The one word to describe former Pittsburgh Steelers S Troy Polamalu’s play style: unique.
Polamalu earned the nickname “The Tasmanian Devil” due to his relentless, physical play style, flying around making plays in the secondary as well as near the LOS as a do-it-all safety who would play the run, rush the passer, pick off passes, and make plays on special teams. His ability to time the snap count and leap over the offensive line, lay out for incredible INTs, and deliverer bone-crushing hits was something we never had experienced all rolled up into one player like him.
Polamalu recently jumped on the All Things Covered Podcast to talk about his playing days, but another podcast talked about Polamalu today as well. Pat McAfee on the Pat McAfee Show recalled the time he would have scored a TD in Pittsburgh if it weren’t for Polamalu raining on his parade. McAfee even gave Polamalu’s play style its own nickname, keeping it simple by turning his last name into an action verb.
“I had a touchdown, but instead, I got Troy Polamalu’d,” McAfee said. “Which, I guess a bunch of people got Troy Polamalu’d. The reason why he’s Troy Polamalu is because Troy Polamalu ‘Polamamalu’d’ people, and that means ‘Oh, you think I’m going to be here? Boom, I’m not. Art of war. Sun Tzu. Rest in peace.’”
McAfee would then go on to lament about the missed opportunity to score a fake field goal touchdown in Pittsburgh, which we have covered here on the site on several occasions.
Polamalu was just different on the football field. He was a guy who would have his “spider sense” go off and would fly around outside of the structure of the play to make a crazy tackle or come down with an impressive INT. He was a player who could thrive in any era, having former Steelers greats say that he could have played with them when they were winning Super Bowls in the 70s.
While the Steelers currently have S Minkah Fitzpatrick, who is a quality player in his own right as a perineal Pro Bowler, Polamalu was on another level. There will never be another Troy Polamalu. He is a 1-of-1 type of player. Thankfully, he was able to don the Black and Gold for the entirety of his NFL career and went on to become a two-time Super Bowl champ and a Pro Football Hall of Famer in the process.
