Devon Allen, set to fly with Philadelphia Eagles, still sees track in his future

No, Olympic 110m hurdler Devon Allen has not raced any of his new teammates since signing with the Philadelphia Eagles in April.

“Being a pro track and field athlete, I don’t race for free,” Allen said with a chuckle. “I was like, ‘All right, we’ll race but for $10,000 a race,’ and nobody took me up on that yet.”

And no, Allen has not had a chance to hurdle a defensive back.

“The funny thing is, I feel like people kind of know I’m the hurdler,” he said, “so they’re not going to go low on me.”

But the 27-year-old NFL rookie wide receiver proved to himself that he belongs on a football field.

“I know it’s been a while since I’ve played football, but I’ve played it my whole life,” Allen said in a video interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia from his apartment in Annapolis, Maryland. “Hopefully it’s going to be like riding a bike.”

Allen, who will race reigning world champion Grant Holloway in the USATF NYC Grand Prix 110m hurdles on Sunday (4-6 p.m. ET on NBC, NBCSports.com/live, NBC Sports app and Peacock), is delicately balancing his passions for football and track.

He competed in both sports at the University of Oregon, leading the Ducks with seven touchdown receptions as a redshirt freshman in 2014. After finishing fifth at the 2016 Rio Games, he returned to collegiate football until he tore his left ACL and MCL and suffered meniscus damage in a non-contact injury defending a punt return in a game Sept. 17, 2016.

He turned pro in track in November 2016 and circled 2020 as the year he would return to football, but when the Tokyo Games were postponed to 2021, he had to wait another year.

“It took five years and now I’m here,” said Allen, who missed an Olympic medal by four hundredths of a second in Tokyo.

Allen caught the