A False Start and a Fresh Start for Devon Allen

played football. He's best known for what he's done on the track, where he's a world class hurdler who also recently suffered an unfortunate and controversial outcome at the World Championships in Oregon. Our producer Jessica Armoski has the story of Alan trying to turn himself into a two sports star. I'm your host, John Gonzalez from Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. Alright, Just so, training camps are happening, one of them near and dear

to my heart. The Philadelphia Eagles are at camp and they have a player there who I find very interesting, Devin Allen. He's in camp with the Eagles. How's it going for him so far? Considering he's playing football at a high level. For the first time since. I think it's going pretty well if you asked him, maybe not as well as he would have hoped. I spoke to Reuben Frank from NBC Sports Philadelphia. He was talking to Devon pretty early on in training camp, and Devin Allen said, yeah,

it's intense, all right. I think it's just learning how to practice again. Um, learning how to play again. I think, you know, the nuances are most of him in college, and then it's been so long since I've played, right, I just gotta remember, you know that the intensity and the tempo that all the coaches want and practice and then how to practice and you know, get a good rep even if we're just in outlets or we're just

in shells and stuff like that as well. Um, and then also getting all the walk through reps I can. I think the most frustrating thing for Devon Allen at this point is he's leaving a sport for now where he is incredibly six tessful, really highly decorated, just known as you know, one of the best at what he does, and then he gets through training camp and he's pretty much like ninth in the pecking order. He hasn't been getting a lot of opportunities to show off his skills

at camp. Here's what Ruben had to say. So, not only is he competing against wide receivers who've been doing this all their lives without a six year break, he's playing against cornerbacks who are some of the best in the world and know every trick in the book. And pure speed doesn't get you open in the NFL, and I think that he is just kind of struggling to stand out um, which must be frustrating, especially because he, you know, really is coming off a sport where he

is so well known. So it's wild to me that he hasn't played football in six years. He's undrafted. He shows up to the Oregon Pro Day, the Eagles take a liking to him aside. Is it just the speed? What did they see that they wanted to bring him into camp? Yeah, so we know that he's fast, obviously, and you know, the Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, he's kind of thinking outside the box always when he's looking

for people to sign. Reuben Frank reminded us of Jordan Malatta, the rugby player that Howie Roseman signed, you know, back in two thousand six. He signed an Olympic skier still the only Olympic skier to ever be signed by the NFL Jeremy Bloom. So you can imagine that Roseman was looking at Alan kind of through that lens as someone who maybe isn't necessarily a shoe in, but could bring a lot to the team. They did look at film, Ruben told me, and you know, it was old film.

It was from like two thousand fourteen, two thousand sixteen, which I kind of thought was funny, and they were impressed. You know, you think of a track guy playing football, You think of like a fragile, you know, a finesse type player with great speed. But they saw a guy who didn't back down physically from from defensive backs and and had to write mentality, he didn't look like a

track star playing football. It looked like a football player, and I think that's what appealed to them, all right, So they go from a skier to a rugby player, and now they've got Devin Allen, who, as we know, is excellent on the track. He's a three time national champion in the one ten hurdles. The timing here really works out for Allen, right, because he signs in April. He's got the U S Championships in June, He's got the World Championships in July, and now he's in camp

with the Eagles in August. He's got a lot going on for Devin Allen. The timing is everything and it has worked so well in his favor. He went to the US Champs in June, he took third place. The top three went to Worlds. It actually came out after the race that his dad had passed away the weekend of the meet. So he's basically running with this huge life thing happening and really hard to tell in the race.

He still, you know, got third, he qualifies for Worlds, and Yeah, he seemed to be just on the up and up. With the World Champs in July and Eugene, his home stadium, he looked good to contend for a medal. I think a lot of fans were expecting him to come out and get on the podium. And then, you know, his plan was transitioned back to football for the time being. See what he could do when he dipped his toes into the NFL. He was really set up for a

successful transition. Yeah, I was excited for him at the World Championships. As you mentioned, it's his home track in Eugene, Oregon, first time the World Championships had been held in the United States, and so everybody, I think, kind of expected him to end up on the podium. But man, it did not go well for him. Tell everybody what happened to Devon Allen at the World Championships in Oregon. It did not go well for him. That's I mean, exactly

as you said. He got through the heats and the semis. There was a sense that he didn't quite look like himself in those early rounds, but the finals all that matters. He gets the line in the final, and I wouldn't say that he was a heavy favorite for gold necessarily, but you know, this guy really delivers when it matters, is um and I think a podium finish was in sight for him. The gun goes up, say the gun goes off again, calling the runners back to the line.

A callback gun is jarring obviously for athletes, jarring for fans, for people watching in the stadium, for the watching on TV. It's just it's kind of this like eerie feeling. You know that something bad is coming. You're scanning the line for who it could have been. It's late three I think now. I've seen a lot of false starts, and usually if they're pretty late, you can see them with the naked eye. Then if you can't see it in real time, you go back and you look at the

slow mo. This false start was absolutely imperceptible. Even in slow motion. What we saw was that the gun went off and he got out of the blocks. It was incredibly hard to understand end what had just happened, even when he watched the footage and come to find out why is that pete fall started by a second he appeared to be trying to talk to the official at the track, uh be trying to reason with him. The start went to replay, and there was this thought, Okay,

maybe he'll run anyway, he'll file a protest later. But after a few minutes and the crowd did not like this, he walked off the track. His world championships were over. Everyone was doing it was a really really intense moment. Yeah, that's such a bummer. I mean like I was. I was bummed out for him. A second chest sounds impossible. It sounds like this couldn't possibly be something that they could measure but apparently they did. That had to be

immensely frustrating for him. No, so frustrating. And it's even more frustrating when you kind of dig into this rule and if it seems arbitrary, that's because it is, I think we can say. So. The idea is you want to have a fast time between when you hear the gun and when you actually push out of the blocks, but not too fast because if it's too fast, then there's a chance that you ignored the gun and just went early, and that could impact obviously your race unfairly.

So I was like, this rule makes no sense. Where did it come from? Why does it exist? And I ended up speaking to Steve Magnus, who's an expert on health and human performance. He's coached a lot of pro athletes over the years, and come to find out this rule was actually developed in the sixties when timing mechanisms were not the same as they are now, and it wasn't until the mid nineties when World Athletics, which is the international governing body for track and field, said yep,

this is the official standard. Here's Steve. And to back that up, they had a study that only had eight amateur finish sprinters in it that said, up, no one reacted faster than than point one. Oh, so this is this is the new standard. So the fact that this rule was codified into existence based on a study with eight amateur sprinters, and now suddenly pro runners around the world are being held to it, obviously, you can see why it's pretty frustrating. Devon Allen was the third pretty

big name DQ in this meet. A lot of people started digging into the starting data and the timing data in Eugene specifically. Yeah, so if you look at the data um and compare it to past World championships across spread events, they're all reacting a hundred. They're too faster than they normally would. So the average, the median is

all faster reactions. In fact, I was looking the other day and normally we only have, you know, maybe a handful of reaction times that are really close to that point one response, and in this track meet we've had something like thirty. Now for their part, World Athletics came out and was like, look, everything's okay with the timing, but we'll look at the rule in the future. We'll take it into consideration in the future. Now a lot of people saw that as them conceding to maybe this

rule isn't fair, maybe we should revisit it. But that didn't change a lot for Devon Allen. The race had already been one, the medals had been awarded, and there was this really somber shot of Devon watching the race from the call room, just sitting on like a folding chair watching the race. And it was pretty heartbreaking to know that because of this rule, because he was a really good starter, but a little bit too good on this day, he was out of contention for a medal.

That's insane, Jess. I mean, you call it heartbreaking. I think that's exactly right. If that had been me, I would never get over it. I would think about it for the rest of my life. And Devon Allen, now he's a Eagles training camp and he's a little bit removed from it, but he's never going to be clear of what happened in Eugene, and he's still being asked about it even at Eagles camp. Right, What did he

have to say about what happened at the World Championships. Yeah, he spoke to Reuben Frank at training camp and he said when he heard the callback On. Obviously, his first feeling was panic. I know the rules, right, you can't. You're not supposed to be able to run into protests unless there's a problem with the equipment or something you know, outside the external to start, like crowd noise or somebody making noise on the field or you know, pull volt

or shopping or throwing whatever like that. Um, so you know it's pretty much just panic right away. But the thing is is, because of the timing, he didn't really have a chance to let it get to him so much. He didn't have a chance to stew over it. He had to report for camp and his focus had to change no matter what had happened at the meat. So there's this sense that Devin Allen is an incredible hurdler.

We know this, you know, Reuben and I were chatting about how Devon Allen could roll out of bed in the middle of the night and run in the low thirteen for the one ten hurdles, just to give you an idea. The world record is currently twelve eight, so that's really fast. And there's this idea that you know, not that hurtling comes easy to him, but she's really

good at it. He kind of sails through it. He does really well and he wanted a new challenge and that is why he showed up at Eagles training camp ready to go and ready to see what he could do in a completely different kind of way. All Right, so he's in camp with the Eagles. I'm rooting for him. I want something good to happen for Devon Allen, especially after what happened at the World Championships. Just but as we know, this is kind of a long shot. He's undrafted,

he hasn't played football in six seasons. But the good news is the Eagles wide receivers after A. J. Brown and DeVante Smith are not great, so he has a chance. What are his prospects looking like? What are the guys who you talked to in Phillys saying about Devon Allen? Yeah? I got the sense in talking to people about this that it's unlikely that a permanent roster spot will become Devan Allen's, but it's not impossible. Ruben Frank thinks that there is a potential that he could get a spot

on the practice squad. Still pretty lucrative and because of these new rules under COVID, teams can pull up as we know two players each game from the practice squad, so he has the potential to be called up and get a couple of game checks, which pretty good deal for Devon Allen. The other thing is, again, timing is so working out for him. Football wraps up in February, indoor track really starts ramping up in February, and you can bet that you're going to see him back on

the track. He's not done with track. He wants to obviously keep going, but in terms of doing both sports, timing is really on his side. It would be great to see him back on the track. I'm glad that he's not abandoning that sport for football. Practice squad probably is the best case scenario for him. So fingers crossed on that one. As we know, a preseason is underway. The Eagles just played the Jets in their first preseason game.

How did Devin Allen do tell me he had a great game on I was really hoping that I would have an amazing story for you, an amazing answer to this question. Devon Allen played the best game of his life. He stood out, all eyes were on him. That didn't happen. I think the game was decent for Devon Allen. He only played eight snaps on offense and seven on special teams, not a ton of playing time if you're looking at that as an indicator of his future with the Eagles.

It wasn't a game where he stood out that much. But at the same time, you know, he was out there in an Eagles uniform playing, and I think we just have to wait and see what happens with these roster cuts. I'm interested in this story just because it has so many layers. I'm interested in it because he's, you know, a track superstar who's trying his hand in football again. So just from a journalism standpoint, I'm fascinated. And then also it's got that hometown flavor for me.

But are Eagles fans also curious about Devon Allen? What do they think of them? That's what I wanted to know. I asked Ruben, if you know Devin Allen was welcome to Philly with open arms by those fans. Never happened before? He said, not quite. Um, you know, the Eagles have a wide receiver at camp who is turning a lot of heads. Britain Covey from Utah really interesting story, and Ruben told me that his star is potentially starting to shine a little bit brighter than Devin Allen is getting

a little bit more attention. I will say that in the preseason game against the Jets, Brittain Covey reportedly tore some ligaments in his hand. He may or may not be out for some time because of that. Could this be a chance for Devin Allen's star to rise? The answer to that right now is we'll see. Maybe we don't know. But for me as a track fan, sure he may not be the talk of the town in Philly,

but I'm excited to watch him play. I want to see, you know, how this translates over to the NFL, and I'm going to definitely keep watching Alright, just this was great. I am rooting for Devon Allen. I hope it works out for him in a way that it didn't work out for him at the World Championships. Excellent reporting by you. Thanks for this, Yeah, thanks for having me on special Thanks to Ruben Frank and Dave zan Garrow from NBC Sports Philly for passing along Devon Allen's interview audio from

Eagles training camp. Thanks for listening, and a reminder to please rate and review the show that helps people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated and I Heeart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your favorite shows. This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rizzieri, Jessica Armoski, and Isaac Lee, who was also our sound engineer. Our senior producers are

Dan Bloom and Harry sward Out. Our executive producers are Scott Rody and me John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider and if you've stuck around this long, we leave you with this. Yeah. Milrose when it was at the Garden was the greatest. When I started going to mill Rose, I mean everybody guys were smoking, like this cloud of cigarettes smoke, and like you know, Rick Walhooter's out there running like three fifty seven. It was unbelievable.