The defending National Football League (NFL) champions New England Patriots signed punter Ryan Allen to a three-year extension pact days after signing placekicker Stephen Gostkowski to a long-term deal.
Allen's agent Sean Stellato confirmed the signing last Saturday according to the Boston Herald.
The 25-year-old football player is entering his third NFL season after joining the Patriots undrafted from Louisiana Tech in 2013.
Allen played in 32 regular season games for the Patriots in the past two seasons and has a total of 172 punts with a career average of 46.1 yards per punt (46.4 last season) and a 39.9 net average.
He also limited his touchbacks to only six in the 2014 season compared to his rookie year where he had 12.
The deal will let the young punter stay with the Patriots until the 2018 season, preventing him from being a free agent following the 2015 season, and be a possible unrestricted free agent after 2016, ESPN reported.
In other news, Sports Illustrated recently compiled what the NFL fans hate about the league and the most hated team is the Patriots.
Despite being contenders year in and year out, the Spygate and recently Deflategate controversies are not giving the Pats much love from NFL fans.
Last season New England was hailed as the American Football Conference (AFC) champions after marching past the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 allegedly using deflated footballs to have a better grip and control during the game.
The NFL later conducted an investigation working with Ted Wells and handed the Super Bowl XLIX victors a number of sanctions, including taking away of two future draft picks in 2016 and 2017, a four-game suspension to star quarterback Tom Brady for violating the NFL's policy regarding the integrity of the game, and a $1 million fine, which is the biggest team fine in the league's history.
The NFL Players Association and Brady already appealed the four-game suspension handed by the NFL and a ruling is yet to be decided.
