He rides a 4-foot skateboard to classes on the USC campus and relaxes after football games by surfing Southern California breaks.
And his idea of a great vacation? Try dangling a dead chicken on a rope in front of a gang of hungry alligators.
That’s John Allred, beach rat, sidewalk surfer and the Bears’ new tight end.
“This is awesome,” said the 6-foot-4-inch, 244-pound Allred. “It’s awesome. A dream come true.”
The Bears moved up two spots in the second round Saturday to draft Allred, a fifth-year senior that USC coach John Robinson calls the best blocking tight end he has coached at any level, including the NFL.
“He’s to the point where I watch game tapes of him blocking and I learn from him,” Robinson said.
Allred expects to inherit the starting tight end job with the hopes that he will become the Bears’ first dominant player at the position since Mike Ditka in the 1960s.
Allred grew up in Del Mar, a beachside community about 30 minutes north of San Diego. The son of a wealthy developer, he has surfed since the 5th grade.
Last summer, he vacationed in Costa Rica with USC teammates Jeff Diltz and Tyler Cashman. They surfed some of the best waves in the world, and fed a group of hungry alligators by dangling a dead chicken from a rope off a bridge.
“The spots where we were surfing,” he said, “it was common to see them.”
But the Bears don’t seem too concerned with Allred’s adventurous lifestyle. Tight ends coach Ted Plumb interviewed him at the scouting combine in February and came away impressed.
“He’s not a flake,” said Plumb. “He’s very, very serious about football. Growing up in Southern California isn’t such a bad thing with the beach and the surf.
“If the worst thing you can say about him is that he skateboards, it’s not a bad thing at all.”
Although other tight ends were ranked higher, Plumb considered him the best blocking tight end.
Allred is what Plumb calls a “leverage blocker” who can get under a defensive end and keep him off balance. That’s an important weapon to have when you’re lining up across from Reggie White.
“Sure, there were some tight ends rated higher, but they have trouble blocking a defensive end,” Plumb said. “In our division, you line up against a lot of defensive ends.”
Allred set a school record for tight ends with 10 catches for 103 yards this season against Houston. But it was his blocking that has Robinson pressing the replay button on his VCR.
Allred took a play out of Orlando Pace’s playbook, throwing devastating pancake blocks on a defensive end to break two runs that set up a touchdown.
“He’s going to be in the NFL for a long time,” Robinson said.
