‘I’m just real excited’: Raiders great ready for Hall of Fame induction

Former Raiders cornerback Eric Allen will take his rightful place among the greats of pro football Saturday. His long wait to be recognized as one of the best players to play the game is finally over.

When he bares his soul during his Hall of Fame speech in Canton, Ohio, he will have the closure he’s sought for more than two decades.

That it took as long as it did for someone who played 14 seasons, came up with 54 interceptions and earned six Pro Bowl honors is disappointing, but ultimately water under the bridge. Allen got the call to the Hall of Fame in his 19th year of eligibility. To put in perspective how narrow his entry point was, modern-era category players have 20 years of eligibility once they become available for consideration, five years after they retire.

If it had not happened this year, who knows if it ever would.

But all that is behind him.

He is home now, right where he belongs.

“Ultimately, it’s about what you do on the football field,” Allen said. “They’re not going to change what it takes to get in here, and my numbers stack up with anybody who’s in there. When you become a one of one, like the only guy with a certain amount of interceptions and touchdowns who’s not in there, obviously there’s going to be a time when I need to get in there.”

Allen played four seasons with the Raiders from 1998 to 2001. The Raiders reached the playoffs twice and advanced to the AFC championship game during his time with the team.

Before joining the Raiders, he played seven seasons with the Eagles and three with the Saints.

A San Diego native and a standout at Point Loma High School, Allen went on to star at Arizona State, where he played under Darryl Rogers and John Cooper. He was a second-round pick of the Eagles in 1988.

Allen is the 31st former Raider to be elected to the Hall of Fame and the sixth defensive back, along with Willie Brown, Mike Haynes, Charles Woodson, Rod Woodson and Ronnie Lott.

“Time and light, eventually the truth is going to be there,” Allen said. “We know so much about so many things because history, because we have time to massage it. And that’s an important aspect of it. The validation part, it didn’t validate me. … But what it did validate was all those fans and the family and friends who continued to beat the door down after games like, ‘EA is the best! EA is the best!’ Now they get a chance (to say) like, ‘I told you so’ and kind of pump up a little bit.”

Interceptions don’t just happen

Allen’s knack for coming up with interceptions wasn’t only about his physical gifts and instincts. They were the result of painstaking preparation that he began incorporating into his game three years into his career. It was at that point, Allen said, that he started playing the game from the shoulder pads up.

Every offseason, Allen would zero in on the best offenses in the NFL and study them from every angle imaginable. For instance, at the time, Bill Walsh’s West Coast attack in San Francisco was all the rage, and it helped to unleash Jerry Rice on the football world. The K-Gun attack in Buffalo, with Jim Kelly and Andre Reed, was another.

Of those schemes, Allen would pick out their dominant receiver and memorize every route they ran, and at what point in the game. Then he would go on the practice field and run those routes himself. Over and over and over.

During the season, when he would face those receivers and those offenses, he had total recall based on the offseason preparation.

“I would put myself in those situations,” Allen said.

Time and again, when various situations arose during a game, Allen knew what the receiver would do, down to the depth of the route and which way he would turn. In those moments, he felt comfortable making a play on the ball.

“You put yourself in those positions, and you just take that chance, take that opportunity,” Allen said. “So it’s all about film preparation.”

Allen’s interception total is tied for the 21st most in pro football history.

It helped get him to the pinnacle of the game. And now he gets to take his place with the immortals.

“When you get that call, you start to reminisce about all those folks who poured into you to lay that foundation and to understand that all of those folks meant so much to the end of the journey in this part of my life,” Allen said. “I’m just real excited.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.