What’s in a name (change)? For Josh Hines-Allen, it was about roots and recognition

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — With a 17 1/2-sack season, a second Pro Bowl appearance and a new contract that made him football’s highest-paid outside linebacker, Josh Allen indisputably had become a big name in the NFL. But not exactly like he wanted.

He often was referred to as “the other Josh Allen,” with the more famous one quarterbacking the Buffalo Bills.

The Jacksonville Jaguars pass rusher and his wife, Kaitlyn, watched highlights of this year’s Pro Bowl Games and listened to a commentator refer to “Aidan Hutchinson and Josh … Allen?”

“It was almost like she was confused about who I was,” he says.

She wasn’t the only one. Kaitlyn wanted to know where her husband’s jerseys were being sold and learned they were as difficult to find as disinfecting wipes during the pandemic. The 27-year-old, five-year NFL veteran and father of three had considered changing his name for a couple of years. Now his wife started pushing for it.

His four older sisters have a different last name, Hines-Allen, incorporating their mother Kim’s maiden name. When Josh and twin brother Isaiah were born, their father, Robert, wanted the boys to be Allens. Kim and Robert divorced when Josh was a baby, and his dad wasn’t around much, so the boys were raised and shaped by Hineses. In his New Jersey neighborhood, Josh was known as “Little Hines.”

So in the offseason, Josh hired a marketing agent and a lawyer. He waited in lines at the courthouse that serves Duval County. There were stacks of forms to fill out. He had to verify the addresses of every place he lived from birth to the present. He was required to identify all his family members, as well as their residences and ages. Changes had to be made to his driver’s license, Social Security information and tax returns.

In July, his marketing team released a video announcing the change, and a new teal nameplate was placed above his locker. It was then that Josh Hines-Allen became who he was intended to be.

The new name is about how he hopes to elevate. And it’s about what grounds him.

Morris Hines was a force. Considered a hoops legend on the streets of their New Jersey neighborhood, Morris founded a basketball team at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark and instilled a love of sports in his descendants, including his grandson Josh. Morris taught Josh to shadowbox. He used to say, “Cut them deep and let them bleed.” Josh has it tattooed on his inner arm. Josh learned to tie a tie from Morris. In fact, he has tied teammates’ ties and taught them the way Morris did it.

“He’s one of the biggest reasons why I am the way I am mentally and competitively,” Josh says.

Morris’ oldest son, Greg, was more father figure for Josh than uncle. He was also a legendary basketball player and an example of how sports could change a life. “Dunkin’ Hines” was a dominating big man at Hampton University and an inaugural member of the Hampton Athletics Hall of Fame. A fifth-round pick of the Golden State Warriors, Hines never made the NBA but played professionally for 12 years.

At 12, Josh was the only man in the house with Isaiah living in Alabama with relatives. His sisters were driving him crazy by “momming” him.

“It was just pitiful,” he says. “I was already going to school, and then at home they made me go to ‘class’ with them as my teachers. It was just because they wanted to. We had math, science and recess.”

Desperate to get out of his house, Josh moved in with Dunkin’ Hines, who took Josh and his dirty clothes to the laundromat and taught him how to wash, dry and fold them. Josh learned to count the coins they saved in a jar and convert them to cash at an exchange machine. Hines made him feed and clean up after Blazer, his white boxer.

Josh and Hines imitated the WWE wrestlers Josh watched on “SmackDown” and “Raw,” trying to make the other tap out. At 6-foot-9, 280 pounds, Hines had a significant advantage, which taught Josh to use leverage and his quick, strong hands.

“Those nights were so awesome,” Josh says.

Hines schooled Josh on the basketball court, where he remembers his nephew as an average ballhandler but strong and very athletic for his size, with a knack for rebounds, loose balls and defense. When Josh got frustrated with basketball, Hines signed him up for football for the first time.

When Josh moved in, Hines was a bachelor enjoying the privileges of freedom and fame. He thought Josh needed some religion, so every Sunday morning, they walked to Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church in Montclair, where together, they experienced amazing grace.

“I had no structure, no responsibilities in my life,” Hines says. “That grounding, keeping God in the center of our lives, helped us both out.”

Josh also looked up to Keith Hines, Greg’s brother and Kim’s twin. Nieces and nephews called Keith “The General” because he didn’t mess around. Basketball was in his blood, too, as The General once scored 59 points in a high school game and then played at Montclair State before becoming a high school coach.

It wasn’t just the men of the family who paved the way for Josh.

Josh’s appreciation for the pageantry of sport grew while sitting in the bleachers at Montclair High watching his sister Torri, who would go on to play at Virginia Tech and Towson. He got chills every time the lights dimmed and Torri and her teammates broke through a poster to dazzling strobes.

“I thought it was the coolest thing, and it kind of made me fall in love with that part of sports,” he says.

Sister Kyra played basketball at Cheyney University the way Josh plays football. “You didn’t want to mess with her, you know what I mean?” he says. “She was the shortest one of my sisters but the toughest, and I just loved the way she played.”

Myisha, one year older than Josh, played against sixth-grade boys when she was in fourth grade. In high school, she was a McDonald’s All-American. At Louisville, she was first-team All-ACC three times and played on a Final Four team. She won a WNBA championship with the Washington Mystics in 2019 and was voted second-team all-league a year later.

Josh’s entire athletic experience has been about trying to keep pace with Myisha, with whom he could never compete on the basketball court. A year after she was taken 19th in the WNBA draft, he wanted to be drafted higher, which he was (seventh). Now he is determined to win a championship like she did — and to one-up her by being voted first-team all-league.

Myisha and Josh weren’t close when they were young, but their relationship has grown as professional athletes.

“I try to give her motivation, lead her down a good path and help keep her mind right,” Josh says. “She does the same for me.”

Shortly before the Jaguars play the Bills in September, Josh plans to offer fans an opportunity to swap old “Allen” jerseys for new “Hines-Allen” ones at a discounted price. It’s a good week to do it because the game is on a Monday night and the players have a little extra time — plus his opponent is the other Josh Allen.

They’ve never swapped jerseys with one another. They haven’t exchanged phone numbers either or even pleasantries.

“I don’t think he likes me,” Hines-Allen says. “After the first time we played them, he walked right by me, never said anything. By the second time, I didn’t really care.”

If the quarterback is resentful, he has reason. Hines-Allen has helped prevent him from winning both games they’ve played against one another. In the first game, a 9-6 victory in 2021, the Jaguars linebacker sacked and intercepted the Bills quarterback as well as recovered his fumble. And the Jaguars prevailed in the second “Josh Allen Bowl” by a 25-20 score.

Those games weren’t just any games to Hines-Allen.

“It was kind of like a respect thing — you have to earn the respect,” says Hines-Allen, who vows never to lose to the Bills QB. “I feel like I did, but if we didn’t win, it would have been like, ‘Oh, and you lose to him?’ It definitely brought out a little extra in me because my name is my name. I respect all and want the same thing given to me.”

If Hines-Allen breaks the NFL sack record of 22 1/2 — which he intends to do — more respect will come. He rushes the passer with extreme dynamism and unpredictable gusts, making him about as easy to hold back as a twister. He had 17 sacks in 13 games at Kentucky and 22 1/2 in 12 games at Montclair High. Getting 5 1/2 more than he did in 2023 does not seem unreasonable to him.

His pursuit of the record will be abetted, he believes, by dropping less and rushing more in the scheme run by new Jaguars defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen. Head coach Doug Pederson envisions Hines-Allen “pushing that 20-plus sack range” with more support from his team.

“He’s one of those guys who shows up early and stays late,” says Pederson, who recently became Hines-Allen’s neighbor when the linebacker bought a house near his coach’s. “He has the determination to be great.”

He hired a chef to prepare his meals and sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber for about five hours every night. He brings the device to road games, along with a specialist to administer intravenous fluids, and his personal physical therapist.

During his pregame routine, he makes himself the only person in a crowd of thousands by wearing noise-canceling headphones and listening to nothing but silence. He is normally gregarious, with an easy smile and hugs all around. But there is a dark side.

“I’m angry,” he says. “I had a great season last year, but the only thing I got was a Pro Bowl. I’m pissed because y’all think I’m supposed to be happy. I’m pissed because I wasn’t All-Pro. I’m pissed because I wasn’t a nominee for defensive player of the year. I’m pissed because my team didn’t make the playoffs.”

So now there are quarterbacks to pound, honors to earn, triumphs to be had, a legacy to uphold and another to create. And opponents who studied 2023 tape will realize the linebacker across from them is not the same one who wore No. 41 last year.

This is Josh Hines-Allen.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo: Cooper Neill / Getty Images)