PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Allan Haye is a redshirt senior defensive tackle at Temple University. However, when he was growing up in Florida, he didn’t step onto the gridiron until 10th grade.
“I knew dudes were already ahead of me. I knew dudes were playing since they were little,” Haye said about his late start. “I also knew they were going to be guys that were faster than me, stronger than me, bigger than me, so I had to figure out a way to get an edge quicker.”
Haye also knew football could be the ticket to furthering his education.
“I knew one way or the other I had to get to college,” Haye said. “I knew when I was 18, it’s over, so I had to figure out a way to get to school. So I saw football as an opportunity for sure.”
When he’s not leading the Owls, you can find Haye making music.
“As a man, there’s not really much you want to talk about with other people,” Haye reflected. “It’s not really much you want to let off your chest when it comes to emotions and stuff like that. So I used music as a way to speak to myself at first, that’s how it started.”
Haye’s music and football career met at an intersection. It was October of last year when he was taking the field before a game at Lincoln Financial Field, and his music was playing throughout the stadium.
“First time I heard it, I had my headphones on, and I think my teammate, Sekou Kromah, he said, ‘Yo, take your headphones off.’ And I took it off, and I started hearing it,” Haye recalls. “I’m like, ‘Oh snap, I’m in the stadium.’ It felt good for sure.”
Haye’s mother, Sandhia Clarke, couldn’t be prouder of her son.
“That music is music I didn’t see coming,” Clarke beams. “That part, that was like a gift to me.”
Haye’s own lyrics have centered him in his greatest times of need.
“Whenever stuff going bad, and I’m not even listening to it myself, and I’m in my head and stuff, my mom would even tell me, ‘Yo, go listen to your music, go listen to it. Don’t just say it and not mean it, go listen to it.’ So it’ll kind of bring me back to a level-headed space,” said Haye.
“His music is an anthem to me in the morning. After I pray, that’s what I listen to every morning,” Clarke said. “When they say a proud mom, I’m beyond a proud mom,” she said.
Allan wears a single digit, one of the highest honors a Temple football player can receive. It’s given to those who lead on and off the field.
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