Super Bowl 2013: Bernard Pollard is here 3 years after release from Chiefs

While Arrowhead Pride has been around since 2006, the 2009 season is really when we started to hit our groove in terms of providing coverage on the site. We had more readers so we were spending more time writing about the Kansas City Chiefs and all that goes along with that.

That 2009 season also brought along one of the biggest surprises I remember seeing -- the Chiefs cut Bernard Pollard.

He was a second round pick only three years earlier in the 2006 NFL Draft. He was NOT someone we expected to get cut. It was a total stunner. This is what I wrote back on September 5, 2009 when the cut was made:

Wow. There were trade rumors recently and apparently they had some legs. This is far and away the most shocking move by the Chiefs.

Frankly, I don't understand this move. This leaves DaJuan Morgan, who was injured for much of last season as a rookie, and Mike Brown, who has been injured much of the last five years, as your strong safeties.

We all know how that worked out.

Now that Pollard is playing in the Super Bowl, it's easy to say the Chiefs made a mistake. But it's not that easy. Remember that after Pollard left the Chiefs he was not in high demand. Teams weren't knocking down the door to sign him. He signed a minimum contract with the Texans, which shows how little his value was back then. Two years after he was cut, it looked like the Chiefs made a defensible decision.

The Pollard move looks dumb now, obviously. But when you watch Pollard in the Super Bowl and think "Why did the Chiefs cut him?" remember the context of his release and the ensuing years. It's not that easy to say it was a massive mistake.