Wow, that “Keenan Allen Raider hat” story gained a lot of attention recently. There had been reports all over the net about that incident.
Just a quick reminder: On Friday last week, the Chargers third round pick Keenan Allen posted a vine video of himself sipping on an In-n-Out drink while wearing a Raiders hat. Fans were pretty upset about that and reached out to him via twitter questioning his intentions. I also was asking myself why the heck he´d wanna do something like that? He was drafted by the Chargers and now he posts stuff of him on the internet wearing a Raider hat?
Well, when talking about this weird story, we might have to consider that the North Carolina native went to college at the University of California, Berkeley, where he played for the California Golden Bears. He surely owned the hat before he became a Charger in April this year. Of course, that´s no excuse for this post, but it surely wasn´t his intention to offend the BoltNation, i.e. us fans and the Chargers organization. Maybe we can call it a tremendously dumb rookie mistake.
U-T San Diego had a short interview with the Cal Bears star yesterday:
“I didn’t think it would have the effect that it did have, but obviously it did,” he said. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. I wasn’t thinking about it at the time. I wasn’t actually thinking about football at all. I was just going to grab a bite to eat.”
“I’m sorry about it, It won’t happen again.”
He also mentioned that Eric Weddle “gave him the rundown” before Monday’s practice.
But there is more to talk about Keenan Allen than just his awful taste in fashion.
He´s the Cal’s all-time leader with 205 receptions, while ranking third on the school’s career list with 2,570 receiving yards and seventh with 17 touchdown catches. He also had career averages of 77.9 receiving yards per game and 12.5 receiving yards per catch over 33 contests and 29 starts. The 21-year old was a huge factor in the kick and punt return game too, recording 21 punt returns for 252 yards including a career-long 69-yard touchdown return against Southern Utah as a junior and 18 kick returns for 406 yards including a long of 61 versus Arizona State also as a freshman.
I can´t wait for this kid to step on the field in a Chargers uniform. He currently is recovering from a knee injury, which also forced him out of the final three games at Cal. But already on the first day of this year´s mini camp, the 6´2″ (slot) receiver threat reported that the knee feels great and he participated in all drills. Allen is an athletic playmaker who understands how to get open and run routes; I expect to see some great things from the youngster in the second half of the season (probably after one or two of the injury-prone veterans will miss significant playtime…don´t wanna sound negative here, but we´re used to that…am I right Malcom?).
BoltFam, I hope one day you´ll be able to forgive him that dumb “rookie mistake”. Maybe it will be easier for you to do that when checking out my little highlight video I´ve posted some hours ago on my Youtube channel (your interest is much appreciated):
Keenan Allen – Drive It in – by MC Boltman
Thank you for reading (and checking out my video)!
BoltnRoll!