Cris Collinsworth received some criticism from NFL fans for sharing a tale from his youth about running back Tony Pollard, which they seemed to find offensive. Sunday night’s Cowboys rout of the New York Giants was called by Collinsworth and Mike Tirico, with Dallas cruising to a commanding 40-0 whitewash.
Late in the game, the former would recount a narrative about Pollard’s background in which he described how, when the latter was only four years old, his father made him play with larger boys despite his protests.
“His first tackle football experience was as a 4-year old. He’s on the team with a bunch of 7-year olds, out there, and one of the first drills was that he had to tackle a whole line of people coming at him one at a time. He started crying wanting to go home and his dad said nope you can’t quit. Make it through the year we’ll let you leave,” Collinsworth said during the broadcast.
“So at the end of the year he did. Then at age seven he came back to it and he said, Saved myself a lot of hits over the years with that. He was detailing this thing to where you were like oh my gosh this little 4-year old boy out there, but he loved it and he wanted to do it.”
Cris Collinsworth’s heartwarming Tony Pollard story pic.twitter.com/aqwv7q2Yz7
— Stephen Douglas (@Stephen_Douglas) September 11, 2023
This story doesn’t make any sense or does justice to his upbringing. What it did do was put him and his dad in bad light as you can see by the reactions of fans below on Social media.
The guy is such a clown. At least I don't have to listen to Al Michaels anymore……half way there.
— Dave Michael (@mic22989221) September 11, 2023
Bro you gotta come up with some bullshit when the score 33,000 to 0 with a whole ass quarter left.
— Jimbo Katoa (@BrosephSmith808) September 11, 2023
He better be. Or I’m calling CPS
— Krondile (@cliptice) September 11, 2023
As things stand we do get sure of one aspect in all this, some things should be kept in the family and not blurted out on air.