No one just hands out a college football nickname like “Pain Train.” You have to earn it. And no one earned it quite like Cal football’s Zack Follett. After a 2005 game against No. 1 USC, he was suspended for ramming his facemask into a helmet-less LenDale White. In 2007, the linebacker absolutely destroyed Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge with a blindside hit Golden Bears fans still talk about to this day. In 2008, Follett sent Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter home on literal crutches, fueled by the simple fact that Carpenter called him “Zack” during a Sun Devils win a year prior.

“He was calling me by my first name, like we’re best friends or something,” a sincerely aggrieved Follett told reporters at the time.

There have been a lot of bad, bad men who’ve played for the Cal defense over the program’s 140-year history, but maybe none badder than Follett. He didn’t just inflict pain — he told you, very loudly, in advance, that the Pain Train was coming.

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The one time ABC mic’d up Follett (during warmups of that 2008 ASU-Cal game), he sounded like an absolute maniac.

Cal’s Zack Follett nearly sacks Tennessee’s Erik Ainge during a game at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 1, 2007. California defeated Tennessee 45-31.

Zack Follett of California celebrates after a big play during the game at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore., on Nov. 15, 2008. Oregon State defeated California 34-21.

Zack Follett, 56, grabs onto Coby Fleener, 82, during the 111th Big Game. California defeated Stanford 37-16 on Nov. 22, 2008, at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.

“Woo. Woo. Coming for Carpenter, baby, all day,” Follett said, before later spotting the ASU quarterback warming up on the opposite end of the field. “... There he is. There he is. 1-2. Carpenter about to get the business. ... The Pain Train’s coming today, baby.”

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Legendary Cal head coach Jeff Tedford, now 64 and retired, says there’s really only one reason Follett could be so vocal.

“He was in a position to do it because he made a lot of plays. It wasn’t just talk,” Tedford says. “He could do something about it.”

Follett finished his four-year Cal career in the top 10 all-time in tackles (245), tackles for loss (51) and sacks (23.5). Oh, and he set a school record and tied a Pac-10 record for forced fumbles (13). He also remains the only Cal football player in history to show up to the conference’s Media Day with tiger stripes and a giant “Z” dyed in his hair.

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“He played middle linebacker,” Tedford says matter-of-factly. “You’ve gotta have a little bit of recklessness to you.”

Follett parlayed that recklessness into his name being called on the third day of the 2009 NFL Draft, as a seventh-round pick by the Detroit Lions. In a single season, he went from being released by the Lions in preseason cuts to reclaiming a roster spot, and being named one of the team’s starting linebackers in year two.

Zack Follett went on to a brief career for the Detroit Lions after his time at Cal.

And then, in the blink of an eye, his career ended. A horrific special teams hit in a game against the New York Giants in October of 2010 left him unable to move. Momentarily paralyzed, Follett was carted off the field. While he regained feeling in his neck and spine later that day, a year’s worth of visits to specialists couldn’t alleviate what Follett described to reporters repeatedly as his neck being “on fire” while practicing.

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In 2011, he was released by the Lions, joining the small handful of players who always come up whenever a group of Cal fans, usually after a beer to two, start a round of “I wonder what happened to that guy?”

The thing is, if I gave you a thousand guesses, you’d never guess what actually happened to Zack Follett.

At left, Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge prepares to throw a pass as Cal's Zach Follett closes in at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Sept. 1, 2007. Cal defeated Tennessee 45-31. At right, Cal head coach Jeff Tedford hugs Zack Follett, foreground.

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