Ex-Georgia football star David Pollack on GameDay parting, North Oconee role, what's next
ESPN’s College GameDay will return for the new season starting Saturday.
For the first time since 2011, former Georgia football star David Pollack won’t be part of it.
The three-time All-American defensive end was part of ESPN’s layoffs this summer.
Pollack went in depth for the first time on how he dealt with losing his role as analyst for the popular Saturday morning traveling pregame show on the “Family Goals” podcast he co-hosts.
The news came on June 30, right before Pollack and his family left for a vacation to Maine and Boston.
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He got a call while in his kitchen at home from a supervisor at ESPN and suspected something was up.
UGA football legend David Pollack talks ESPN layoff
“Everybody that asks, no, I had no clue it was coming,” Pollack said. “I told him right there on the phone, ‘Hey, dude, you’ve got nothing to be sorry about.’ I have had an amazing ride. This has been awesome. I would not trade this, I would not turn in it in. I got to go to travel the country, see things, give my family experiences that (they) never would have gotten.”
Pollack, who first joined ESPN in 2009 and contributed to other ESPN studio shows, said he didn’t shed any tears at first, but telling his kids, Nicholas and Leah, was difficult.
He said he did get emotional talking to GameDay host Rece Davis when he got to the airport.
“He’s my dude,” Pollack said. “I trust him with everything in me. I would consider him one of my great friends and we don’t see each other half the year.”
What’s next for the 41-year old Pollack? He isn’t sure.
“I’ve already lost a dream before,” said Pollack, who had his NFL career cut short due to a broken neck.
Pollack has told his son to pray for him “because I don’t have a clue what’s next, but I do know that God’s got me. But I want him to use me for the best way he can use me. Pray that he puts me in the perfect spot that can be used.”
He said he spoke to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, Georgia coach Kirby Smart, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, bestselling leadership authors John Maxwell and Jon Gordon.
Pollack will still be busy this fall.
He said he has a larger role as an assistant football coach at North Oconee High where his son Nicolas is a freshman.
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He is scheduled to speak at Liberty University on Oct. 20 and said he has events lined up in South Dakota, Texas, Florida and Alabama. He spoke to a steel company in Ponte Vendra.
“The good thing is I get to take my bride (wife Lindsey) with me most of the time and we get to travel and make a date weekend of it,” he said.
His podcast co-host, Jonathan Howes, the lead Pastor of Graystone Church, mentioned that Pollack has considered being a gameshow host, said he’s writing a book and that Howes and Pollack may write a ‘Family Goals,’ book together.
Pollack didn’t rule out becoming a college coach at Georgia or Clemson down the road.
“Whatever,” he said. “Whatever can be will make itself really known.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Ex-Georgia football star David Pollack on College GameDay layoff, future
