Hall of Fame S Troy Polamalu gave the Pittsburgh Steelers 12 great years of his stellar play. When reflecting on some of the signature moments of his career—and there were many of them—one that sticks out above the rest that perfectly encapsulates Polamalu as a player was timing snaps and jumping over the line of scrimmage to end a play before it had a chance to begin.
He possessed an uncanny knack for timing snaps and his athleticism to leap over offensive linemen made him a constant threat anytime he roamed near the line of scrimmage. Polamalu appeared on several podcasts and television shows this past week to promote a commercial he is a part of and rehashed a number of key moments from his career including James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLIII.
In his appearance on the Stacking the Box podcast with Sterling Holmes, Polamalu discussed how he was able to time snaps so well, and it turns out the key was not thinking at all.
“What’s funny about it is, I didn’t think about it,” Polamalu said. “Sometimes I just found myself going and doing it, and that’s the best way that I can explain it because I’ll be very honest—when I thought about it—that’s when I jumped offsides.”
Jumping the line, like he did against the Tennessee Titans and Kerry Collins here, was one of many examples of his instincts taking over throughout his career.
At lot has been made of Polamalu’s instincts as a player over the years. He confirmed a lot of those notions here by admitting that those plays happened without any forethought. But it wasn’t just dumb luck, Polamalu talked about how his preparation allowed him to make these types of plays.
“And that’s where, to me, is where I started to understand myself as a player,” Polamalu continued. “I had to really, really overly prepare, so that I could just be free and let it flow out there and just trust my instincts.”
One would assume that team film sessions of these plays would get pretty rowdy as they watched all-time great instincts unfold on camera, but Polamalu said the coaches would skip those plays.
“We would always watch film together as a team. We would skip over those,” Polamalu said while erupting in laughter.
