Jonathan Allen was born in Anniston, Alabama, but moved around before settling in Ashburn, Virginia where he played football as a Stone Bridge Bulldog. As a senior he was named the Virginia Gatorade Football Player of the Year after an impressive season with 119 tackles, including nine sacks, six fumble recoveries, eight pass breakups, six blocked kicks and seven pass breakups. He also earned first-team Parade All-American and second-team USA Today All-American honors and was selected to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

Returning to the state where he was born, Jonathan played football for the Crimson Tide where he also graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Financial Planning and Management. During his college career, which became one of the most decorated for an Alabama defensive line man in history, Jonathan played in a total of 57 games going on to record 154 career tackles (78 solo), 45.0 tackles for loss, 28.5 sacks, seven pass breakups and three forced fumbles. After earning first-team All SEC honors his sophomore year, Jonathan helped lead the Crimson Tide to a national championship his junior season while earning 1st-team All-SEC selections from the Associated Press and the conference’s coaches. As a senior team captain, Jonathan continued to be a stand out and was an unanimous pick as a first-team All-American for his play during his senior season. He also earned the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award, and Ted Hendricks Award and was recognized nation wide as the best defensive player in the country (he even finished 7th in the Heisman Trophy voting!).

After his stellar career, Jonathan was selected 17th overall by the Washington Football Team in the 2017 NFL Draft. In the 2018 season, he started in all 16 games and recorded eight sacks, 61 total tackles, and 15 quarterback hits. Going into the 2019 season Jonathan is poised to build off a solid 2018 season and continue to display why he is considered to be the Redskins team-leader.

Off the field, Jonathan has two main loves: his wife, Hannah, and video games! His love of video gaming began when he was around 7 after first picking up the controller to play Crash Bandicoot on PS1 with his brother – ever since then, he has been addicted.

When he got into the NFL the first thing he purchased with his NFL paycheck was a brand new PC gaming computer. A predominantly PC gamer, Jonathan continues to game weekly with his brother and his dad. Their game of choice: Rainbow Six Siege, a strategic and tactical first person shooter game, where Jonathan has reached silver level.

“Video games [are] one of the only things where it doesn’t matter about your race, ethnicity, where you come from…it’s something everybody can bond over….regardless of what you like, everybody plays a game: Tetris, scrabble, words with friends, almost everybody plays some sort of video game.”

When he’s not playing, you can find Jonathan hanging out with his two dogs (Louie and Bella) and his wife or de-stressing on his Twitch channel.

“Video games [are] one of the only things where it doesn’t matter about your race, ethnicity, where you come from…it’s something everybody can bond over….regardless of what you like, everybody plays a game: Tetris, scrabble, words with friends, almost everybody plays some sort of video game.”

Jonathan Allen, Washington Football Team