During an episode of the Up On Game Podcast with T.J. Houshmandzadeh, LaVar Arrington and Plaxico Burress, Houshmandzadeh told a particularly good Troy Polamalu story. During a game against Pittsburgh, Houshmandzadeh, who played for Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens in his career in addition to the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks, tried to talk trash to Troy Polamalu and didn’t get the response he expected.
“I remember one time Polamalu hit me man, I’ll never forget this, I got up, I said, ‘Troy, you hit like a bitch.’ You know what he said to me? ‘God, bless you T.J,’” Houshmandzadeh said. “I felt so bad I never ever, ever talked shit to him ever again.”
Polamalu was a player who didn’t often get into the weeds except on rare occasions, so this story, while funny, isn’t particularly surprising. Houshmandzadeh had his fair share of run-ins with the Steelers over the years including stomping on the Terrible Towel, so him trying to get into it a little with Polamalu isn’t all that surprising either.
But it’s the sort of trash talk that happens probably every game in the NFL, but usually with both sides becoming active participants. Polamalu clearly had no interest in getting into it with Houshmandzadeh, and his refusal to and very kind and polite reply made Houshmandzadeh feel bad.
While a lot of great defensive players have a reputation for talking a whole lot and using their verbal exchanges as a way to get into a player’s head, Polamalu still found a way to get into Houshmandzadeh’s head while not stooping to his level. Polamalu let his play on the field do the talking for him most of the time, and it certainly worked.
He was recently named one of the best safeties in NFL history and finds himself enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. There wasn’t much Polamalu could say that he couldn’t back up, but he didn’t need to say anything since he always played at such a high-level that he was usually the best player on the field. But this is a good story that just goes to show how little Polamalu often engaged in trash talk and how he flipped it on Houshmandzadeh in this case.
