Bernard Pollard

Bernard Karmell Pollard (born December 23, 1984) is an American football safety for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft. He has also played for the Houston Texans. Pollard played college football at Purdue University. He is known for several tackles resulting in serious injuries to the New England Patriots, including Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, and Stevan Ridley giving him the nickname 'Patriot Killer'.

Early years
Pollard attended South Side High School and was a letterman in football, basketball and track & field. In football, as a senior, he was selected as The News-Sentinel Area Player of the Year, and was a first team All-State honoree.

College career
Pollard played three years at Purdue University. As a Freshman, he was named a First Team Freshman All-American by Collegefootballnews.com, a second team by The Sporting News and was selected to the Big Ten All-Freshman team by The Sporting News in 2003. He compiled 66 tackles (42 solo), one pass break-up and one fumble recovery.

In 2004, he was named as a second team All-Big Ten by coaches and honorable mention by the media. He led the team with 96 tackles (58 solo), 2 forced fumbles, 1 sack, five pass break-ups and one interception He also blocked four kicks (two punts, one extra point and one field goal).

Pollard's final year at Purdue was marred by altercations with coaches, the height of which occurred in the beginning of the season when he asked head coach Joe Tiller to "Give me my papers", indicating the preference to transfer. Tiller did not grant the transfer request, but the incident proved a precursor to a tumultuous final year. Despite this Pollard still compiled 92 tackles (64 solo), 3 interceptions, 3 pass break-ups, 1 fumble recovery and 1 blocked punt. His 5 blocked punts are a Purdue record.

Pollard was dubbed "The Bonecrusher" while at Purdue for his hard hits and tackles.

Kansas City Chiefs
Pollard was selected in the second round, 54th overall of the 2006 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. Pollard played the majority of his rookie season on special teams and ended the year with 10 tackles, 1 pass break-up, 1 forced fumble and 3 blocked punts, one against Arizona, one against San Diego, and one against Jacksonville (recovered in the end zone for a touchdown). Pollard was a starter in the 2007 NFL season. Those three blocked punts rank second in Chiefs history, trailing only Chiefs Hall of Fame CB Albert Lewis (1983–1993) who recorded 10.

Pollard's blocked punt against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he blocked a Chris Hanson punt and recovered for a touchdown, he helped propel the Kansas City Chiefs to a 35-30 win and an eventual playoff berth. He earned AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

He also blocked a punt against the Denver Broncos, in week ten of the 2007 season, that went out of the end zone for a safety. The Chiefs eventually lost, 27 to 11. In the 2007 season, he intercepted his first NFL pass off Carson Palmer against the Cincinnati Bengals on October 14. Pollard also intercepted Jon Kitna in the game against Detroit Lions on December 23.

On September 7, 2008, Pollard was involved in a play that ended with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady being taken off the field with a knee injury and not returning for the rest of the game. It was later revealed that Pollard's hit on Brady had ended the quarterback's season. Pollard later apologized for the hit, saying, "It was really an accident, I can't change what happened. I can't do anything but pray for him and hope he has a speedy recovery." However, since then, he has been involved in three cases where Patriots suffered major injuries: Wes Welker's torn ACL in the 2009 season finale (which occurred when Pollard lunged at Welker and the receiver's leg buckled when he tried to move it out of Pollard's flight path), Rob Gronkowski's sprained ankle in the 2012 playoffs (which took place when Pollard was trying to tackle the tight end, and swung himself into Gronkowski's leg as he finally brought him down) and the helmet-to-helmet hit on Stevan Ridley in the 2013 playoffs (knocking Ridley unconscious). The Brady hit, along with other cases where quarterbacks had suffered serious injuries on similar helmet-to-knee hits, resulted in a rules change in the NFL beginning with the 2009 season: a defensive player on the ground may no longer lunge or dive at the quarterback's lower legs.

Pollard was Kansas City’s leading tackler with a career-high 98 tackles in 2008 (84 solo) with one for loss, an interception, four passes defensed, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries.

On September 5, 2009 the Chiefs released Pollard.

Houston Texans
Pollard signed with the Houston Texans on September 24, 2009. In his first year with Houston, Pollard had a career year, racking up 102 tackles (81 solo), 1.5 sacks, 4 interceptions, as well as two defensive touchdowns. He had 111 tackles and four forced fumbles the next year.

Baltimore Ravens
On August 3, 2011, Pollard signed a two-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens. While playing on the Ravens defense in 2011, Pollard recorded 75 tackles, two sacks, three forced fumbles, and an interception. On May 8, 2012, the Ravens signed Pollard to a three-year contract extension. On October 26, Pollard was fined $7,875 for an unnecessary roughness penalty in Week 7 against the Houston Texans.

Pollard proved to be more effective and successful for the following season, recording 98 tackles, two sacks and an interception in 13 starts. Despite missing the last three weeks due to a chest injury sustained against the Washington Redskins, Pollard ended the regular season as the team's leading tackler. He would return for the post-season, winning his first Super Bowl ring with the team. He revealed after the season that he had been playing with a rib injury the whole season, as he sustained the injury during the Week 2 meeting against the Philadelphia Eagles.

In an interview with CBSSports.com's Clark Judge, Pollard claimed that unless significant changes are made, the NFL will cease to exist in 30 years. He said that while the league was making great strides toward making the game safer, players were becoming so big and so strong that concussions and other serious injuries would still continue to escalate. Eventually, Pollard said, "there's going to come a point where fans are going to get fed up with it" and stop watching.

Personal
Pollard is married to his wife Meghan with a son Jaylen and daughter Alonna. He established the "Pollard’s Helping Hands Foundation", focusing on feeding the hungry urban children. He also served as a spokesperson for the annual "Hooked on Books" campaign, sponsored by the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri. He was also on hard knocks with the Kansas City Chiefs teaching his teammates how to get down.