David Pollack: The road to recovery

[oldschooler]

David Pollack: The road to recovery

A broken neck, a strong spirit

By CARROLL ROGERS

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 10/29/06

Cincinnati — David Pollack walks through the loading dock door of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital with his chin up.

It's held in place that way, with his head tilted slightly back, by a metal halo he wears to stabilize his C-6 vertebra. Pollack, 24, a former All-American football star at the University of Georgia, broke his neck six weeks ago making a tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals.

For the first time in his life, the supercharged defensive end is contained — both by a 3-pound titanium device that screws into his skull and the possibility he might not ever play football again.

Even so, Pollack's spirits seem to match his chin position as he bops down the hall, ready to cheer up kids he figures are far worse off than he is. One of the first patients he meets, Alex Heldman, 20, is in a wheelchair.

"I heard you make tackles," Heldman says.

"I made one too many," Pollack replies.

The staff and family gathered around laugh. Pollack knows how to get a laugh. It's part of the personality that shows through shoulder pads, a helmet and the anonymity of an 80,000-seat stadium. It comes in handy on days like this, when Pollack looks into the eyes of patients like Heldman, waiting to heal. It brings him face to face with his own uncertainty and, in one case, a girl who seems equally passionate about sports.

From her bed, Lauren Dooley, 15, hands Pollack a clipping of a photograph of the helicopter she rode to the hospital. She explains how she banged heads with another girl in PE class playing speedball, a combination of soccer, football and basketball.

"I have 362 days," she says.

"Until she can play soccer again," her mother finishes.

"I do, too!" Pollack says. "I have to wait a year, too."

Pollack has at least six weeks to wait to find out if his neck will require spinal fusion surgery. If so, Pollack's career is over. If not, he is still looking at six to nine months of rehabilitation.

Athletes visit hospitals all the time, bringing hope and preaching posivite thinking. They don't usually come wearing headgear and talking about a future outside of sports. Pollack could test out the full range of his possibilities on a girl who understands.

"That's one thing about this situation, you realize there are so many more important things," Pollack tells Lauren. "Sports aren't everything. Football is not everything. I might not ever be able to play football again. But I can walk. I can talk. Football is a game. Playing soccer is, too. This is life."

Discomfort, uncertainty

Pollack, one of the best and most beloved football players to come out of the University of Georgia, is learning to live in limbo these days, stuck between two moments.

On Sept. 17, when Pollack's helmet hit the shoulder pads of Cleveland running back Reuben Droughns, his arms went numb. Falling facemask first onto the turf with his arms useless, Pollack felt what it might be like to be paralyzed. "It was scary," he said of the loss of feeling, which dissipated by the time he was taken off the field on a stretcher.

Around Dec. 17, Pollack's doctor will begin to evaluate whether he can return to pro football, a game he dreamed of playing while growing up in Snellville.

Fans love Pollack because he played each game like it might be his last. Now — if he has — he's OK with it. Pollack refuses to feel sorry for himself, even if he has to find another use for all the energy that makes him such a dynamic football player.

The fighting spirit remains

Broken neck and all, Pollack is still lights out at "Arcade Hoops," the minibasketball game he has in the basement of his suburban Cincinnati home. He racked up 73 points just demonstrating. He was ready to spot takers 20 points and willing to go left-handed.

Pollack is under orders not to break a sweat. This is a 260-pound athlete who jumped over furniture to get around in his college apartment. But the fur lining on the halo harness can't get wet or he might get sores.

Pollack hates being cooped up, but he has found outlets for his competitiveness, like his Xbox.

His opponents online have no idea they're taking on a professional football player, and a pent-up one at that. The game system has headsets, which allow for trash talking, and Pollack is not afraid. His whoops can be heard all over the house.

"Stop being mean to a 12-year-old," jokes his wife, Lindsey.

Pollack plays his Madden game with the Atlanta Falcons — he likes a mobile quarterback. And on this day, he's playing against a kid who's using the Falcons, too. Pollack is beating him. The kid quits in midgame.

This is the closest Pollack can get to the action. When the Falcons play the Bengals today in Cincinnati, Pollack will have to watch from a luxury box.

The dream of being a dad

Lindsey Pollack has framed and hung Georgia jerseys, photographs and Pollack's awards throughout their finished basement. The centerpiece of the room Pollack jokingly calls the shrine room is the Lombardi trophy, which he won as the top lineman in college football.

Lindsey hasn't gotten to his Bengals stuff yet. Pollack, a first-round draft pick in 2005, was only two games into his second NFL season when he got hurt.

But Pollack doesn't dwell on that. He'd rather talk about what might change on the third floor of his house where there are three empty bedrooms. Pollack wants kids. How many?

"Four," he said.

He wants them sooner than Lindsey, 21, who is taking a full load at the University of Cincinnati toward an education degree she started at Georgia. They've already agreed on the name Nicholas for their first son. Their first daughter might be Haleigh, though there's been discussion about the spelling.

Lindsey wants to start a family after she graduates. Right now she has her hands full taking care of her husband.

She helps bathe Pollack, she washes his hair, and twice a day she cleans the halo's pin sites. It's painful for him because she's separating his skin from the screws, keeping it from scabbing over.

"Back off, Barbie!" is a favorite phrase of Pollack's when it comes time for that.

Pollack could see her coming with a bottle of peroxide solution and gave her a friendly trip. Lindsey got a little steamed and said she could have fallen. "Good, we could have matching halos," Pollack replied.

Every once in a while, the Pollacks do trip onto something poignant in conversation, like when they were asked about planning for children. "If he does go back to football, we'll plan around the season," Lindsey said.

"We're going to plan so she'll have it in training camp, so I can miss a couple days," Pollack interjected.

Luckier than many

Pollack was diagnosed with a fracture of his C-6 vertebral body, an injury that Bengals spine surgeon Anthony Guanciale said comes with neurological damage in more than half the cases. Pollack was lucky. The last of his numbness, in two fingers of his left hand, wore off two weeks ago.

"A C-6 fracture is a very serious injury," Dr. Guanciale said.

Guanciale said the day Pollack's halo comes off will be just the beginning of the process to evaluate whether he can play again. Guanciale said it might take months.

"The concern is how stable the area of injury will be," Guanciale said. "It's a concern with anyone who has that kind of injury, [much less] one who wants to play a sport like football. ... It's a complicated injury. And he doesn't need it to heal to drive his car or work in an office. He needs to have it heal well enough to play football, and as a linebacker, which is different than as a lineman, a quarterback or a punter."

Guanciale said a return to football is possible for Pollack, who moved from defensive end to linebacker when he got to the Bengals, but right now, he should feel lucky it's even a consideration.

Willing to let it all go

Pollack seemed to come to grips quickly with the scenario Guanciale laid out during his ambulance ride on Sept. 17. In the blink of an eye, things had gotten pretty simple.

"I'm sure I've thought about it before [Guanciale] said anything about not playing football again," Pollack said. "That would be my attitude if I got cut. 'Oh, well. It was great.' I want to be great. I want to make the Pro Bowl and get 10 sacks in a season and do all these different things, but if God takes that away from me, I still have my glory days at Georgia.

"It's never going to top those four years I had at Georgia regardless. Nothing will. That was the best four years of my life. You can't take that away. Not a lot of people get to play at this level. I know I got to."

Pollack has heard about Steve Smith, the Carolina Panthers wide receiver who injured his neck while at the University of Utah and came back.

Pollack also got a call from Bill Stanfill, the former Georgia defensive linemen in the 1960s and Pro Bowler for the Miami Dolphins who broke his neck in an exhibition game (against the Bengals, no less) and tried to come back.

Stanfill offered his support, Pollack said, and suggested Pollack take care of his health the right way. Stanfill, now 59, told Pollack about the pain and stiffness he feels in his neck.

These are things Pollack weighs. But when it comes time to decide whether to play football again, Pollack said his next move will be clear.

"If there's a chance that I could hurt myself worse and be in a wheelchair, not feel my arms and legs, break my neck again, then there's no chance [i'll play]," Pollack said. "Football is not that important."

Last fall, Pollack signed a five-year $10 million to $13 million contract depending on incentives, and $7.65 million of it was guaranteed. So he has financial security. The question will be, if football is out, what will he do to feed his competitive nature?

"Right now I get paid to play a kid's game," Pollack said. "How great is that? So I love it. I love every part about it. And if I'm doing it, I'm going to be the best. In my opinion, I'm going to work harder than everybody else. If God takes that away, though, there's somebody that I can compete with to be the best, whether it's in real estate or whatever. There's somebody out there who would be better than me obviously. So I have to go catch 'em."

God is bigger than the game

Pollack is getting signed up for online classes to finish his college degree. He's decided to change his major to religion.

Pollack became a Christian his senior year at Shiloh High School when he started reading a Bible friends gave him at his Georgia signing party.

"I don't know how people go through big-time trials in their life without God," Pollack said.

He didn't cry after he broke his neck and found out he might not play football again. But he cried the day he read the letter from Sam Carlotta, a Bengals fan from Kentucky who broke his neck 25 years ago in a diving accident. He was a quadriplegic for four months but eventually was able to walk again.

Carlotta is a Christian who felt inspired to talk and write letters to other spinal injury patients. "Over the last 15 years, I have gotten away from reaching out and truly feel that I have deviated from God's plan for me," he wrote. "But when I saw your injury, it made me realize that I should start again."

"If one soul is redirected toward God's will,' " Pollack said, "then it's worth breaking your neck."

Pollack takes pleasure in life's so-called simple things.

"He's always been like that," said former Georgia quarterback David Greene, now with the Seattle Seahawks. Greene grew up with Pollack in Snellville and roomed with him at Georgia. They remain close.

"He's not always out searching for something," Greene said.

Last year for Christmas, the Pollacks put up a 14-foot tree in their family room. Pollack stood on a stool, with Lindsey on his shoulders, to get the star to the top of the tree.

He won't be quite that acrobatic this Christmas, but getting the halo off will be a good start.

"I can't wait to turn my head, open my presents," Pollack said.

By then, what lies ahead in the New Year should be clearer.

http://www.ajc.com/uga/content/sports/stor...029pollack.html

Pictures of Pollack`s Recovery Effort

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/u...ackgraphic.html

[redsbengalsbucks]

It is good to see that he is moving forward with his life in a positive manner.

I hope to see him suited up and playing as a Bengal again, but if not I wish him nothing but good things in the future, whatever it brings.

[cincy9275]

i really hope and pray he will get back to 100% for his and his family's sake .

[Ox]

Yeah no doubt. It's times like those that you realze there's more to life than football.

[BlainThePain]

I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but I got a chuckle out of the opening of the article.