By Michaela Gordoni
NFL star David Pollack learned a lot from his two-season career, and now he’s channeled his faith and never-give-up attitude into a new children’s book, The Won’t Quit Kid.
He partnered with Brave Books to release the book.
“It’s not about performance,” Pollack told CBN. “So much nowadays, you see so much clearing obstacles and hard things out of the way for kids. They need that to grow to who God’s gonna make them, to build their character, and strengthen them down the road.”
The book follows a kid named Nick, who loves football. But playing football is harder than he thought. He’s going to have to choose either the easy path — giving up — or the hard path — hard work — to accomplish his dreams.
Pollack was introduced to Christ as a teen when someone invited him to a youth group event. The sportsman was a first-round draft pick in 2005 for the Cincinnati Bengals. A year later, he got a tragic neck injury that ended his NFL career.
“There’s always the two options, you either run towards God or away from God. But I quickly realized that it’s really, really awesome, because I thought I was on this path, and I was going to the NFL, and I was going to Pro Bowls — and this is the way I was gonna go,” he said. “And then, quickly, it’s a detour, and I break my neck, which is not fun.”
But he knows that “God is for me.” Through breaking his neck and all the other battles he’s faced and is currently facing, he says, “I know God is for me.”
When he broke his neck, he learned to “be still” for the first time in his life. He had never taken the time to hear from God. He now says he’s a better husband, father and friend for having gone through his ordeal.
Pollack looked at his time in the NFL as a blessing. He told his wife he couldn’t wait to see what God does next.
Right now, Pollack’s wife, Lindsey, is fighting brain cancer and recently went through a six-hour surgery.
“She’s fighting, for sure,” Pollack told the Athens Banner-Herald. “She’s swinging. That’s what we’ve got to do. Keep swinging.”
Related: Former NFL Star Sees His Faith Grow the Most Amid Trials
When Lindsey came out of the surgery, she couldn’t open her eyes, speak or feel the left side of her body. But she still lifted her hands in praise to God while listening to worship music.
Amid personal trials, David Pollack and his wife embody the message he’s sharing with the next generation — to put faith over fear, keep kicking and never give up.
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