The Pittsburgh Steelers’ history of drafting Pittsburgh Steelers fans continues with the first-round selection of T Troy Fautanu out of Washington. A diehard Troy Polamalu fan, he told reporters yesterday he grew up rooting for the Steelers.
“Man, it really couldn’t have gone any better, to be honest. I grew up a Troy Polamalu fan”, he said, via 93.7 The Fan. “I wore 43 pretty much my whole life until I had to switch to o-line, and I couldn’t wear it. Just growing up being a fan of the Steelers…I know a lot about the team and a lot about the history. I’m just super excited to finally get this over with, and it couldn’t have been any better that it was the team I grew up loving”.
Not unlike Kevin Dotson coming out decked in Steelers gear he grew up with, Fautanu also has receipts. His receipts, though, are of a different nature—a digital one. Reviewing his Twitter history shows a pattern of commenting on the Steelers as a fan.
He was a fan of the Steelers trading up in the first round in 2019 for Devin Bush, for example. In hindsight, much like they did in 2024, they should have stayed at 20 and taken the best player available. That’s perhaps exactly what they got with Troy Fautanu, Noted Steelers Fan.
One particular old tweet that attracted attention yesterday was from 2017, in which he declared his Steelers fandom and hatred of Tom Brady. Of course, he also acknowledged Brady’s greatness, but one that only comes begrudgingly from a Black-and-Gold bearer.
He declared 2015 to be “our year” after the Steelers got off to a 2-1 start to the season. To his credit, they did manage to win a playoff game that year, so there is that. He was also rather pleased with their season-opening win a year later.
Of course, there’s also a tweet from 2018 in which he is replying to a since-deleted tweet in which he declares that his new head coach, Mike Tomlin, “needa figure this out or he finna be gone soon!”. That’s how you know he’s a true fan.
Numerous winless postseasons later, Tomlin is still here, and now he is Troy Fautanu’s head coach. I’m guessing Fautanu has softened somewhat on his previous stance from 2018. After all, the Steelers were in the midst of a gut-punch late-season slide at the time in early December. They dropped from 7-2-1 to 7-5-1 and ended up barely missing the playoffs.
Now Tomlin is hoping that Fautanu can help him figure it all out. He is the second offensive tackle they’ve added in the first round in as many years. I don’t think Broderick Jones grew up a Steelers fan necessarily, however, even if he is one now.
