Former NFL safety and NASCAR enthusiast Bernard Pollard (@Crushboy31) got to experience the playoffs from all angles during his nine-year professional football career — from a wide-eyed rookie with the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super Bowl championship with the Baltimore Ravens. So, as NASCAR gets ready to crown champions in all three of its national series this weekend at Phoenix Raceway, we sat down with Pollard to talk about what goes through an athlete‘s mind when playoff pressure reaches its peak.
The first time Pollard felt playoff pressure the year was 2006 and he was a rookie safety who played special teams. The Chiefs needed a win in the last game of the regular season against the Jacksonville Jaguars (along with some help) to get into the playoffs. Pollard‘s blocked punt and touchdown helped spark Kansas City to a 35-30 win. When the celebrations stopped and the realization that his first playoffs were upon him, Pollard said things felt different:
“The regular season is the regular season. When you get to that postseason, the practices are different, the meetings are different and obviously the atmosphere at the games is different because you understand if you lose it‘s over. For us, it was just so crazy. I was a rookie. I didn‘t understand.”
Unfortunately for Pollard and the Chiefs their stay in the playoffs was brief as they lost in their first game, 23-8 to Peyton Manning and the eventual Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts.
“I thought throughout the week we had good practices, but we just didn‘t match the intensity of the Indianapolis Colts. For me as a rookie, I saw the difference and what that looked like. The way that we were playing, the way that they were playing. It was just two totally different teams, two totally different energies. They went on and did some special things throughout the playoffs, and we obviously played that one game and went home. It was a true learning experience for me and definitely helped me later on in my career.”
Pollard spent two more years with the Chiefs and didn‘t make the playoffs in either of those seasons, and then he went to the Houston Texans for two seasons where he put up some of his best stats, including a career-high four interceptions in 2009, but again missed out on the playoffs. That hunger to return to the playoffs was strong, and when he became an unrestricted free agent, Pollard jumped at the chance to sign with the Baltimore Ravens, a team that was loaded on defense with All-Pro players such as linebacker Ray Lewis and nose tackle Haloti Ngata.
Joining the Ravens immediately put Pollard right in the middle of some high-pressure situations, including in the biggest games of the playoffs.
“I‘m sure you‘ve heard it said, pressure bursts pipes. Throughout the football season, there is tremendous pressure on athletes, coaches, the training staff. When you reach the playoffs, it‘s that much more intensified. It ramps up. So, for the playoffs, it‘s you understanding there are still 15-minute quarters, it‘s still a 60-minute game. The errors I can‘t make that I made in the regular season. It‘s those errors. That‘s the biggest thing. You want to play perfect football, but there‘s no such thing as perfect football. But you also got to remember the same pressures that are on you are on them. So, it‘s about who can make less mistakes. Can‘t be self-inflicted. Wanted to have as few of those as possible because the game means that much more.”
But despite their best efforts, the 2011 Ravens fell just short in Pollard‘s first season with them, losing a heartbreaker to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game, 23-20. Going home short of the goal, what was that like?
“It‘s heavy because you put so much work during the offseason into your craft and so much time with teammates and in the meeting room. When you‘re dealing with athletes, especially when fans are encountering athletes and when they can watch their sport together, for us athletes we see it differently. For me as a football player, I see film differently than a fan. Fans watch it from fan goggles. I‘m watching it because I was paid to dissect an offense, paid to dissect a player, understand down-and-distance and situational football.
“Same thing with racing, racers they see things differently. The feel of that car. Their mindset to understand when they‘re in a three-wide, when they‘re between that wall and an opponent. So, for me, it weighs on me because you put that time and that effort in.
“Understanding the way we lost in the playoffs, a dropped pass, and a missed field goal. A lot of guys let their frustrations out. For Billy Cundiff, our kicker who missed, it was just one of those things. We said we‘d be back there, and we weren‘t going to lose like that again.”
In 2012, the Ravens didn‘t have as good of a record as the 2011 squad and didn‘t earn a first-round bye, but they fought their way through the playoffs from the wild-card round and were faced with a familiar foe, the Patriots, in the AFC championship game. This time the Ravens won 28-13 and Pollard‘s hit on running back Stevan Ridley caused a fourth-quarter fumble that all but sealed the trip to the Super Bowl.
Now that his first Super Bowl was upon him, what was the pressure like knowing this was the biggest game he might ever play?
“When you‘re playing for a championship, it is out of this world. It‘s still something you‘ve been doing for 17 weeks, 18 weeks with a bye. Even for race car drivers you‘ve been doing it all year long, just keep doing the same thing but understanding that your mistake means that much more in this circumstance. So, getting tight makes no sense because it‘s something you‘ve been doing all along.”
The Ravens met their goal this time, defeating the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 to win the Super Bowl. Having been at the pinnacle of the sport, is there any advice for the drivers heading into their championship races this weekend?
“It‘s crazy for me with racing, it‘s not just only the drivers, they have their skillset and understanding of how to drive the vehicle, but they‘re relying on the pit crew to get them in and out of pit road. They‘re relying also on the (crew chief) and (spotter) from their headset to know where they‘re at and their surroundings on the track. It‘s kind of the same with football, but at the same time, I control my movement and my area. Racers, it‘s so different, you move somewhere else, someone could be there, you go to move back down, and somebody could be there. I couldn‘t imagine myself being in their shoes.
“But for these drivers that are competing and driving for that championship, I say stay true to who you are. We all understand as I talked about, the error, it‘s bigger in these situations. We get that. I want the drivers to understand, don‘t change. Go drive and drive your butt off. You got a skillset that nobody else has. Yes, the other drivers on the track got the same skillset but understand this means something to you. And just embrace the moment. Embrace it. Don‘t panic. Don‘t flinch. You keep pounding away. Because we don‘t know what can happen. Nobody knows what can happen, nobody knows who‘s going to win. But just go drive. And drive fast and skilled.”
