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Pantstowne shoppers shook hands with Charley Harraway (left), running back with
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 George Allen
A Football Life

Mike Richman
Foreword by Dick Vermeil

University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln

© 2023 by Mike Richman. Foreword © 2023 by the Board of Regents of the
University of Nebraska.

Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press; cover photo courtesy Washington

Commanders.

All rights reserved

The University of Nebraska Press is part of a land-grant institution with campuses

and programs on the past, present, and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca,
Otoe-Missouria, Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Kaw, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples, as
well as those of the relocated Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox, and Iowa Peoples.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Richman, Michael, 1961– author. | Vermeil, Dick, writer of foreword.
Title: George Allen: a football life / Mike Richman; foreword by Dick Vermeil.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2023] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023005950
ISBN 9780803249684 (hardback)
ISBN 9781496238160 (epub)
ISBN 9781496238177 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH : Allen, George, 1918–1990. | Football coaches—United States—
Biography. | Washington Redskins (Football team)—History. | Los Angeles Rams
(Football team: 1946–1994)—History. | BISAC : SPORTS & RECREATION / Football |
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Sports
Classification: LCC GV 939.A 53 R 54 2023 | DDC 796.332092 [B]—dc23/eng/20230518
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023005950

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any
responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
To my parents, Ilene and Ed Richman, who gave me the motivation
and drive needed to excel in life. My mother instilled in me a love for
history and storytelling, and my father introduced me to the world of
sports. Those interests have inspired me to pursue my literary work
of today.
 Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword by Dick Vermeil
Preface

Prologue: Driven to Succeed

1. Humble Beginnings
2. The Roots of His Genius
3. From America’s Heartland to Southern California
4. At the Car Wash
5. Doing It George’s Way
6. “Allen Never Should Have Left”
7. Erasing a “Country Club” Image
8. An Addiction to Winning
9. “Merry Christmas, You’re Fired”
10. A Bear and a Moose
11. Mr. Allen Goes to Washington
12. Waking a Sleeping Giant
13. His Crowning Moment
14. Cruising with George Allen
15. “Two Major Egos Clashing”
16. The Fourth Estate
17. Motivation—George Allen Style
18. “He’s All They Have”
19. The Beginning of the End
20. “Someone Has Cut Out My Heart”
21. Uncharted Waters
22. A New League Comes Calling
23. “Are You Kidding?”
24. An “Almost Impossible” Task
Epilogue: The Ultimate Honor

Acknowledgments
Appendix A: All-Time Coaching Record
Appendix B: Coaching Tree
Notes
Bibliography
Index
 Illustrations

1. Allen with his younger sister

2. Allen on the Lake Shore High School football team
3. Allen with his two favorite players at Morningside
4. Allen and some of the coaches for the Bears
5. Allen taking a victory ride following the championship game win
over the Giants, 1963
6. The Allen family at their Southern California home, late 1960s
7. Allen’s victory ride after the Rams’ defeat of the Packers, 1967
8. Allen and a dozen Rams at the press conference after Allen’s
firing, 1968
9. Redskin Park
10. Fans greeting Allen and the players after the Redskins beat the
Cowboys, 1971
11. Allen, taking questions from Dick Stockton, after beating the
Packers in the playoffs, 1972
12. Victory ride following the Redskins’ demolition of the Cowboys,
1972
13. Ken Houston and “Trader George”
14. Don Shula and Allen
15. Allen with “pesky” reporters
16. Allen conceived of clever ways to outsmart opponents
17. Allen with Redskins owners Edward Bennett Williams and Jack
Kent Cooke
18. Allen and Nixon during the president’s visit to Redskin Park, 1971
19. Allen meeting President Ford and Anwar Sadat, 1977
20. Allen and Ronald Reagan
21. Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom and Allen, 1978
22. Allen hitting the punching bag, 1980
23. President Reagan lifting the weights that Allen gave him as a
gift, 1982
24. Allen conferring with safety Eddie Brown of the Chicago Blitz,
1983
25. Allen working with Morningside College players, 1989
26. Allen announces his acceptance of the head coaching job at
Long Beach State, 1989
27. George Felix Allen at his father’s induction into the Pro Football
Hall of Fame, 2002
 Foreword
Dick Vermeil

I’m truly honored to be invited to write the foreword for this

biography of George Allen. He was a very special person, as well as
a very special NFL coach. His career winning percentage of .712
places him in an elite group of only three men to win more than 70
percent of their regular-season games: Vince Lombardi, John
Madden, and George Allen.
George was a coach who was always thinking ahead of the curve.
The fact that he contacted me, interviewed me, then hired me as
the first-ever special teams coach in 1969, while he was coaching
the Los Angeles Rams, proves my statement to be true.
Even though I worked only one year for George in 1969 (I moved
on to become the offensive coordinator at UCLA for Tommy Prothro
in 1970), he really impacted my coaching career. Fortunately for me,
George and I remained good friends after I went to UCLA. During the
time period that he was out of coaching, George would spend a
week with me and my staff in my Eagles training camps. Needless to
say, we all picked his brain. His communication skill with his players
was outstanding. He had a way of telling them what they needed to
hear in a manner that united the thinking process of the entire team.
Consequently, they trusted his judgment and process. His detailed
preparation in every phase of the game was exceptional. In fact, I
believe this was one of the areas of head coaching in which George
was way ahead of most of the league. For example, I remember
coming down the elevator in the hotel on the way to a Saturday
practice in Chicago prior to playing the Bears. George asked me if I
knew where the sun would be at kickoff time so I could alert the
kickoff returners of what to expect. I thought he was kidding, but he
wasn’t! Therefore, while on the field that Saturday, I checked out the
sun position so I could tell my returners what to expect and how to
shade their eyes as the ball came to them.
 In another example of George’s detailed approach to preparation,
he had me travel to every Baltimore Colts preseason game in 1969,
when it didn’t conflict with our own game, to study tight end John
Mackey’s split from his offensive tackle. We opened with the Colts in
Baltimore. George wanted to find out if he could predict a run or
pass based on Mackey’s split. With this thought, I studied every snap
Mackey played in the preseason, as well as most of the snaps that
he took in games the year before. I ended up with the knowledge
that Mackey’s split made no difference. There was nothing we could
use to gain a defensive edge versus the Colts. When I gave George
my final report, telling him there was nothing we could use, he said,
“Great—the conclusion is there is no conclusion.” I was a little
confused by his statement, but he was satisfied!
George never hesitated to do something that hadn’t been done
before in the NFL. For instance, I believe he was the first coach to go
to a fifth defensive back, taking out a linebacker in obvious passing
downs and using what everyone has gone on to call a “nickel back.”
From there, the dime defense evolved with six defensive backs. We
were playing the 49ers in a preseason game, and George decided
during the week to take out two linebackers on long-yardage passing
downs against quarterback John Brodie to see how it would work.
Well, it did work, and the multiple defensive back coverage schemes
started to grow as the season went on. Today the concept is in
everyone’s coverage package. This is one of the reasons George’s
defensive teams were so good at taking away what offenses were
doing, although the schemes required really experienced safeties to
execute his plans. In 1969 we had two veteran safeties who no
longer could really run like they used to, Eddie Meador and Richie
Petitbon. But George needed very smart, experienced safeties to get
the coverages called under pressure. George always said that what
the safeties lacked in speed, they would make up in knowing where
the ball was going prior to the snap. This probably would not be
possible in today’s game, in that the offensive schemes are so much
more sophisticated, and everyone’s game plan includes so much
more offense each week, though I wouldn’t doubt that George
would find a way.
 Because of George, I always had great respect for the so-called
older player who was supposedly “over the hill.” I remember early in
my Eagles coaching days signing two-time Pro Bowl offensive
lineman Woody Peoples, who the 49ers thought was finished,
because I knew what George would do—sign him—let ’em play. I
did, and Woody played very well for us for four years. We also took
the George Allen approach in trading for defensive end Claude
Humphrey. He had retired after four games in 1978 because he
became frustrated while losing in Atlanta. In 1979 Claude posted
fourteen sacks and played equally well for us for two more years,
including our Super Bowl year in 1980. Not only did he play well, but
he became a symbol of what a true NFL pro really was. Later we
applied the same George Allen philosophy when I coached in Kansas
City and president and general manager Carl Peterson signed
offensive tackle Willie Roaf, who was coming off two major knee
surgeries in New Orleans. He ended up playing in four Pro Bowls in a
row for the Chiefs. Not bad for an old man! Thank you, George
Allen.
George’s family concept within his teams was also very influential
throughout my coaching career. Once you earned the right to play
for George, he sort of added you, for that period of time, to his
George Allen family. He talked about team family all the time,
believing if everyone deeply cared for each other, they wouldn’t want
to let the other guy down. When you win 70 percent of your games,
something had to be the difference maker. For George, it was his
football family, and he ingrained it in his players to really hate losing.
There are two statements I remember him making to the team
following a loss, and he was sincere about both: “Losing is worse
than dying. You have to get up the next morning and face it all over
again!” and “Playing like we did today, we should all donate our
game checks to charity.”
I could go on and on writing about George, but I won’t. Mike
Richman has taken on that challenge himself, and I believe you will
really enjoy the read. George had his own way of leading, and I
don’t think anyone will ever duplicate his leadership skills. Only
George could be George Allen. I will always be indebted to George
for what I learned from him about being a head coach in the NFL.
Thank you, Coach Allen!
 Preface

No authoritative biography has been written on George Allen. That

fact dominated my thinking when I considered writing this book.
How could that be? Shouldn’t his legacy be honored? Who was this
legend? Allen certainly isn’t the only coach enshrined in the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. He didn’t even win an NFL Championship as a
head coach, and he posted only a 2-7 postseason record. Some of
his contemporaries, namely Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Tom Landry,
John Madden, and Chuck Noll, hold much loftier spots in NFL lore.
Yet, his life deserves to be explored because he was a fascinating
figure who left a lasting imprint on the National Football League.
In no uncertain terms, I told myself that I was the person to take
on this project. A native Washingtonian, I lived through the
Redskins’ Sonny Jurgensen–led offensive explosion of the 1960s. But
those Redskins, despite being so entertaining, were no better than
mediocre. It wasn’t until Allen arrived in the nation’s capital in 1971,
declared “the future is now,” and immediately coached the Redskins
to their first playoff appearance in a quarter century that I became
hooked.
I lived vicariously through that team, which Allen took to the
playoffs five times in the ’70s, including an appearance in Super
Bowl VII. In addition to Allen, names such as Billy Kilmer, Sonny
Jurgensen, Charley Taylor, Chris Hanburger, Brig Owens, Larry
Brown, Ron McDole, Ken Houston, Pat Fischer, and Diron Talbert—
most of whom were members of Allen’s “Over the Hill Gang”—
became seared into my train of thought. To me, these men were
larger-than-life figures. It was a treat to hang out with Redskins
fullback Charley Harraway when he made a promotional appearance
at my father’s men’s clothing store after the ’71 season (a photo of
that visit faces the title page of this book). My life became so linked
to that Redskins team that I’d have major emotional swings based
on their fortunes on a given Sunday. On back-to-back Sundays in
December 1972 at RFK Stadium, the Redskins turned in the most
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