David Pollack article in Enquirer

[WVRed]

Figured id give this its own thread rather than detract from the NFL thread.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...504250353/1066

Pollack's motor always running
He's just 'crazy under control'

By Mark Curnutte
Enquirer staff writer

David Pollack, the Bengals' latest first-round draft pick, says he's crazy but with an asterisk.

"Crazy under control," he said Sunday, during his first meeting with the Cincinnati sports media. "I don't like roller coasters and stuff like that. I don't like heights that much. But as far as things I can control, running around and things like that, yeah, it's fun."

On the ground, especially on the field, Pollack is all energy, all the time. Midway through his senior season, he was laying out in an attempt to block a punt. It was a practice.

He's pretty much running at high speed off the field, too.

He drinks a gallon and a half of water a day.

"Good for the muscles," he said.

He's always in the bathroom.

In fact, today is the one-year anniversary, Pollack said, of a serious fall suffered when he took a wrong turn on the way to a bathroom. He was on a friend's houseboat. He fell down a flight of stairs and cut his head open when he smashed into a glass sculpture.

"Thirty-two stitches," said Pollack, removing his new orange Bengals cap Sunday.

"I love the colors, man," the college defensive end said of the team's orange-and-black look. He'll play linebacker as a pro.

Bengals orange is a good orange - mind you - a much nicer shade than the orange worn by Georgia's Southeastern Conference rivals Tennessee and Auburn.

"I love orange," he said, "bright orange. That's ugly orange, that's the faded, washed-out orange. This is bright orange. I like that."

He's opinionated, but polite and honest, referring to each reporter peppering him with questions Sunday as "sir.'

But Pollack is no party animal: no, sir.

"I won't be out drinking," he said.

Pollack has his bachelor's degree in history. He is engaged to be married May 21 to Lindsey Hopkins, a University of Georgia undergraduate who will move to the Cincinnati area to continue her education.

Pollack told ESPN the Magazine that he is still a virgin and is waiting to be married. He turned down a photo shoot to be part of Playboy Magazine's preseason All-America team.

"I speak at churches, and I try to set a good example for kids about living right," he said. "It's just not for me."

His extensive energy will be focused on football. The Bengals forecast Pollack as an outside linebacker, a pass rush specialist whose 36 career college sacks in the tough SEC suggest he could help apply more pressure to opposing NFL quarterbacks.

He plans to play right away.

"I'll be honest," Pollack said Sunday morning, "I didn't come here to sit the bench. I'll go crazy if I have to sit on the bench."

But he's obedient. He'll do what coaches want. What about special teams? OK, deal.

"My parents spanked the crud out of me when I needed to be spanked," he said.

Everything matters. He'll watch his diet - more chicken - in order to drop from 265 pounds to the 250 pounds he would like to play at. He doesn't eat fast food or fried foods.

He wore a white plastic bracelet on his thick right wrist. It read "Team."

He's excited to be a Bengal. He's excited that former Georgia teammate linebacker Odell Thurman is now also a Bengal.

Pollack will be back Thursday for the start Friday of the rookie mini-camp.

It's Pollack's destiny, he said, to be in Cincinnati.

"God doesn't make mistakes," he said. "I'm supposed to be here."