In this week’s episode of The Fred Minnick Show, Fred is joined by Jared Allen, a 12-year player in the NFL, a defensive who tallied 136 quarterback sacks and won a Super Bowl with the Carolina Panthers after having played for the Chiefs, Vikings and Bears. In this episode, they talk a little football and sip a little whiskey. Jared talks about how he got into bourbon, talks about some of his favorite quarterbacks to sack, Irish Whiskey, running back Adrian Peterson, Bounty Gate, fan-free football during a pandemic and plenty more.
Henry McKenna 10 Year (14:54)
Barrell Bourbon 15 Year (27:58)
Red Breast 27 Year (37:55)
Thomas Handy Rye (1:06:19)
EPISODE SUMMARY
Allen used to be a beer guy (“banquet beers” with some Crown Royal once in a while), but he came to love bourbon while he was still playing in the NFL. He was in Capetown, South Africa, and went to a whiskey bar, where his eyes were opened. So was his palate. Along the way, he and Fred talk about several topics:
Speaking about his former teammate Brett Favre, his one-time teammate, Jared said his main takeaway was they you could see why he was great – namely, his work ethic, the love of his craft and his knowledge of the game.
Allen also said that while he loved playing against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field because of the history and nostalgia there, he hated when Vikings fans would sell their tickets to home games, meaning often it seemed there would be more Packers fans than Vikings fans when the teams played at Minnesota.
Fred explains the marketing term “brand” comes from the practice of the physical brands on whiskey barrels. People knew which of those brands would typically hold the best whiskey, as opposed to whiskey that was laced with, to be kind, unsavory filler ingredients.
Fred also talks with Jared about the “shenanigans” that go on in American whiskey, specifically touching on the practice of companies buying barrels, bottling the product and then using marketing to sell off bottles. He also relates how, for instance, Wild Turkey marketed itself as a “tough guy” whiskey, and the image stuck for years.
Fred relates how Jim Beam taking away the ages statement from Jim Beam Black was the beginning of his “curmudgeon” phase in terms of whiskey. “I don’t like when things change,” he says.
“Benchmark is awful. God awful.” -Fred
The Red Breast 27 Year Old gets the distinction as “the whiskey drinker’s whiskey” by Fred, and Jared chimes in, “I’ve never gotten into the Irish whiskys, but this is delicious.”
On the other hand, martial artist/boxer Conor McGregor’s Proper No. Twelve Irish whisky is not, according to Fred, who can’t seem to express his distaste enough: “By the way, that’s shit whisky. I don’t know if you’re friends with Conor McGregor, but … He did something that no other celebrity in whisky has done. He sold 250,000 cases like that. And it tastes like horse piss. It might be the worst whisky release this century. It’s so bad. … I respect alcohol; I’m trying to get people to respect it. That’s just trying to get people drunk.” Turns out Jared was teammates with McGregor’s manager in college.
On the topic of Adrian Peterson, Allen says, “I’ve never seen anybody with that type of ability. Even through all the ups and downs, you can’t help but root for him. He’s genuinely kind to his core and his heart.”
Jared talks about the NFL’s handling of situations like DeflateGate and BountyGate, and how if they had been handled in the moment, it would have changed the outcome of the respective games.
Late in the show, Fred reveals his love for Monster Trucks and Jared declares the Henry McKenna is his favorite of the show.
QUOTABLES
Speaking of Henry McKenna 10 Year, Allen says, “This is smooth. This is asleep-by-seven-o’clock smooth.”
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