There are few players more intrinsically linked with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Steeler Way over the past quarter-century than S Troy Polamalu. A Hall of Famer drafted in the first round out of USC, he is a first-class human being an ambassador for the team, the organization, and their business model.
But he had to learn all of that when he first arrived in the Steel City, which is nowhere near where he wanted to be. Not the first player who ultimately made a second home in perhaps a place he’d never imagined, and certainly not the last, but no, the Santa Ana native was not interested in traveling far, and knew little of his future employers when he came out of college.
“Quite honestly, I didn’t want to leave California coming out of USC, so when I got this 412 area code, I had no idea where it was from, but I knew it wasn’t Oakland, I knew it wasn’t San Diego, and I knew it wasn’t L.A. or anywhere in California”, he said on the Rich Eisen Show yesterday when asked about his draft day experience.
“I’m not a big follower of the game, so like Heinz Field I was calling Three Rivers [Stadium], which had already been changed over several years into it”, he went on. I didn’t even know Coach [Bill] Cowher was still coaching. There was a lot of things, and even in the NFL once I started playing in it”.
Polamalu, of course, is one of those players whose life was never entirely football. Football is just what he did for a living, but he did that at the highest level possible. He didn’t need to live and breathe football and be a historian of the game in order to become a legend.
An eight-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro, Polamalu won two Super Bowls as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2010 and was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee.
And to his credit, Three Rivers Stadium was only torn down following the 2000 season. His rookie year was just the third season for Heinz Field, now known as Acrisure Stadium, even though players still slip up and call it Heinz every so often, two years into the new name.
Polamalu retired following the 2014 season and has largely been out of the limelight since then. Outside of Hall of Fame festivities, he hasn’t done a ton of media interviews, so it’s always good to get a chance to hear from him.
While I’m sure he doesn’t live and die with every snap of Steelers football that goes on today, it does seem clear that he still follows the Steelers to some degree. He had some pretty strong opinions about the idea that the team ought to move on from head coach Mike Tomlin, for instance.
