Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu was a busy man on Wednesday. Polamalu made news by admitting to Dan Patrick that he\’s lied about head injuries in the past in order to remain on the field. Polamalu also had some pretty interesting comments for Colin Cowherd on his Wednesday radio show concerning the power of commissioner Roger Goodell, the bounty situation with the New Orleans Saints and the Steelers upcoming season.
Cowherd started off by asking Polamalu if he had a problem with the power of Goodell. “With the power? Yeah, for sure,” said Polamalu. “I think most NFL football players have a problem with the power, not with him personally, for sure. But the power of the position of commissioner.”
Cowherd argued that in regard to safety and offseason arrest, that the power of the commissioner is sort of working so far. “Its not really up to the commissioner if somebody gets a DUI,” said Polamalu. “If a player is consistently getting in trouble, just like any occupation, they should probably be fired. And that\’s up to the team.”
Cowherd asked Polamalu if he would trust other teams to take actions against their own players, even if they were high paid stars, in that type of situation that the Steelers safety suggested. “I don\’t know, but you know teams do get reputations, and if your team has a bad reputation, then nobody is really going to want to play for you,” said Polamalu. “To quote what Coach Tomlin says all the time, \’I might not treat you the same, but I\’ll treat you fair.\'”
“Its up to the organizations whether or not they need to get rid of a player that\’s constantly getting in trouble,” Polamalu added.
Cowherd next wanted Polamalu\’s thoughts on the bounty situation in New Orleans. “From my understanding, New Orleans wasn\’t cheap in any way. It wasn\’t like they really put a bulls-eye on somebody – that they did something totally illegal,” said Polamalu. “Within the nature of the game people are going to get injured.”
Cowherd next asked Polamalu if he was going for the big hit, how badly would he want to hurt a guy. “Well, fear is as much as a part of the game as tackling, and concussions, and injuries, and what not. You know, if you hit someone coming across the middle one time, there may be just a hesitation the next time, which could possibly be the difference in winning or losing a game,” said Polamalu. “That aspect is what I feel is getting taken away from the game and that is such a huge aspect in the game. To overcome that fear, that\’s what separates, I believe, great players from just an average player.”
“A guy like Hines Ward may not have the intangibles, but he definitely does have a lack of fear, which separates him from a lot of people,” Polamalu added.
Polamalu went on to say that he has never gone into a game with an intent to injury someone, and that if he did wind up injuring an opponent, he\’s always felt bad about it and always tried to make sure the player was OK.
Polamalu was finally asked his thoughts about the Steelers this upcoming season, and he would only say that he has been on teams before that he thought had all of the pieces in place only to wind up not making the playoffs. On the flip side, Polamalu added that he has also been on teams that he thought lost too many players from the previous season and they went on to win it all. He of course was referencing the 2005 season. He added that the health of a team plays a big part in how a team performs and noted that last year in the playoffs the Steelers were not very healthy.
You can listen to full interview of Polamalu on the Colin Cowherd Show below:
[audio:http://cdn16.castfire.com/audio/303/2117/7829/1072502/herdaudio_2012-07-18-125502-6701-0-0-0.48.mp3]
