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Pollack to Retire


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[quote name='Jason' post='655233' date='Apr 23 2008, 05:15 AM']I think he'll always have that injury in the back of his mind, and it could make him hesitant. And a hesitant football player is more likely to get injured.

I'm a little saddened, but wish him the best.

That was a tough draft to absorb.

1 David Pollack LB Georgia 17 [color="#FF0000"][b]Retired[/b][/color]
2 Odell Thurman LB Georgia 48 [color="#FF0000"][b]suspended 2 years[/b][/color]
3 Chris Henry WR West Virginia 83 [color="#FF0000"][b]cut[/b][/color]
4 Eric Ghiaciuc C Central Michigan 119
5 Adam Kieft T Central Michigan 153 [color="#FF0000"][b]not re-signed, never played[/b][/color]
6 Tab Perry WR UCLA 190 [color="#FF0000"][b]2 years injured, and now gone[/b][/color]
7 Jonathan Fanene DE Utah 233

[b]That draft should have made this team. Instead, I think it broke it.[/b][/quote]
so true... give me those guys here and healthy. and look the F out. but wow, the roster looks depleted without them. (Kieft aside)
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1 David Pollack LB Georgia 17 Retired
2 Odell Thurman LB Georgia 48 suspended 2 years
3 Chris Henry WR West Virginia 83 cut
4 Eric Ghiaciuc C Central Michigan 119 [b]sucks[/b]
5 Adam Kieft T Central Michigan 153 not re-signed, never played
6 Tab Perry WR UCLA 190 2 years injured, and now gone
7 Jonathan Fanene DE Utah 233 [b]always injured[/b]
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[quote name='WhoDeyThink' post='655389' date='Apr 22 2008, 07:09 PM']...So many people gave me shit for knowing he would never play again...[/quote]


...and so many people gave Rick shit for a gut feeling that Pollack [b]would[/b] play again.





Bottom line: ...so many people give shit to just about anyone for just about any reason. -_-

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[quote name='Cricket' post='655405' date='Apr 22 2008, 07:37 PM']...and so many people gave Rick shit for a gut feeling that Pollack [b]would[/b] play again.





Bottom line: ...so many people give shit to just about anyone for just about any reason. -_-[/quote]
I'm going to give you shit for saying that

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[quote]With Johnson talking retirement if the Bengals don't trade him, Lewis said, "He's a man of his word. He says he's not going to play, so don't play."[/quote]

Not to hijack this thread but I love this comment from Marvin. He's throwing it in Chad's face and daring him not to play. Looks like they're serious. Go, Marvin, Go!!!
MULLY

I pretty much figured Pollack was finished. He made the right decision.
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[quote name='WhoDeyThink' post='655389' date='Apr 22 2008, 06:09 PM']I'm happy for Pollack. I'd hate to see him risk worse injury.

So many people gave me shit for knowing he would never play again...[/quote]


you didn't know shit. You made a grand prediction that had a 50/50 chance of being right. btw, what happened to your vow to not come back and say "I told you so", which is basically what you just did?
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[quote name='Bengals1181' post='655420' date='Apr 22 2008, 07:59 PM']you didn't know shit. You made a grand prediction that had a 50/50 chance of being right. btw, what happened to your vow to not come back and say "I told you so", which is basically what you just did?[/quote]
I never said those 4 words, nor will I.
I made a prediction that was 98% a solid gold LOCK. You must have forgot that David BROKE HIS NECK. His neck my friend. Neck not an arm or leg or rib, but a neck. Anyone who thought he would suite up was delusional.
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[quote][size=5][b]Pollack's tough decision [/b][/size]
By GEOFF HOBSON
April 23, 2008

Willie Anderson caught himself thinking Tuesday about that day he watched David Pollack and the Bengals take batting practice before the Reds game at Great American Ball Park a few years ago.

"He was one of the only guys to hit it out of the park a couple of times," Anderson said. "He was just natural with it. That's kind of how he does everything. The guy's just successful at whatever he does and I know he will be after football."

The cruelty of the game never allowed Pollack to get the chance to become the big hitter on the Bengals defense the club envisioned when it took him in the first round in the 2005 NFL Draft. On Tuesday, head coach Marvin Lewis revealed Pollack has told him he's leaning to retirement, a year and a half after he broke his neck in just his 16th NFL game.

Add him to that long list of Bengals what-ifs after the collision with Browns running back Reuben Droughns on the second play of the second game of his second season."

"It's sad, but I know David Pollack isn't going to be sad," Anderson said. "He's the kind of guy that is going to be successful in anything he does. It's a loss for his teammates because everybody liked his energy and enthusiasm. He never changed from college."

The Bengals drafted Pollack with the 17th pick as much for character as for his All-American career at Georgia. Lewis was so convinced of Pollack's enormous athleticism and work ethic that he never batted an eye in changing him from defensive end to strongside linebacker.

The day they drafted him, one Bengals insider suggested that Pollack's leadership would make him a Boomer Esiason-type for a defense desperately seeking swagger.

"He's a young guy, but he's a guy that the other kids looked to," said Anderson, who lives in Pollack's hometown of Atlanta. "I had heard about him before the Bengals drafted him. They love him down here. The Georgia Bulldog faithful love him. He still goes and talks to the team. He's a guy that can say to a young player, 'You sure you want to do that?' He had that about him."

The talent and commitment looked to be overcoming the obstacles on Sept. 17, 2006. The position switch had been complicated by a three-week holdout to begin his career. Plus, he had nagging injuries in the middle of that rookie year. But late in the year, in what amounted to the AFC North title game, Pollack sacked Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger at the Pittsburgh 10 to seal it.

Then in the Wild Card game a month later, Pollack became the first Bengals rookie to record a playoff sack and led the team with 10 tackles.


Doctors tend to Pollack following his neck injury on Sept. 17, 2006. (Bengals photo)
But the broken neck before a hushed crowd at Paul Brown Stadium couldn't be overcome. He suffered no paralysis, but he was wheeled from the field in a stretcher and his head was immobilized in a halo brace for nearly three months.

Pollack made it clear right from the start that he would not risk being able to walk because of another injury.

He fought it. He thought moving back to defensive end would cut down on the collisions and risk. He worked rigorously in a Cincinnati gym this winter, repeating his offseason getting ready for the NFL scouting combine while helping a crop of current invitees.

Pollack had posed the question to his doctors. Would you tell your son he could play? Lewis indicated Tuesday that while Pollack had been cleared, he was not comfortable enough with medical issues to continue playing in what Lewis called "a tough, tough" decision.

So tough that those close to Pollack say he's not ready to talk about the decision. But the reaction of his former linebackers coach in Cincinnati, Ricky Hunley, was typical.

"Yeah, it's sad. He had a lot of promise and he was just starting to get used to playing linebacker," Hunley said. "But not being able to hold your kids would be a whole lot sadder."

Pollack's wife, Lindsey, is expecting the couple's first child in August, and he turns just 26 in June with a plethora of broadcasting and coaching community opportunities. A devout and active Christian, Pollack also has varied community options. He already has a year of helping out on SEC Game of the Week broadcasts in which he supplied studio analysis.

Clif Marshal first met Pollack as an assistant strength coach in the Bengals weight room. As the current director at Ignition Performance in Mason, Ohio, Marshall invited Pollack to work out this winter with the players Marshall prepared for the scouting combine and watched him match his record-setting combine performances.

"Just so impressive; he's in such good shape," Marshall said. "But lifting a 225-pound bar and running through cones is a lot different than putting on shoulder pads. The one thing is he's got so much going for him off the field. I really think he's got a bright future as a coach.

"You saw that in here. With his personality, he walks into a room with 15 guys and he's got immediate credibility. He's a player. He did it, and that comes across."

[b]With Pollack's impending retirement, the Bengals figure to absorb about $1.3 million in their '08 salary cap, which represents the proration of Pollack's bonuses. He'll end up making about $6-7 million. [/b]

[b]Pollack's retirement ranks high on a list of Great Bengals What Ifs? [/b]

Quarterback Greg Cook's career ending arm injury after winning AFL Rookie of the Year, 1970

Tiger Johnson replacing Paul Brown as head coach instead of Bill Walsh, 1976

Quarterback Ken Anderson breaking his hand on a helmet in the last preseason game, 1978

Running back Pete Johnson getting stopped on fourth-and-one in Super Bowl XVI, 1982

Cornerback Lewis Billups dropping an interception on the 49ers' last and winning touchdown drive in Super Bowl XXIII, 1989

Running back Ickey Woods tearing his anterior cruciate ligament on Sept. 17 in the second game of the season, 1989

Head coach Sam Wyche's firing/resignation?, 1991

Ki-Jana Carter, a Penn State running back tabbed as the NFL Draft's overall No. 1 draft pick, tears his anterior cruciate ligament on his third pro carry in a preseason game, 1995

The Bengals decline the Saints trade offer for virtually the entire New Orleans draft and take Oregon quarterback Akili Smith with the third pick, 1999

Quarterback Carson Palmer tears his anterior cruciate ligament while throwing a 66-yard completion on his first pass of the Wild Card game against the Steelers, 2006

Linebacker David Pollack, Cincinnati's No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft, suffers a broken neck on the second play of the game in the second game of his second season, 2006[/quote]



[url="http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=6738"]http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=6738[/url]
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[quote][size=5][b]Pollack's decision to retire not surprising to training partner [/b][/size]
By Josh Katzowitz

Contributing Writer

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

CINCINNATI — Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said Tuesday that former University of Georgia star David Pollack planned to retire, but to Haruki Nakamura, the revelation was not a surprise.

Nakamura, a former University of Cincinnati safety, had trained with Pollack for the past few months in preparation for this weekend's NFL Draft, and as Pollack began to look thinner and thinner, Nakamura sensed his professional career with the Bengals was over.

Even as Pollack weighed his options — "He went back and forth," Nakamura said — and told reporters he hadn't made up his mind, Nakamura deciphered a different story.

On Tuesday, April 22, Lewis revealed that Pollack — who suffered a fractured vertebrae in his neck during the 2006 season — probably wouldn't play and that "I believe where he's headed is retirement."

"I think he's not completely comfortable with where he is medically," Lewis said. "Although he has been given an opportunity and released to play football, I think there's a lot to this guy. We know the quality of the person. He has such a bright future no matter what he chooses to do. We're proceeding in the fashion that he's not going to be part of this football team. He spoke to me well over a week ago and that's where things are headed. It's been a tough, tough decision for he and his family."

Pollack did not return a text message, and his agent, Ken Kremer, did not return two phone messages.

A three-time All American defensive end for the Bulldogs, Pollack was Cincinnati's first-round draft pick (17th overall) in 2005.

After a lengthy holdout and a switch to linebacker at the beginning of his rookie season, Pollack soon grew into his role, eventually earning a starting spot and making a career-high 10 tackles in the Bengals playoff loss to Pittsburgh.

He finished the season with 35 total tackles and recorded 4 1/2 sacks in 14 games.

But on Sept. 17, 2006, the second game of the season, he collided with Browns running back Rueben Droughns, and suffered a fracture of the C6 vertebrae. Though he avoided paralysis, he wore a neck immobilization device until he underwent surgery in January 2007.

He's spent the last 16 months trying to rehabilitate himself into football shape. Apparently, he felt he couldn't get there.

"The good thing," Lewis said, "is he's recovered from this where he's going to have an outstanding life."

Even though doctors cleared him to resume football activities, Pollack apparently decided not to risk his future. It means Pollack — who has talked about returning to UGA and has worked on TV with CBS during college football season — could come home.

Lewis also mentioned that Pollack, if he chooses, could turn to coaching.

"I know he wants to stay close to the game," Lewis said.

Already, he's gotten a taste of that, working with Nakamura and other potential NFL draft picks at Ignition Athletics Performance group in Mason.

He continued showing his support for the University of Cincinnati players in March when a much-thinner version of Pollack arrived on the Nippert Stadium turf to cheer on his new friends as the Bearcats worked out for NFL scouts during the school's pro day.

Although he declined that day to talk on the record about his decision-making process, he seemed content with his life.

"Even if I can't play football again, I feel blessed that I've been able to play a kids' game this long," Pollack said in February. "The experiences along the way have made me a better person, a stronger person. You learn a lot about life and who really cares about you when things like this happen."

Nakamura, for one, was impressed by the impact Pollack made.

"He's probably one of the best people I've ever been associated with," Nakamura said. "He's so happy all the time. He brings energy to training. When he walked in, he'd light up the room.

"He knows how to relate with players. He has a good understanding. Those are keys to being a good coach. Some coaches have a hard relationship with their players where they can't push other players. He can get guys going and really push guys."

Nakamura — who said Pollack was about 25 pounds lighter than his playing weight — also thinks Pollack is making the correct call. He sensed that months ago, and he feels the same way today.

"For him, that's a risky situation," Nakamura said. "It's unbelievable. For him to be walking is a miracle in itself. For him to walk around and enjoy life, you have to be blessed. I think he made the right decision."


[i]Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writer Carroll Rogers contributed to this report.[/i][/quote]
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[quote name='oldschooler' post='655655' date='Apr 23 2008, 09:23 AM'][url="http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=6738"]http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=6738[/url]

...Pollack's retirement ranks high on a list of Great Bengals What Ifs?

Cornerback Lewis Billups dropping an interception on the 49ers' last and winning touchdown drive in Super Bowl XXIII, 1989[/quote]


That dropped ball was [b]not[/b] on the 49ers' "last and winning touchdown drive."


Edit: It was actually the 2nd play of the 4th quarter.


[quote]Fourth Quarter

SF 46 1–10 Montana 40 pass to Craig deep right (Billups).

CIN 14 1–10 Montana pass to Taylor [b]almost intercepted (Billups)[/b] incomplete.[/quote]

[url="http://www.sportspool.com/football/super_bowl/Superbowl_XXIII_drivechart.php"]http://www.sportspool.com/football/super_b..._drivechart.php[/url]


[b]2nd edit: Apparently someone tipped off Hobson, as his article now reads:[/b]

"Cornerback Lewis Billups dropping an interception that allowed the 49ers to keep alive a fourth-quarter touchdown drive in Super Bowl XXIII, 1989"

[The 49ers scored on the next play to tie the game at 13.]
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  • 2 weeks later...
[quote]Pollack's foundation is barely off the ground in his home state of Georgia, although it will be modeled after the Empower Foundation he started to help youth in Cincinnati after the Bengals selected him in the first round of the 2005 NFL draft.

"We just got it open within the last couple months, maybe within the past month," said Pollack, [b]who plans to move back to the Athens area in the future after a 2006 neck injury recently forced him to retire from football.[/b] "Basically we're taking the concepts of what we did in Ohio and we're gonna help at-risk kids with education."

The broken neck Pollack suffered in the second game of the 2006 season also gave rise to another charitable effort he has in the works, "David's Angels."

Pollack wore a halo to support his head and neck for three months after his injury -- a life-changing experience in more ways than the obvious physical effects. He wants to help people facing similar circumstances.

"It's a trying time. You learn a lot about yourself. It's a really boring time, sometimes at times," Pollack said. "So we're gonna (help) people that have had injuries and really help them to provide entertainment for them and help them to get people to talk to and stuff like that."

The addition of Pollack and his fellow ex-Bulldogs helped the golf tournament grow exponentially from the first year. Brown expects that trend to only continue. Which means even more young people will benefit.[/quote]



[url="http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/sports/story/314886.html"]http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/sports/story/314886.html[/url]
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[quote name='oldschooler' post='663335' date='May 6 2008, 08:52 AM'][url="http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/sports/story/314886.html"]http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/sports/story/314886.html[/url][/quote]

Why is he holding back from making an official announcement?
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[quote name='Jeb' post='663337' date='May 6 2008, 10:02 AM']Why is he holding back from making an official announcement?[/quote]


I'm not really sure of the mechanism within the NFL regarding retirements due to injury and the effect on the salary cap.
[Perhaps Sparky could shed some more light on "injury retirements".]


I think the team could ask for some signing bonus money to be refunded (which would increase the 2009 salary cap), but I've heard that the team doesn't want to ask for money from David.

[b]If this is viewed like a "normal" cut of a player[/b], it could be that they are waiting until June first to spread the cap hit into 2009.

From Phatcat's salary cap page, I see the team's options as:

[b]A - Place Pollack on IR[/b]: The team would owe Pollack an additional $860,000 (2008 salary). 2008 cap hit of $2,175,880; 2009 cap hit of $1,315,880.

[b]B - Cut Pollack now[/b]: 2008 cap hit of $2,631,760 (remaining amortization of signing bonus); NO 2009 cap hit. [The 2008 cap hit is $455,880 more than if they IRed him; but the 2009 cap hit would be $1,315,880 less.]

[b]C - Cut Pollack after June 1st[/b]: 2008 cap hit of $1,315,880; 2009 cap hit of $1,315,880.

The team is probably waiting to see how things play out (negotiations with Andrews, TJ; injuries; etc.) before deciding which option would work out best for the team. IMO, it's between B & C.

Again, these options consider it as a "normal" cut of a player...and, as we all know, this would not be a "normal" cut; These options also assume that the team is not going to ask for repayment of any of his signing bonus.
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[quote name='Cricket' post='663354' date='May 6 2008, 09:59 AM']I'm not really sure of the mechanism within the NFL regarding retirements due to injury and the effect on the salary cap.
[Perhaps Sparky could shed some more light on "injury retirements".]


I think the team could ask for some signing bonus money to be refunded (which would increase the 2009 salary cap), but I've heard that the team doesn't want to ask for money from David.

[b]If this is viewed like a "normal" cut of a player[/b], it could be that they are waiting until June first to spread the cap hit into 2009.

From Phatcat's salary cap page, I see the team's options as:

[b]A - Place Pollack on IR[/b]: The team would owe Pollack an additional $860,000 (2008 salary). 2008 cap hit of $2,175,880; 2009 cap hit of $1,315,880.

[b]B - Cut Pollack now[/b]: 2008 cap hit of $2,631,760 (remaining amortization of signing bonus); NO 2009 cap hit. [The 2008 cap hit is $455,880 more than if they IRed him; but the 2009 cap hit would be $1,315,880 less.]

[b]C - Cut Pollack after June 1st[/b]: 2008 cap hit of $1,315,880; 2009 cap hit of $1,315,880.

The team is probably waiting to see how things play out (negotiations with Andrews, TJ; injuries; etc.) before deciding which option would work out best for the team. IMO, it's between B & C.

Again, these options consider it as a "normal" cut of a player...and, as we all know, this would not be a "normal" cut; These options also assume that the team is not going to ask for repayment of any of his signing bonus.[/quote]

Cricket, you've got it right. Pollack has been cleared medically to resume playing so he's not entitled to an injury settlement. The team can't make him retire, it's up to him to file the retirement papers with the league. When he does retire, it would be the same as if he was cut, except the team could try to recover some of his prorated signing bonus. Normally teams don't do that and the Bengals have indicated they won't do it in this case.
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