Bernard Pollard of the Baltimore Ravens got in the way of New England Patriots running back Stevan Ridley, and one of the more scary helmet-to-helmet collisions occurred. Stevan Ridley lowered his head directly impacting Pollard’s and immediately Stevan’s body went limp and hit the ground. The ball also dropped out of his hands causing a fumble on the play which was recovered by the Ravens. Ridley was down on the turf for a few minutes following the hit.
Not surprisingly the Patriots announced shortly after that Stevan Ridley sustained a head injury and won’t be returning to the game.
Pollard has a history of knocking Patriots players out of games, and even ending some seasons. When Pollard was on the Kansas City Chiefs in 2008 he ended Tom Brady’s season with a torn ACL and MCL, and did the same to Wes Welker the next season when playing for Houston. Pollard was also responsible for Rob Gronkowski’s sprained ankle in the 2012 AFC Championship which kept Gronkowski from playing in the Super Bowl.
When Pollard was asked in 2012 about his history with injuring Patriots players, he responded by reiterating that it is just a coincidence:
“That’s not me, I don’t laugh at anything like that because that’s not my intentions. I’m not a malicious player. I look to play football hard, fast and physical. It just so happened a lot of the injuries came against the Patriots.”
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