He's become, in some parts of the country (raise your hand, Massachusetts!) something of a boogeyman for the unrepentant way he plays football.

But here's the truly scary part about South Side grad and newly anointed Super Bowl champion Bernard Pollard: He's unrepentant when it comes to himself, too.

This after the Baltimore Sun reported that Pollard played parts of this season with not one, not two, but six broken ribs. Which suggests his pedal-down playing style takes as much of a toll on him as his others.

That's as old school as it gets in an era when old school has -- rightly, in a lot of cases -- fallen out of favor. Here's hoping he doesn't pay as hard a price for that down the road as a lot of the old-school types.