water is Wide'', ''The Lords of Discipline'', ''The Prince of Tides'' and ''The Great Santini'' we ...
called ''Fifth Quarter'' "the best book about football I've ever read—and Jennifer Allen never played a down in her life." In ''The Washington Post'', Jonathan Yardley reviewed the book, noting that in writing about her father, she "illuminates his innermost soul and gives us not just a football coach but a human being.”
The memoir contains claims that George held her by her feet over
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...
, struck her boyfriend in the head with a
pool cue, threw his brother Bruce through a glass sliding door, tackled his brother Gregory, breaking his collarbone,
[Jennifer Allen. ''Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter'', Random House, 2000. page 22] and dragged Jennifer upstairs by her hair. In the book, she wrote, "George hoped someday to become a dentist...George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession—getting paid to make people suffer."
[
In May 2006, Allen qualified some of the claims made in the book.] With regards to the pool cue incident, she claimed it was a joke and that "Allen was simply testing her boyfriend's reflexes."
With regards to the dentist quote, Allen claims that the book was a "novelization of the past" and written from the perspective of a young girl "surrounded by older brothers and a larger-than-life father." She claims to have a great relationship with her brother and noted that George walked her down the aisle at her wedding.
Career
From 2004 to 2010, Allen contributed to the NFL Network as on-air reporter, focusing on the personal lives of coaches and families in the National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL). In January 2006, she discussed how the firing of a head coach affects the coach's family, basing her commentary on her own experiences when her father was fired.
Since 1996, she has also periodically narrated and reported for NFL Films, including the 2013 "Fearsome Foursome ''Fearsome Foursome'' may refer to:
* Fearsome Foursome (comics) ''Fearsome Foursome'' may refer to:
* Fearsome Foursome (comics), a Marvel comic book group
* Fearsome Foursome (American football)
The Fearsome Foursome was the dominating defen ...
" episode of ''A Football Life
''A Football Life'' is an American documentary series of 116 episodes, developed by NFL Films and aired on NFL Network that documents the lives of select National Football League (NFL) players, coaches, owners, and teams. Friends, teammates, famil ...
''. Allen has contributed articles to ''The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
'', ''George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
'', '' Play'', ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', and ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
''.
Her journalism has also been anthologized. "Dinner, New Year's Eve, 1968," appeared in ''Football, Great Writing About the National Sport''. "Boys! Give Me Boys!" appeared in ''Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race, and Themselves'', edited by Camille Peri and Kate Moses and published by HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
in 2005. "Euro Disney: A Postcard" was published in ''Paris In Mind: Stories, Essays, and Reflections on the City of Paris'', edited by Jennifer Lee and published by Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Hous ...
in 2003.
A graduate of New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
(NYU), Allen has taught fiction and non-fiction writing at NYU, Connecticut College, Bennington College, and the University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Jennifer
Place of birth missing (living people)
1961 births
Living people
21st-century American memoirists
21st-century American women writers
American sportswriters
American women memoirists
National Football League announcers
Allen family
American people of Tunisian-Jewish descent