Jonathan Allen was born in Anniston, Alabama, but moved around before settling in Ashburn, Virginia
where he played football as a Stone Bridge Bulldog. As a senior he was named the Virginia Gatorade
Football Player of the Year after an impressive season with 119 tackles, including nine sacks, six
fumble recoveries, eight pass breakups, six blocked kicks and seven pass breakups. He also earned
first-team Parade All-American and second-team USA Today All-American honors and was selected to
play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Returning to the state where he was born,
Jonathan played football for the Crimson Tide where he also graduated with a Bachelor of Science
Degree in Financial Planning and Management. During his college career, which became one of the most
decorated for an Alabama defensive line man in history, Jonathan played in a total of 57 games going
on to record 154 career tackles (78 solo), 45.0 tackles for loss, 28.5 sacks, seven pass breakups
and three forced fumbles. After earning first-team All SEC honors his sophomore year, Jonathan
helped lead the Crimson Tide to a national championship his junior season while earning 1st-team
All-SEC selections from the Associated Press and the conference’s coaches. As a senior team captain,
Jonathan continued to be a stand out and was an unanimous pick as a first-team All-American for his
play during his senior season. He also earned the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award, and
Ted Hendricks Award and was recognized nation wide as the best defensive player in the country (he
even finished 7th in the Heisman Trophy voting!).
After his stellar career, Jonathan was
selected 17th overall by the Washington Football Team in the 2017 NFL Draft. In the 2018 season, he
started in all 16 games and recorded eight sacks, 61 total tackles, and 15 quarterback hits. Going
into the 2019 season Jonathan is poised to build off a solid 2018 season and continue to display why
he is considered to be the Redskins team-leader.
Off the field, Jonathan has two main
loves: his wife, Hannah, and video games! His love of video gaming began when he was around 7 after
first picking up the controller to play Crash Bandicoot on PS1 with his brother – ever since then,
he has been addicted.
When he got into the NFL the first thing he purchased with his NFL
paycheck was a brand new PC gaming computer. A predominantly PC gamer, Jonathan continues to game
weekly with his brother and his dad. Their game of choice: Rainbow Six Siege, a strategic and
tactical first person shooter game, where Jonathan has reached silver level.
“Video games
[are] one of the only things where it doesn’t matter about your race, ethnicity, where you come
from…it’s something everybody can bond over….regardless of what you like, everybody plays a game:
Tetris, scrabble, words with friends, almost everybody plays some sort of video
game.”
When he’s not playing, you can find Jonathan hanging out with his two dogs (Louie
and Bella) and his wife or de-stressing on his Twitch channel.