Hometown Hero

ZACH ALLEN is 24 years old, 6’ 5”, 285 lbs., runs a 4.9 40 yard dash, can bench press 430 lbs., and was the #65 draft pick in the 2019 National Football League Draft. Now in his third season, he’s #94, a starting Defensive End, on the league-leading Arizona Cardinals. He’s a big man competing against other big men in the big business of NFL football...and a hometown hero, who’s a reflection of everything good about growing up in New Canaan.

Zach always stood-out. He was an honor student all through public school at West Elementary, Saxe Middle School, and New Canaan High School, and a popular kid, liked by all. “I grew up in a very comfortable and healthy environment. My parents, Michael and Irene, are both MBAs, and my dad is the CFO of a big company, and they certainly had high expectations of me and my sister, Alexandra, who’s now a senior at Duke. It could be underwater basket weaving, but doing the best that you could, and prioritizing school, were a given. Trying your hardest was non-negotiable. After that, let the chips fall where they may. I’m very fortunate. My family has always been supportive of me in every way.”

Maybe ‘normal’ by New Canaan standards - except Zach was also always the best athlete and the biggest kid in his grade. “My first love was baseball, and as a kid I really dreamed and thought about being a professional baseball player. Derek Jeter was my hero,” Zach recalls. “And I was pretty good at basketball and continued to play until my junior year in high school, and I played New Canaan Youth Football. The football program for kids up to 8th grade in New Canaan is very strong, and I was lucky to have Ted Dumbauld, a New Canaan dad who was a linebacker at Navy and is in the College Football Hall of Fame, as my defensive coach. We won two Fairfield County Championships, and I learned a lot about discipline and teamwork on that team. When I showed up for football in 8th grade at Saxe, I was as big as the coaches and the biggest kid on the team, so they put me on the line, and it wasn’t as much fun as playing baseball. The summer after 8th grade, I played on a Fairfield County baseball travel team, and I was being recruited by a team in Southern Jersey to take baseball to the next level. When I tried out for Rams Football in 9th grade, they put me on the line again because of my size, despite my view that I had the skills and ability to play tight end or linebacker. So I actually decided to tell Coach Marinelli that I was going to quit football to concentrate instead on baseball, and my parents supported that decision. But when I went in to talk with Coach Marinelli, he said ‘No Way. You gotta play football. Give me your father’s phone number.’ and explained how football would be my ticket to college and a lot more...and told me he’d see me at practice. Then, about 15 minutes after I left that meeting, my dad called me and said ‘Maybe we should give football another try’. I still don’t know what Coach said to my dad - or how much it had to do with how tired my parents were of the endless long-distance driving and overnights that go along with playing high-level youth baseball - but I owe it all to Coach Marinelli. He was a great coach and teacher and a powerful influence in my life, and he’s a well-known figure when it comes to college admissions.”

Coach Lou Marinelli, now coaching football for the 41st year at New Canaan High School and for the 50th year of his legendary career, including dozens of Championships and, most important, hundreds of kids who went on to play college football and who, like Zach, say Marinelli ‘changed their life’, says, “I’m so touched that Zach would mention me. It’s actually Zach who impacted me. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the role model for what every young man should be. He comes from a good and supportive family, who held him to a very high standard, but all the drive and desire came from Zach and, while his parents were always supportive, they would have been fine with Zach pursuing a career in business. Zach was the kind of kid who led by example, and at the same time pushed the kids around him to get the best out of them. He made me look good as a coach! And as great a student athlete as he was, he was a real scholar as well. In the three years he played with the Rams, we won two State Championships and got to the Semi-Finals in the other. In his senior year, Zach was recognized as the Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year, New Haven Register State Player of the Year, Connecticut High School Coaches Association Player of the Year, and the MSG Connecticut Varsity Player of the Year, and was named to the Walter Camp All-Connecticut High School Team and the USA Today All-USA Connecticut Team. And probably most important to Zach, and his family, he was named the National Football Foundation’s National High School Scholar- Athlete for the Northeast Region.”

But despite all that, as Coach Marinelli puts it, “None of us ever thought ‘NFL’ - even though I’ve had a few kids who’ve gone on to play pro - because it’s just not the way you think in high school. There are too many variables and too many things have to happen.” Zach says about it, “When I started playing football in high school I thought maybe I could play at a good Division III college. Then, when I was a sophomore in high school, I had my first college interview - with Pitt. I thought it went pretty well, finished classes that day, went to practice, then home. At dinner, my parents were acting kind of weird and started asking all kinds of questions about what I thought about the Pitt interview. If I wanted to go to Pitt? And when I asked what was up, they explained that the Pitt interviewer had made me an offer to play at Pitt during the interview! I had no idea! I actually committed early to play at Northwestern, but when it came down to the wire during my senior year, I decided Boston College was the right place for me. BC did have a good history of sending players to the NFL, like Matt Ryan, but the NFL was still just a dream at that point.”

“What really distinguished Zach as a high school athlete - besides his tremendous size and agility - was his inner drive, focus and determination,” Coach Marinelli recalled. “I remember we were at a camp up at Boston College with some of the Rams players before Zach had finally committed where to go to college. The BC Coach, Steve Adazzio, who’d been pursuing Zach, was watching the practice, and Zach told me beforehand that he intended to make an impression. ...He proceeded to put on a memorable demonstration! He even purposefully traded places in line in drills so he would come up against the biggest opponent - or any opponent he could find who had already committed to go to BC - and he simply dominated!”

Although the NFL may have been just a dream, the somewhat audacious idea of becoming a major-league professional athlete is actually not a foreign concept growing up in New Canaan. Zach was aware that the National Hockey League star, Max Pacioretty, was from New Canaan, and only a few years ahead of him in school. And Zach grew up in awe of New Canaanite Curt Casali, now a Major League Baseball veteran star catcher, who was the older brother of his good friend Chase Casali, and whose dad, Louis Casali, had been Zach’s youth baseball coach. “When Curt used to come to talk to a group of us or do a public practice, I was so excited I could hardly pay attention. I went off to Boston College just hoping to get to play and have some fun with it. Although I do have to admit,” Zach starts to retell, honestly and openly, and with a warm smile, “that my English teacher, Mr. McAteer, pulled me into his classroom on our last day of high school - and I actually thought that I might be in trouble or something. And he pulls a piece of paper out of his desk that turns out to be signed by Max Pacioretty and Curt Casali, and Mr. McAteer explains that he taught Max and Curt, and that those two signed it after they became professionals, and that it was one of his most treasured possessions...and by asking me to add my signature upon high school graduation he was placing a great responsibility on me - which at least he knew I could achieve - of going on to the NFL!”

And then Zach adds, referring to the remarkable fact that Lucas Niang, who was in the class behind Zach at NCHS, is now also playing in the NFL, with the Kansas City Chiefs, “I don’t know if Mr. McAteer got Lucas to sign it too, but it certainly got me thinking when he had me sign...”

“It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year at Boston College, that I really got the idea that I could play in the NFL,” Zach remembers. “I played pretty well as a Freshman and as a Sophomore, but I was playing behind Harold Landry - and then he was drafted, and he’s playing with the Titans now. I’d seen the work ethic that it takes... and I determined to get to work at it. I realized that with my size and abilities, it was all about how bad you want it. My parents weren’t really so thrilled, because I stayed up at school that summer to get extra workouts in through the offseason. I was doing two- and three-a-days. I was all-in on football! And then I sort of broke-out in my Junior year, and started to have every agent reaching out telling me I was headed to the NFL. Boston College was really great for me. All the football players live on campus in pretty nice suites for 8 guys, and I had plenty of friends who were around all the time. I’m still friends with a half-dozen guys who I played with at BC who are now playing in the NFL, including AJ Dillon on the Green Bay Packers, Wyatt Ray on the Cincinnati Bengals, and Will Harris on the Detroit Lions. And I graduated with a 3.7 GPA from the Carroll School of Management.”

Zach signed the standard 4-year initial NFL contract, to play for the Arizona Cardinals, in 2019. ...But getting the chance to play, and earning and keeping a spot on the roster, can be two very different things! Although he got a taste of playing at the NFL level and held his own, Zach suffered pinched nerves in his neck and missed 13 games in his rookie season. Zach says, “It just made me more determined and made me realize I had to work even harder in the weight room and get even bigger and stronger. I had a great offseason and came back in 2020 ready to play. Although I missed a few games because of a high-ankle injury last season, I’d been putting up pretty good stats in just about all the games I’d played in. Then, in the 2020 Week 15 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, I had 11 tackles! They told me I became the first defensive lineman in the NFL to record at least 11 tackles, a sack, and a pass deflected in one game since Willie McGinest did it for the Patriots in 2003! I think the biggest hurdle for young players is gaining confidence, and that’s probably when I realized I really belong.”

“And along those lines, I gotta say, there’s nothing quite like playing NFL defensive end with JJ Watt on the other end of the line!”, Zach says about the all-star Watt, who joined the Cardinals in 2021 - Zach’s third year in the league. With a hint of the admiration Zach had as a kid for Jeter, and echoing Coach Marinelli’s description of Zach, Zach says about his teammate, “JJ’s everything you’ve read about him - and more! He leads by example and he brings out the best in everybody around him. He’s always totally positive and supportive. And he’s a great friend! We hang out and watch Formula One Racing and Premier League Soccer. I have to tell you, getting advice from the best in the business is priceless, and it’s really a special thing when JJ gets in the huddle and says ‘Great Play Allen!’.” Although Zach had Covid and missed a couple of games this season, his numbers in 2021 have been impressive. He recovered a fumble in Week 10 against the Panthers, and he had a game-deciding one-handed pick and runback in Week 13 against the Chicago Bears. At this point in the season, like a real pro, Zach is saying all the things, like ‘We’re just taking it one game at a time’, that a pro on a best-record top-rated contending team is supposed to say about going to the Superbowl. And as the ultimate measure that he ‘really belongs’, Zach has been nominated for the NFL Pro Bowl!

About life, Zach says, “I’m quite literally living the dream. Playing in the NFL is beyond all expectations. Contrary to what a lot of people may think, at least as far as I’ve seen, the NFL is not about partying all night. It’s about hard work - 12 to 14 hours a day - every single day. And your preparation and discipline have a direct impact on your personal performance. When you win it’s much better than when you lose - and as a pro you have to have a mental balance about that. But I’m having the most fun you can imagine. And we like Phoenix. I trained for the NFL Combine in Phoenix, and was really happy about getting to settle in the area when I got picked by the Cardinals. My girlfriend, Molly McKenzie, and I have been dating since college, we have a pretty cool place, she’s got a job she can do remotely, and we have a Bernadoodle named Bean - because we met in ‘Beantown’. My family is really proud, and along with some friends, and Coach Marinelli, they’ve come to some games - and that’s something very special. I think they’d come to every game, but they understand I’m really focused on doing my job, and they don’t want to be a distraction.”

Zach is present. It’s a vital and refreshing aspect of his clear and focused demeanor and the “drive and desire” Coach Marinelli described. Looking no further than ‘one game at a time’, Zach eschews questions bout what’s next in his career and where he’ll be for his next contract, saying, “I try to focus on what I can control, today. I’m focused on my position with the Arizona Cardinals, right now. Next year is next year. I’ll let my agent, Tommy Condon, from Creative Artists, do the negotiating.” As for life after the NFL, Zach smiles and says, “Ya know, when I was a rookie, Terrell Suggs told me that ‘the minute you start thinking about what happens when the NFL is over...it is!’. This job has a 100% early retirement rate. I’m gonna try to play as long as I can, and leave on my own terms. After that, who knows.” And about Molly, Zach smiles again, and says, “Ya know, when I was at freshman orientation at Boston College, a Dean polled the auditorium and asked the students ‘How many of you have parents who met at Boston College?’ - and I was more than surprised when maybe a quarter of the kids in the room raised their hands! I guess I get it now.”

Still, when his NFL schedule permits, Zach loves coming home to New Canaan. When he’s in town, he makes his regular daily stop at Tony’s for his regular three ‘Meat Lovers Breakfast Sandwiches’. He sees some favorite cousins who live in Westchester. He works out at Prentiss Hockey Performance with Ben Prentiss and Rob Dombrowski. And what Zach doesn’t talk about...Coach Marinelli does....adding, “Zach never misses a chance to come do an appearance for my team or for younger kids in town, help-out giving a clinic, take the time to talk to each kid, sign an autograph, give away a glove. He’s an example of how to be an example. He’s a hometown hero and, frankly, I’m honored to know him.”