Tony Pollard, Dallas Cowboys Running Back

The Sultan of Sizzle. The Titan of Toastiness.

The Kingpin of Kindling. These are the admired ones. Those who've created the prime place to gather. They don't just have a backyard. They have the backyard because they know a Solo Stove Fire Pit is more than just the ultimate smokeless fire pit. It's a place where friendships are forged, football is revered, and food is enjoyed. Solo Stove, the perfect flame for the big game. Look who's here with us on set.

He is Dallas Cowboys running back in Tony Pollard on behalf of Ascent. Tony, appreciate the time. Thanks for coming on down. How are you? I'm doing good. How you doing? Well, I'm doing fantastic.

So we'll talk about Ascent in just a little bit. How do you look back at this season for you individually? I know in the offseason a lot of it was, oh, what's going to happen with the contract? Everyone always talks about the Dallas Cowboys.

I don't think there's a day that goes by that we don't talk about the Dallas Cowboys. But when you reflect on the season, not only from a team standpoint, but an individual standpoint, what kind of stands out? I would say on a team standpoint, I feel like we left a lot on the table. I feel like we were one of the teams that should have went deep into the playoffs and possibly been in the game today.

Not today, but this weekend. Personally, I feel like I did pretty good, especially coming off of a broken leg, torn ligament to my ankle, and then still rushed for a thousand yards. I feel like it wasn't the prettiest, but it was a productive year for me.

And you know how this works, right? You have a season that is disappointing, but as you just laid out, you were coming off the injury in the 49ers game. Who knows mentally and physically when you started to feel like yourself again, how much good football do you still think you have left in the body? Oh, I got a lot of football left in me. I'm good.

Body-wise, I'm great. Does a season like this kind of get that fire burning a little bit more? Definitely.

Definitely. It's frustrating, so just using that frustration and channeling it to something productive, and hopefully it shows on the field next year. What did the rehab process, just wondering, kind of teach you? What did you learn about yourself through that tough time? That your mental is probably like 90% of it as far as everything. As far as your play on the field, as far as you recovering from injuries. If you overthink things, then your body will start leaning towards what you're overthinking. So just being positive, keeping good energy, keeping positive energy around, and just feeding off of that. Talking to Tony Pollard right now, so this is going to be an interesting time for you.

Running back is always in the news with contracts. How do you kind of navigate and approach? What's the mindset like for what's lying ahead of the next few months? It's kind of hard for me to tell right now with the season still going on. I feel like once the Super Bowl is over and the season is officially over and free agents to start, then it will be able to speak more in-depth on that. It's kind of tough right now.

I don't know what it's going to be. Is the preference to stay in Dallas in your opinion? Yeah, definitely. Talking to Tony Pollard right now, when you look at the running back position, it's one that gets talked about and it's almost, it gets trivialized a little bit and people try to take away from the running back. But now, I don't think you need a PhD in football to kind of figure this thing out.

The win in the playoffs, you've got to be able to run the football and you've got to play good defense. Does it annoy you how people now kind of mistreat the way that they speak about the running back position? Yeah, I mean it can be very annoying. It can be very frustrating. It can be hard. It's hard on your mental. It's hard on everything. When you've got people who've never played the game telling you that your position is important. But that's a part of being a professional. You just have to learn to block things out. Block out the noise and just stay neutral and just keep your head clear. Because just like, you know, speaking of what I was saying earlier, mental is like the biggest part of the game.

So, if you're letting stuff get in your head, then that's going to throw you off already. What happened in the playoff game? Because I thought the Cowboys were going to win that game. I thought you guys were going to beat Green Bay.

And just from the jump, they win the toss, they take the ball, they go right down the field, they put the ball in the end zone. It just seemed like you guys were never able to recover from it. Yeah, I would say they executed more. They executed better than us that game. I would say they were the more physical team.

They were the better team that game. When you look at your quarterback, Dak Prescott, I will spend the last two weeks talking about Brock Purdy and how we talk about Brock Purdy as a quarterback. Who is Dak Prescott?

You've been to that locker room with him the last few years. And what is he as a quarterback in this league? He's a competitor. He's a true competitor. He's going to fight to the last whistle, to the last second on the clock. He's going to give you his all. The way he practices and prepares for games, it's just like the game with him. So, everything that he does is intentional.

Whether it's just practice, walk-throughs. He's the type of guy that you want around your franchise to lead by example in the right way. How much of this team, just wondering, missed Ezekiel Elliott this past year? I would say his presence was felt, not having him. But I feel like we were still able to be pretty productive on the ground for the most part. But our schemes kind of changed too.

So, that kind of played a part into it in the right game. Mike McCarthy, people were wondering if he was going to be brought back. Now he is.

Final year of a contract. Is he the right guy, the right coach for the Cowboys? Because from afar, it seems like he's on the hot seat. And you have Jerry Jones, who does 9,000 interviews all the time, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. And whenever he speaks, he's entertaining. But he's already talking about how he thinks he would work well with Bill Belichick. So, it feels like, from my vantage point, that they doubt Mike McCarthy.

So, what are your thoughts on McCarthy? That's a perfect example of what I was saying. You got to keep your mental clear. You got to block out a lot of the noise. You got to block out a lot of the reports, a lot of the rumors you hear, a lot of posts that people make until you actually see a move done.

Or a coach fired a height or a player traded or something. You just have to block it out and just focus in. All we do is we talk a lot of Cowboys.

You know this. It always gets made, a joke, death taxes at national shows, talking about the Cowboys. Do you kind of laugh at the coverage and how much you guys are talked about?

It's good, but then there's also some bad that comes from it. Yeah, I mean, you have to laugh it off. Being a Cowboy, you get used to it. After a while, it's routine. It's expected for us to be talked about whether we're in the playoffs or whether we're not in the playoffs. Whether we're playing our best ball or our worst ball. It's expected for us to be the headline of the conversation. You got to laugh it off and just lock in and stay neutral.

Like I was saying, just lock in and focus on the task at hand. Who wins this game coming up on Sunday? Who do you think wins between the Niners and Chiefs' Tony Pollard? I think it's going to be a good game, but I can't go against Mahomes. Yeah, I feel like that's everyone's sentiment here. I'm taking the Niners just because everyone has said what you, logically makes sense, but everyone has said what you have said this week.

Yeah, it's hard to go against them. Alright, here's the multi-million dollar question before we talk about his scent. Wrapping up with Tony Pollard, Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift. That's the storyline of this Super Bowl. Do you think, ultimately, they will get engaged? They'll get married one day? Man, I don't want to speak on that. I don't want to speak on where their relationship is going. I'm going to pass on that one. You got it. Tell me what you got cooking with the scent.

Yeah, I teamed up with Ascent this spring, 2023. They have a lot of different protein products to offer. They have post-workout proteins. They have pre-workout proteins. They have plant-based protein, post-workout proteins. They have a lot of different flavors to choose from.

You just mix it with water or milk, whichever one, your choice. My personally favorite post-workout would be the chocolate or the vanilla bean, and pre-workout would probably be the strawberry lemonade. So, I'm a big smoothie guy. I lost like 80 pounds in the last four years, and a big reason is because of protein powder. Because, dude, they're filling. Yeah, you don't have to eat. Frozen strawberries, frozen mango, I throw some spinach in there, bunch of protein powder, and then pretty much just water.

And it's healthy, and surprisingly, eating healthy, actually somewhat delicious right there. Yeah. So, hey, good luck with the next chapter coming up, and we'll see where you land this off-season. Thanks so much for doing this. Yes, sir, I appreciate it.