HOUSTON – Floyd Allen knows making the Texans' regular season roster won’t be easy, but the wide receiver has never backed down from a challenge.
The former Nimitz High School star recently signed with the Texans as an undrafted free agent.
“It's a blessing. Just knowing that all I've been through to get here,” Allen said. “To be on the home team is kind of like a dream come true. I always talked to my parents about how crazy would it be if I ended up playing for the Texans. Low and behold, I'm here. So, it's pretty crazy.”
After high school, Allen played at Bethany College and then at El Camino Junior College. At one point during his junior college days, he found himself homeless for a few weeks and lived in his car.
“I was homeless my second year in JuCo,” Allen said. “I was transferring over to my second junior college. At the time, I didn't have any money to put down for a down payment for an apartment. So, I was homeless for about a good two to three weeks.”
He also worked at McDonald's while balancing school and football.
“For me, if I didn't have class that day, then I tried to work as early as possible until practice,” Allen said. “Even if I did have class that day, I'd try to work really early, then go to class, then go to practice. I was doing my best to try to maintain everything.”
Allen eventually ended up at Ole Miss. He never gave up on his NFL dream, but at times, he thought he might.
“When I was homeless, there were moments where I was like, 'Is this really what you want to do?' That's an opportunity to chase your dreams. To this day, I'm still alive. So, this is an opportunity to keep chasing it,” he said.