If you ever felt like Pittsburgh Steelers S Troy Polamalu lined up everywhere on the field, you weren’t wrong. The four-time first-team All-Pro safety had the innate ability to be around the ball no matter where it was on the field.
When Polamalu joined the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast on Tuesday’s episode, he covered a lot of topics. A good portion of the episode was spent talking about how Polamalu became a player who could show up literally anywhere on the field.
“At Pittsburgh, the unique thing that I had as a role was, my rookie year, they made me play safety, both safeties, which were two different positions at the time, and then both nickel and the dime and cornerback,” Polamalu said. “So I end up being the big safety and corner. So I literally played almost every position on defense.”
That was a big learning experience for Polamalu. He appeared in all 16 games in 2003 but he did not record a single interception and only had 48 combined tackles. He did have two sacks, though. Despite the lack of big plays generated and his insistence that he gave up a touchdown a game, it helped propel him forward.
“I play every position,” Polamalu said. “I know what everybody’s doing. If I know the ball’s going there, coach, I’m just gonna switch with him. I’m gonna say, ‘Alright linebacker, you play safety. I’m gonna play linebacker because I know you play it right, but I know the play. I’m gonna blow it up.’ So for me, that’s kind of where I started to really develop. I started seeing, I’m knowing everybody’s role, and if I know that the ball’s gonna go there, I’m just gonna switch positions with him.”
Polamalu went from starting zero games as a rookie to starting 15 in his second season in the league. He had five interceptions, returning one for a touchdown, 14 passes knocked down, 97 total tackles, four tackles for a loss, and a sack. He was named second-team All-Pro and received the first of his eight Pro Bowl nods.
Polamalu spent his entire 12-year NFL career with the Steelers. He finished with 32 career interceptions (three returned for touchdowns,) 107 pass breakups, 14 forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries (two for touchdowns,) 12 sacks, 783 total tackles, and 56 tackles for a loss. His ability to understand what the offense was doing on a given play and put himself in the best position possible to make the play was unlike any other player. That’s why he is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Polamalu just had to convince his coaches to give him that freedom. He would deliberately start modifying play calls on the field and line up in different spots, which would elicit some yells from the sideline to get in the proper spot. Then he’d go and make the play.
“I get to the side, like, ‘Coach, I just inverted with the corner. I let him play the half. I just wanted to give the quarterback a different look. They’ve been calling this in Cover 3 every time,'” Polamalu said. “So these little things is what Coach [Dick] LeBeau started to allow. It’s like, ‘Yeah man, here’s the call. Make it right.’ Just giving us that level of flexibility in a lot of ways.”
LeBeau, the legendary defensive coordinator, loved Polamalu. He even called Polamalu “probably the most instinctive player I’ve ever seen.” The pairing of LeBeau and Polamalu gave us a Hall of Fame career and some incredible memories.
You can watch the entire interview with Polamalu below:
