On Day 1 of rookie camp, I had a chance to speak with Chris Polk about his shoulder injury. Here’s what I wrote in my post-practice recap:
Chris Polk talked about his shoulder after practice. His shoulder, of course, caused him to go undrafted despite rushing for 2903 yards and 21 TDs his last two years at Washington. (It’s his left shoulder, by the way). He injured it as a sophomore and played with pain while rushing for the impressive numbers noted above. Polk said it does not affect his ability to hang onto to the football, nor does it affect his ability to pass block. He said the only time it can become an issue is if he extends it wide out to his side. As I’ve noted before, Polk was not impressive at the Senior Bowl in comparison to other scatty backs like Isaiah Pead of Cincinnati, nor did he stand out in OTAs and minicamp. However, he’s a banger. He runs hard, breaks tackles, and as he said after practice, he prefers to run over someone instead of around them. A more fair judgment will be made of Polk when they put on the pads.
The pads go on tomorrow, by the way. Anyway, Polk was nice enough to humor me, as he modeled his shoulder for me, noting what hurts and what doesn’t:
1) Cradling the football, real or invisible: No ouchies
2) Pass protection, or strangling people: No ouchies
Continued…
3) Going up to catch a high pass, or celebrating a teammate’s TD: No ouchies.
4) Leading with his shoulder on a tough run, or trying to pick up ladies at the bar: No ouchies
5) Extending wide for a pass reception, reaching back to stiff arm a defender in pursuit, or preparing for a big hug: Ouchies
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Quick note on Polk…I went to school with him at UW. He’s an awesome person. Very candid on the sidelines and known as a big jokester on the team. Those pictures don’t surprise me at all. I really hope he makes the team…All around great guy.
o wow haha, nice jimmy, thorough investigative reporting job here. When you get to albany you gotta do this with Terrell Thomas and Beatty.
[...] Bama has a couple of pieces worth checking out. First up, he wrote about RB Chris Polk. Jimmy wanted to find out about the shoulder injury that hurt Polk’s draft value and helped [...]
But did he give you that big hug?
No
WHY WASN’T THIS A SLIDESHOW?!?!
Seriously, +1 to the praising of Polk for doing this for you. Informative and entertaining.
I wonder if Polk would have humored you if he had known you were going to use the term “ouchies”.
Cut him now.
Dude just doesn’t look like a football player.
lmao AWESOME!
Whatever the award is for best photo-journalizing you just won it!
Fantastic!!
OK, now I’m officially rooting for Polk to make the team.
I really love this rookie class. A bunch of guys who are really easy to root for, I wish we could keep all of them.
Now that is journalizin’!
This is great. lol
Hahaha you’ve gotta be kidding me. You actually got him to strike all of those poses for you?! That’s phenomenal! Hahahah
Yeah I’d like to hear what Jimmy’s approach to Polk was. Smoove talker!
10+ years in sales
Classic.