‘He was the blindside before ‘The Blind Side’
Former Butte coach Craig Rigsbee shares stories of Larry Allen
Explosive on the field, and shy off the field. One of the best, if not the best, guards in NFL history. A great story, and a testament of what football can do to generational families. How football absolutely shifted the paradigm of a whole family and generations to come.
This is Larry Allen, as told by his former offensive line/head football coach at Butte College, Craig Rigsbee.
Allen was drafted as the 46th pick in 1994 by the Dallas Cowboys, and went on to play 12 years with Dallas before returning to California to spend his final two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
Allen, who turned 52 Sunday, died Monday on vacation in Mexico.
Prior to being drafted, Allen played guard at Butte College from 1989-1990, spending 19921993 playing football at Sonoma State.
Former KRCR radio host
Rich Eisen, who got his start in Redding before making appearances on NFL Network and other play-by-play opportunities, now hosts a daily sports radio show and podcast called The Rich Eisen Show. Eisen said Monday that when he arrived to Redding in 1994, “...I got there and started meeting some folks from the area, they’re telling me about this kid out of Butte College that the Dallas Cowboys just got. His name was Larry Allen. They said watch this kid, and boy did we watch him
... If you had to name the top five guys John Madden loved talking about, Larry Allen’s in the top five. He would talk about him, love his play and how vicious he was. He was nasty, but he was great.”
Allen’s former teammate Emmitt Smith, a fellow Hall of Famer (2010), posted on Instagram on Tuesday, saying, “No words to describe the feeling of losing a brother, teammate and most importantly, a friend. Someone who was quiet, didn’t bother anyone and put others first. He was a beast on field and a gentle soul off. Rest in peace to a true Cowboy and one of greatest —you will be truly missed.”
Rigsbee was at the Butte
College football team’s annual golf tournament fundraiser Monday, and spoke afterward
about Allen’s passing. It was then that it truly hit him, and it choked the former coach up.
“It’ll always be different walking into the stadium remembering all the different things and the fun times we had, just coaching and hanging out,” Rigsbee said. “He was a pleasure to coach, and he was one of the best humans I’ve had the pleasure to coach ... He is like a second kid to me. No matter where the services are, I’ll definitely be there.”
Where it started
While Allen’s play on the field is one of the best ever seen from an offensive lineman in NFL history, his story on how he got there is one that could be made into a movie. As Rigsbee said, “He was the blindside before ‘The Blind Side.’”
Allen grew up in poverty, and was stabbed in high school in Compton in his early high school years. He went to five different high schools before landing at Vintage High in Napa. Rigsbee’s best friend from high school was a principal at a nearby high school, and he played against the dean at Vintage High.
“They said we got this great kid, he’s a little out of shape, but he’s a phenomenal athlete,” Rigsbee recalled. “He’s probably not going to make the grades, but he’s a phenomenal athlete. He probably isn’t going to graduate from high school.”
Rigsbee took a chance after seeing his explosive power.
“He had the best explosive get off I’d ever seen in any player,”
Rigsbee said. “He used to take one step, that attack
step, and he generated more power than anyone. He’d knock d-lineman onto the track like 5 feet in the air. We used to laugh, and say he’s better than any of these players. Four years later he’s doing the same exact (stuff) to the Philadelphia Eagles.”
“He could run better than anyone we’ve had at that position. He was going to be a hard worker, and he was fight or die every play. He was going to make it. 50 Cent said, ‘Get rich or die trying.’”
It wasn’t easy off the field for Allen, Rigsbee took Allen in like a second son. He got him a job, and taught him how to drive at the Butte College police academy so he could get his driver’s license.
“You’d think he would’ve passed the test to get into Oxford. He was so pumped,” Rigsbee said.
He came to Butte with just sweats, t-shirts and sandals, and when Rigsbee learned of this, he and his wife bought him clothes. Rigsbee recalled a story that Allen wanted wingtip shoes, but the coach insisted he couldn’t spend $200 on them. After Allen was drafted and Rigsbee came to a game his rookie season, the two went to Allen’s condo after the game. Allen opened his closet and showed Rigsbee 25 pairs of wingtip shoes, and the two shared a laugh.
“Now I can afford them,” Allen told his former coach.
After Allen was done with football at Butte, he was struggling financially and in school. He lived with Rigsbee his final six months in Butte County, and Rigsbee and his wife taught him how to do laundry and other social skills.
When it came time to leave Butte, Allen did not have the grades to go Division I, despite his talent being there. Rigsbee had a friend at D-II Sonoma State, and made a promise to Allen.
“I said, ‘I’ll get you over there, and he will take care of you just like I did. He will help you and guide you,’” Rigsbee told Allen. “He goes there two years, gets drafted first pick of the second round with the
Cowboys and becomes the greatest guard in the history of the NFL.”
Allen married an educator and had three kids. His daughter graduated from an Ivy League school and a son went to Harvard.
“If that is not a generational shift and a paradigm shift because of football and all the tutoring and help he got because of football, I don’t know what is,” Rigsbee said. “To have somebody there 24/7, this really helped him get where he wanted to go ... He is a great story and a testament of what football can do to generational families.”
Twenty three years after Allen left Butte College, Rigsbee traveled to
Canton, Ohio for Allen’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Rigsbee called it the best weekend he’s ever had in football.
“If you want to look at one guy, who football absolutely shifted the paradigm of his whole family and generations to come, look at Larry Allen,” Rigsbee said. “I’m just sad he didn’t last longer. I just wish he could’ve got to have the spoils of his victor a little longer in his life ... But I bet if you’d have asked him at Butte, ‘You’re going to be the best offensive lineman in the world, you’re going to make 100 million dollars, and die at 52,’ he would have said, ‘I’m all in, lets go.’”