Former Eagle Eric Allen’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech is more than 20 years in the making
Allen, who will become the first Eagles cornerback to be elected into the Hall of Fame, is ready to thank the people and teams along his journey. "Those people and places will never change," he said.
Eric Allen is headed to Canton with a speech more than two decades in the making.
The Eagles cornerback waited 24 years to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he will be Saturday with a statement that’s been trimmed and rehearsed accordingly the last few weeks. He prided himself on the mental side of the game and the preparation he put into each matchup as a player, and the attention Allen has put into the cadence, the pauses, and the message for his much-anticipated address should come as no surprise.
What came easy, Allen said, are the people and teams he will thank.
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“Those people and places will never change. They’re a part of who I am,” Allen told The Inquirer earlier this week. “So that comes naturally, being able to recognize those places, teams, coaches, and players who have been pivotal in my journey and who have poured into me. So it’s not difficult, it’s just a matter of making sure you have the proper order and sequence.
“You have to really zero in on the important aspects of the game and how it has affected your life and the folks around you. And if you can wrap it up around in that kind of mindset, I think it will be good, and everybody will be satisfied.”
Allen will be the first cornerback in Eagles history elected into the Hall of Fame. And while it took 19 years on the ballot (players first become eligible for the Hall five years after they retire) for him to receive the honor, Allen said he spent all but one of those years convinced he’d eventually get in.
He drew that confidence from one simple number: 54 interceptions.
“The goal I always knew was, if you could get 50 interceptions, that’s like 500 home runs in baseball,” Allen said. “That should get you in. Especially if you’re a cornerback.”
Allen conceded his confidence wavered a little when he was among the finalists for the class of 2024 but was passed over. He spent last year advocating for voters not to view him as a “defensive back,” but rather as a corner who had fewer opportunities to create turnovers in the middle of the field.
Still, Allen said, he never really entertained the possibility that he wouldn’t eventually get in.
“I didn’t really concern myself with who the voters were, I didn’t really make any push for myself for 18 years,” Allen said. “It never dawned on me that I couldn’t make it or I wasn’t going to make it. But last year was the first year I just tried to provide context. Like, ‘You guys have ‘DB’ by my name. I’m not a DB, I’m a cornerback, and there are differences.’”
Allen said he watched the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX run from afar and recognized a few common threads — even beyond the resurrection of the kelly green jerseys — between last year’s team and the ones he played on in terms of play personality and roster building.
He also said he expects the organization’s next generation of potential Hall of Fame players to have their cases bolstered by one or two championships during this era of the franchise’s history.
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“It carries definite weight. It’s the orca, as far as team sports are concerned,” Allen said. “When you have that and you’re a good, quality player, you’re more apt to get in earlier. If you don’t have the tremendous top-10 stats at your position, you could be a dominant player and play for a long time and not get in. What also helps is they all played for one organization for most of their career, and then you add the two Super Bowls with that. That’s going to be a definite boon for them here in Canton, [Ohio].”
Allen also has grown an admiration for Eagles second-year cornerback Quinyon Mitchell and his position mate, Cooper DeJean.
“I have great respect for Q,” Allen said. “I think he’s just a really technical guy with great physical skills. He’s done amazing being a rookie and covering some of the top guys and really doing a great job of keeping them from having an impact on the game. He’s that type of corner who is going to be mentioned with the top guys in a couple years. I really have a lot of respect for Q and Cooper and the way they play.”
Allen added: “He has the skill set and what seems like the mental approach to be a dominant player in this league. His body type is similar to mine, so you have to figure out a way to use your speed and your intelligence to stay on top of your game.”
Despite the 54 picks Allen managed during his career — 34 in seven years with the Eagles, five in three years with the New Orleans Saints, and 15 in four seasons with the Raiders — Allen said his signature play actually was a pass breakup rather than an interception.
He had plenty of turnovers to choose from, most notably the 94-yard pick-six against the New York Jets in 1993 and the two-interception game he had against the Saints later that year. Still, Allen said, his decision to sell out for a game-sealing pass breakup against Washington receiver Gary Clark after sniffing out a pre-snap motion trying to take him out of the play in 1992 was a better representation of his playing style.
“As I’m running across the field, I get this thought in my head,” Allen said. “Like, ‘They’re about to score. They’re in the red zone, and their best receiver, I just motioned away from him. Why am I doing that?’ So in the middle of the play, I stopped, leave my guy, and go back. I get a pass breakup and win the game.
“That’s my favorite play, because it took the preparation, the confidence to be able to believe in that preparation. Now if Mark Rypien doesn’t throw the ball to Gary Clark and throws the ball to Ricky Sanders instead, it’s a whole different story. I’d be the goat, and not the good kind of G.O.A.T, the bad goat.”
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Allen also acknowledged his playing style hinged heavily on confidence, which was instilled in him first by former Eagles coach Buddy Ryan and then by defensive coordinator Bud Carson.
Theirs are among the names he intends to include in his speech, along with plenty of other Eagles players and coaches.
“Defensively, our mindset with Buddy Ryan and Bud Carson was so confident because of the coaches’ confidence in us,” Allen said. “It made us better. So if I would have gone to a different team early on, I’m not sure I would have had the same type of approach to football. So coaching is valuable, coaching is very important. Buddy Ryan and Bud Carson were both instrumental in me getting here.”