How a $10 bill changed a Colts rookie's life

Phil Richards, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

INDIANAPOLIS -- Dwayne Allen wasn't a bad kid, just one drifting in the wrong direction. In practical terms, he had no father. Allen had spent his middle school years in alternative school in Fayetteville, N.C. There were no sports, only brushes with authority and occasional suspensions.

So it was reasonable for Allen to be wary when Terry Sanford High School's first-year football coach, Wayne Inman, cut him off in the hallway one day early in Allen's freshman year.

Inman asked Allen's name. He asked if Allen played football. Told no, Inman excused himself for a moment and returned with a $10 bill. He stuffed it in Allen's hand.

"Buy yourself a bag of dope," Inman told Allen, "or spend it on a physical and come on out for football."

Allen quit drifting that day.

"Changed my life," the rookie tight end said Friday in the Indianapolis Colts locker room. "Changed my life."

Allen took a physical. He reported to practice. He found a purpose. He found a father figure.

"I wish I could say the rest is history, but he raised me," Allen said. "He told me after my freshman campaign on J.V. I was going to be his tight end. He told me I could play in college, and not only could I play in college but I could play on Sundays.

"He put it all in me then, as a freshman in high school. He told me all that. Coach Inman is my dad. He turned my life around."

Inman was right, about everything. Allen became a Rivals four-star prospect at Sanford. He won the John Mackey Award, presented annually to college football's top tight end, as a redshirt junior at Clemson.

He has started all 15 games as a third-round draft pick with the Colts and caught more passes, 43, for more yards, 500, than any other rookie tight end in the NFL.

"He's blocking, he's catching, he's doing everything a true tight end does," Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians said. "I think for a young player you couldn't do any more than Dwayne has done. He can do it all."

No wonder coach Chuck Pagano said, "He doesn't look like a rookie to me," and quarterback Andrew Luck gushed, "He's just such a dynamic player."

Allen can split wide and get downfield. He can line up in tight formation and block the run game's power and counter plays. He can set up in the backfield and protect the passer or go in motion. He's 6-3, 255. He can pound, and he can finesse.

Yet the most striking thing about Allen is his maturity, his poise, his bulletproof self-assurance.

"As impressive as he is across the board as a football player in every facet of his game, he's equally impressive in his demeanor and his approach," Colts general manager Ryan Grigson said. "He's what you want."

Allen entered the 2012 draft with a year of college eligibility remaining because he knew he was ready. He knew he was what NFL teams wanted.

"You're in college and you watch TV and you see these guys and you just wonder: Can I? Can I play there with them?" Allen said. "At the end of my junior year, I knew I was ready. I needed to be challenged. I needed something more."

If any doubt lingered, it was chased when the Colts' other rookie tight end, Coby Fleener, was out for Weeks 9-12 with a shoulder injury. Fleener is the Colts' second-round pick, a swift, 6-6 down-field weapon.

With Fleener out, Allen was asked to do even more. He responded with six catches for 75 yards the first game, a victory against the Miami Dolphins, and he just kept coming.

Allen knows that being paired with Fleener in Arians' two-tight end offense will limit both players' catches but make for a dynamic attack. Allen sees what Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez have done to make the New England Patriots' already explosive offense even more lethal.

"I'm not worried about statistics or numbers or the amount of catches," Allen said. "The only thing I count is wins."

Identifying the essential and going directly to the bottom line come readily enough. For Allen, 10 bucks made all the difference.