To be clear Sonoma State, when Larry Allen matriculated there it could claim precisely zero former players who made it to the NFL. Which is a stat that readers could have likely guessed. When you think of where NFL greats played collegiately, Sonoma State is never the answer.
Yet Allen made it the answer. At least once. In 1994, he was drafted in the second round by the Cowboys, 46th overall. Which is something to think . Before Allen, and since Allen, no Sonoma State player had ever been drafted into the NFL, but in Allen’s junior year there, scouts came to watch him play and told him he had the talent to make it in the NFL.
Readers already know the biggest facts Allen’s NFL career, but what a story that he made it to the NFL in the first place. And it speaks to the genius of merit. In the NFL, it doesn’t matter where you come from so long as you can play. While it’s certainly true that scouts spend more time at Alabama, Texas and USC games, a merit-based system means they don’t discriminate. Nor can they discriminate. Allen reminds us that they’ll even go to Sonoma State games, or watch the team’s film, if there’s someone at this football non-entity who might improve their team. This isn’t nothing.
This is also something to remember when economics types on the Post’s editorial page bemoan the alleged impact of the Fed “hiking” interest rates. Please yet again. If you have a good idea, capital will find you. Always. As with football, investors compete and are in fact paid to find the hidden gems. The Dallas Cowboys found Larry Allen because they had to, and precisely because discrimination can’t happen in professions where the best teams win.
