Devon Allen (born December 12, 1994) is an American track and field athlete, specializing in the 110-meter hurdles, and a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played wide receiver for the University of Oregon football team from 2014 to 2016.[2] In the 110-meter hurdles, Allen is a three-time U.S. national champion (2014, 2016, and 2018) and a two-time Olympian, reaching the finals in both the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. His personal best of 12.84 seconds, set in 2022, ranks as the third-fastest time in history.[3] In his final meet of 2021, Allen clocked 12.99 seconds and became the 13th American hurdler to ever break the 13-second barrier in this event.[4][5] In April 2022, the Philadelphia Eagles signed Allen as a wide receiver.[6]
On July 17, 2022, Allen was disqualified in the 2022 World Athletic Championships for a controversial false start. The sensors in the starting blocks measured his reaction time from the time the gun went off at 0.099 seconds, which is 0.001 seconds faster than the legally allowed reaction time (0.1 seconds).
Coming out of high school as a four-star recruit, Allen committed to the University of Oregon and played on their football team for three years as a wide receiver, with his first season as the most productive one. After coming out of college, however, he focused his athletics on hurdling and track-and-field rather than football.
After years of competing in the US Nationals and the Olympics, Allen chose to participate in the football pro day held for players at the University of Oregon during the 2022 preseason. Allen caught the attention of NFL scouts when he ran an unofficial 4.35-second 40-yard dash. He impressed the Eagles enough to merit a visit on April 7 to their training facility, the NovaCare Complex.
On April 8, 2022, the day after being brought to their training facility, Allen signed a standard three-year undrafted rookie deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.[8]
