While former defensive end Jared Allen built a reputation as a thrill seeker, he has already jumped out of airplanes and even run with the bulls in Pamplona. But recently Allen admitted that one high school stunt carried consequences far heavier than any adrenaline rush. Allen recently revealed the severe consequences he faced for a prank from his junior year of high school, when he joined other students in stealing yearbooks.

“Yeah, prank gone wrong,” Jared Allen said recently on the Bullseye View TV show while recollecting that yearbook incident. “Prank gone real wrong. I actually lost 13 full-ride scholarships ‘cause of that one. My juniors, the football team was involved, the seniors were involved, but so we knew everybody on the yearbook committee, right? It was all of our buddies, little sisters. And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we got something to steal.’ It’s like 100 bucks, we were broke.”

“I’m like, ‘Just give me a good two, and take one, sell one, I’m up,” Allen continued. “So anyway, long story short, it turned into chaos, right? Like the seniors, they stole all the yearbooks as a prank, and we got yearbooks for free because we knew people on the yearbook committee. So, a whole bunch of people didn’t get their yearbooks. So, it became a big fiasco.”

As a junior attending Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Jared Allen was already drawing Division I interest. That year, Allen had even given a verbal commitment to the University of Washington. His future looked bright, but one reckless decision derailed a major-college career for Allen.

Jared Allen just revealed that during his junior year in high school, one of his friends allegedly hung out of Allen’s car, attempting to sell the stolen yearbooks. A student who never received a prepaid yearbook reported the incident to Allen’s school principal. 

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Unfortunately for Allen, school administrators already recognized his car due to an earlier incident involving another one of his friends in his car. That prior trouble made Allen an easy target, and soon, he found himself in serious legal trouble.

“‘Oh, that’s Jared’s car,’ and they brought me in there, and I didn’t even have the chance to talk,” Jared Allen further revealed. “All of a sudden, I was in handcuffs, and I was like, ‘For some yearbooks?’ Like $3500 of yearbooks were missing, and I was like, ‘Man, I didn’t do anything.’ And they were talking about they were going to send me to jail, and I was like, ‘I got two, I don’t know what you want from me.’ Snitches get stitches.”

Most teenagers might’ve folded under pressure and named names, but Jared Allen didn’t. Allen refused to identify anyone else involved, even though it meant facing the consequences alone. Live Oak High School then took the matter into its own hands and expelled Allen. 

Shortly afterward, Allen’s old high school coach called him to deliver even more devastating news. Allen was informed that the colleges that had offered him scholarships reconsidered after learning about the yearbook fiasco from his high school. And just like that, all 13 full-ride offers vanished in front of Allen’s eyes.

What happened to Jared Allen’s college football career after the yearbook fiasco?

After transferring to Los Gatos High for his senior season, Jared Allen responded the only way he knew how – by dominating on the field. He earned First-team All-League honors and Defensive Player of the Year recognition after tallying 96 tackles, 12 sacks, and five forced fumbles. Still, major programs remained hesitant. The Huskies pulled their offer, leaving Allen searching for another path.

However, another opportunity came for Jared Allen from Idaho State. The Bengals took a chance on him, but Allen later admitted that he didn’t initially love the idea of playing there and even felt out of place as a California kid. At one point, Allen called home and told his father he wanted to transfer to UCLA, where many of his friends were playing.

Allen’s father didn’t immediately shut the idea down. Still, he challenged Allen to have an honest conversation with his coaches first regarding his reasons for leaving Idaho State. Then, after hearing encouragement from his coaches and teammates at Idaho, Allen reconsidered. Ultimately, it was his father who urged Allen to stay in Idaho and become the “big fish in the little pond,” and that advice proved pivotal.

While playing for four seasons of college football, Jared Allen started 33 of 41 games for the Bengals and racked up 250 tackles, 38.5 sacks, 13 forced fumbles, and three interceptions. As a senior in 2003, Allen even earned first-team All-American honors in Division I-AA and won the prestigious Buck Buchanan Award. Allen also helped lead Idaho State to its first back-to-back eight-win seasons in school history.

In hindsight, the yearbook fiasco could have defined Jared Allen’s story, but it became a turning point in his football career. Allen learned, adapted, and went on to carve out a decorated NFL career. While he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2004, Allen went on to play for several NFL teams before retiring from playing football in 2016.