Veteran cornerback Ike Taylor announced his retirement Tuesday after 12 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and during a morning interview on PFT Live, the always entertaining former fourth-round draft pick was asked to talk about the first thing that comes to his mind when he reflects on his long career, and his answer wasn’t neccasarily one that you would expect, even from him.
“The first time that Troy [Polamalu] and I met,” recalled Taylor. “We in the same room, we in the same hotel room – I get to hotel room first because he’s coming from California and I’m coming from New Orleans. So then after that, I just took a shower, so I’m on the floor with a towel on the floor, I’m doing sit-ups with no clothes on because I thought I had the room to myself. I heard the door unlock and I thought it was probably a lady got the wrong room. Troy Polamalu sticks his head in and he sees me doing sit-ups. He closes the door right after that and I tell him, ‘You got the right room, you’re Troy Polamalu, nice to meet you.’ And it’s been on ever since.”
Taylor was also asked to talk about what led to him finally deciding to retire and again he referenced Polamalu.
“You know what, it was a long time coming,” said Taylor. “Just me being injured throughout the last season and having some time to reflect, I was kind of mentally retired last season.
“Honestly, I was just waiting on Troy to make his official retirement, because I felt like we came into the league together and we going to leave out together. So if Troy would’ve played another two years, I would’ve had to wait another two years. But that was my mindset, that’s what I stuck with. Soon as he retired, I said I was going to wait until my radio show and do it on my radio show.”
Taylor also let it be known on Tuesday that he’s going to go into broadcasting now that his playing days are over and that’s not too terribly surprising being as he’s never been shy about being on the radio or in front of a camera. Or on the floor doing naked sit-ups.
