How a 'sad day' for Armstrong QB Tony Allen taught him a life's lesson: 'It defines who I am'

RICHMOND, Va. — Coaching and playing football for Armstrong High School in Richmond is not for the faint of heart. The Wildcats have not had a winning season since 1992.

But last year was more positive than most, partly because of Coach Jeremy Pruitt's quarterback, Tony Allen.

"I need kids like that to grow my program forward," Coach Pruitt said. "I'm not used to having kids of his stature, of his nature."

Allen started playing football when he was just four years old and throwing with uncanny accuracy for a long time.

"When he was a kid, he would throw a rock at a telephone pole 100 yards away and he'd hit it perfectly," his father Tony Allen, Sr., said.

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Tony Allen Jr. is the type of player who is the first one on the field and the last to leave. He always has the attention of his coaches and teammates.

"He hasn't missed a day. He's been a leader since day one," Pruitt said. "First year, I had to groom him. In the second year, 25 passing touchdowns, seven interceptions, and four rushing touchdowns. The kid is a monster. I love him."

Allen sees himself as a leader his teammates need.

"[We] need somebody that people can depend on when times get hard," he said.

And times did get hard for the quarterback.

About five years ago, Allen was playing in a rec league game. As the best athlete on his team, he played both quarterback and punter. It was doing the latter that brought his playing days, and everything else, to a very abrupt halt.

"The ball went over my head. I slipped and fell because it was wet," he recalled. "Two guys came and hit my leg. Next thing you know, as soon as that happened, pain, excruciating pain."

Allen suffered spiral fractures of his tibia and fibula.

Allen Sr. called it a sad day.

"Not just to see my kid or any kid out there. His leg was just, it was in bad shape. It was hard. It was really really hard," he said.

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Allen Jr. didn't require surgery, but only because his doctors had to break his legs a second time because they were not healing properly. The ensuing rehab took two years.

"You're not moving that leg or anything. It's stiff, the muscle shrinks. It looks gross. It stinks," Allen said. "Going into x-rays every week and knowing you can't do anything. You can't walk, you can't do anything. It was bad. It was rough."

It got so bad, the once promising athlete told his parents he never wanted to pick up a football again.

"It was like the wind completely coming out of our sails because that's when he was really starting to hit his mark," his father said.

Little by little, Allen Sr. began hinting at his son's return to competition. He even tricked his son into attending practice instead of going out for lunch.

It was because of the potential he saw before the injury and a desire to not see it go to waste.

"I'll be honest, I pushed him. I pushed him more than he pushed himself," Allen Sr. said. "I think he still had that fear. But I knew that, within, he was going to be a special talent."

Allen Jr. is now thankful for his father's persistence.

"Looking back on it and all the things they did, I'm so thankful. I'm thankful because that defines who I am today," he said.

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Allen Jr. grew to become an honorable mention All-Metro football player, a Richmond Public Schools Athlete of the Month, and a Richmond Times-Dispatch scholar-athlete honoree.

College programs are interested in his future, which has made him oddly grateful for his recent past.

"I would be a leader but I would say I would not be as good of a leader as I am now because I think about how it can be taken away from you in a second," he said. "I'm always pushing everyone to be the best they can be and to work as hard as they can because you never know when it can be taken away from you."

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