Former Super Bowl champion to Lamar Jackson: 'The Ravens played you'
While the Baltimore Ravens and quarterback Lamar Jackson continue their game of “who will blink first,” Jackson won’t be getting any sympathy from one of his former teammates.
Ex-Ravens defensive back Bernard Pollard, who won a Super Bowl with the team in 2012, recently told NFL writer Kyle Odegard of Compare.bet that he offered Jackson some advice about his ongoing contract talks—counsel that Jackson seemingly ignored.
“I can’t sympathize with Lamar because I gave him advice,” Pollard said. “I told him, ‘Do not step on that football field.’ Lamar said, out of his mouth: ‘I’m not going to allow them to play me.’ But I told him, ‘If you step on that football field, they played you. They won; you lost.’ So I can’t sympathize with that.”
Jackson missed the final five games of the regular season plus Baltimore’s 24-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC wild card round of the playoffs with a knee injury. It was the second straight year he missed significant time after being limited to just 12 games in 2021.
Pollard, however, believes Jackson exaggerated the extent of his injury as a way to leverage Baltimore for more money.
“I don’t think he didn’t get injured, but this is my opinion: I don’t think the injury was significant to where he had to sit out six games,” Pollard said. “I think this is where he took a stand and said, ‘You’re not paying me, we can’t meet (in the middle), so I’m going to show you what you don’t have.’”
Jackson went 8-4 as the Ravens' starter this season, passing for 2,242 yards with 17 touchdowns and three interceptions while rushing for 764 yards and three more scores. He reportedly turned down a six-year deal from the Ravens that would have paid him $133 million guaranteed.
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