Bernard Pollard is already a villain throughout New England, but Patriots fans' hatred toward the Ravens safety may have just increased a little bit more.
Pollard appeared on KILT in Houston on Tuesday, and judging by his comments, he might dislike the Patriots as much as New England fans dislike him.
When asked about his opinion on the upcoming Super Bowl clash between the Patriots and Giants, Pollard responded, "My opinion? I really hope the Giants -– I just hope they just put a thrashing on the Patriots. I really do."
Pollard then spoke glowingly of the New York defense, stressing that the G-Men feature a relentless front four, as well as a solid secondary and linebacking corps.
"The dinking and the dunking man? It's just not going to happen," Pollard said. "They are going to have to take shots down the field. I think the Giants watch our film and watch the film of the season. They gotta take away their big time players. [Rob] Gronkowski I think he is coming off that ankle, so I don't know if he will be 100 percent."
It's interesting that Pollard brings up Gronkowski, because it was him that landed awkwardly on the New England tight end's ankle during Sunday's AFC Championship, briefly knocking Gronkowski out of the game. Gronkowski, however, is expected to play in the Super Bowl despite how gruesome the injury appeared at first.
This marks the third time that Pollard has been linked to an injury suffered by a high-profile Patriot. He took out Tom Brady's ACL in the 2008 season opener while playing for the Chiefs, which ended the quarterback's season. He was also the nearest opposing player — as a member of the Texans — when Wes Welker tore his ACL a season later.
Radio hosts Josh Innes and Rich Lord asked Pollard about his growing reputation as a "Patriots Killer."
"Oh man that is fine and dandy," the Ravens safety said. "Like I said to a lot of people, it is part of the game and this is what happens. If you don't like it? So what. I am going to go out there and I am going to play me."
Pollard also weighed in on Billy Cundiff's missed field-goal attempt near the end of regulation on Sunday, and recent reports that the Baltimore kicker was distracted during the waning moments of the game.
"Well you know what, actually I heard that they were trying to find [Cundiff]," Pollard said. "Now is any of it true? I have no clue. Some people were saying he was confused because the Jumbotron said third down, which I looked and it did say third down and one, and that actually happened a couple of times in the game where the chains were saying third down and it was first and 10.
"I don't know if they did it on purpose. I don't know what they were doing, but to sit here and speak on his behalf for it, to blame him for rushing out there and try to get off the kick? Well first of all, we can't blame the player. We had a timeout. It sucks. You wish –- like I said — you wish you could turn back the heads of time, but you can't."
While Pollard stopped short of blaming Cundiff for the Ravens' loss, he did say that if the game went to overtime, Baltimore would be preparing for a date with the Giants in less than two weeks.
"I believe our team knew…we knew if this thing got to overtime…we knew we were going to the Super Bowl," Pollard said.
