Tyler Allgeier, drafted by the Falcons in 2022, made his first start in week 5 due to Cordarrelle Patterson’s injury. He gained comfort and posted impressive numbers, including two 100+ yard games. Allgeier achieved a 1,000-yard season, becoming the first Falcons rookie to do so since 1979. Long before he was drafted by Atlanta in 2022, a young Allgeier demonstrated the same grit that would later define his playing style.

When Tyler Allgeier was just 18 months old, an unexpected incident provided a glimpse into his future as an athlete. He was abruptly thrown off a skateboard by his 3-year-old cousin when he was a baby, slamming his 18-month-old face-first onto some pavement in front of his grandparents’ house. But, “not one tear came out of his eyes.” Little Tyler didn’t cry at all as blood gushed off his face and nose. From that day, his mother, Ester Allgeier, knew that “this little boy was tough” and “going to have a future in sports.”

Who are Tyler Allgeier’s Parents?

Ester Allgeier is a single mother who raised Allgeier and his younger sister, Nalonie, at her parents’ home in Fontana, California. She was right when she made her initial judgment, but she had no idea that Tyler would have the opportunity to play in the NFL in the future—at least not for the majority of her son’s adolescent years. Her son nearly died at childbirth, after all.

Many fans are aware of Allgeier’s incredible rise from walk-on to school single-season running leader to potential first-round pick in the NFL draft. Many people are unaware that the greatest miracle occurred far earlier. Tyler’s umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck at birth, according to Ester, and they nearly lost him. “So he is technically my little miracle baby,” she said. “He had a very rough first year of his life.”

Despite having nearly 28 years of experience working for an auto auction company, Ester admitted that raising her two children in Southern California on one paycheck hasn’t always been simple. Nevertheless, she prioritized providing her children with as many sporting experiences as she could.

BYU had a lengthy conversation about being all-in when they approached Allgeier about walking on and paying non-member tuition, which is greater than for church members. They knew Tyler would have to rely on grants and student loans and the entire family would incur significant debt.

“We knew it was going to be (costly) until he earned a scholarship, and I wanted to be sure Tyler understood that,” Ester said. She estimated that Tyler owes $20–25K in student loans from his first two years as a walk-on. As has been widely reported, Tyler Allgeier worked as a shopping cart collector in the local Walmart parking lot on University Parkway during his first summer in Provo, claiming to be trying to assist with as many expenses as possible.

His mother wasn’t in agreement with it. She appreciated his motivations and recognized that he needed to focus on football and schoolwork. “He kept thinking about how much money we were spending to keep him there and wanted to be as less of a burden on me as possible,” she said.

As a freshman, according to Allgeier, he didn’t have a car and didn’t want to rely on his teammates for help or transportation, so he frequently used Uber from his dorm room on campus to travel to work, at times paying almost as much for a ride as he would earn in a shift. “I just tried to make a little money so my mom didn’t have to send me as much,” he said. Allgeier got Robert’s Ford Ranger truck after his grandfather passed away. Nalonie is the driver now.

Speaking of luxurious vehicles, when and if Allgeier receives a substantial signing bonus, what will be his first significant acquisition? Ester claimed that since she knew her son, he wouldn’t purchase anything unusual. “The reason I say that is he is a very simple person,” she said. “He knows how we struggled as he grew up. … Tyler is not a very big spender. I honestly don’t think he is going to go on a shopping spree or anything like that.”

However, initially, Allgeier thought he would never play football.

A young Tyler Allgeier “hated” football

After that first face plant, the sport he had detested had been replaced by skateboarding, basketball, baseball, and soccer. His mother noted that Tyler’s favorite sport before starting high school was probably soccer. At the age of seven, he decided not to play tackle football since he detested it so much.

“His dad (who is estranged from the family but still stays in contact with Tyler) signed him up for football when he was 7, and he hated it,” Tyler Allgeier’s mother said. “He just didn’t like it, and wanted to spend his time doing something else.”

Tyler promised to give football another shot in the future, and Ester decided to let him forgo playing for a year. It was his finest sport, she added, she just had a sense. “He did it again, and he just fell in love with it,” she said. “When he started playing again, it was like he never skipped a beat. Those are two of my best memories of Tyler growing up, falling off that skateboard and not crying, and playing football again after taking a year off.”