Troy Polamalu was a very unique player in the history of the NFL. He was best known for his improvisation and instincts that might get most players or defenses into trouble, but which he turned into a major positive by being right more often than not. Several of his coaches have spoken in the past about the frustration when he would go off script, but the frustration was often short-lived as he would go on to make a game-altering play.
Cameron Heyward asked Polamalu about this on the latest episode of Not Just Football.
“Nobody tells coach [Dick] LeBeau anything,” Polamalu said with a grin. “You don’t wanna tell him. First of all, you have so much respect for him. You’re never gonna be like, ‘Oh, well maybe we should have run this instead.’ But in order to not have those conversations, you just run it yourself.
“But you have to build up trust, you know what I mean? These things don’t come out of nowhere. The reality is that you build trust with them and then he gives you these levels of flexibility that work. And that’s the beautiful thing about really great coaches is they don’t put you in a box. They give you certain guidelines on the rules and then they let you truly be yourself.”
Polamalu has spoken in the past about how teammates like Ike Taylor or Ryan Clark were constantly making him right. He would put the defense in some uncomfortable situations with his improvisations and if he wasn’t able to make the play then it was up to the defense to make up for his mistakes. Would Polamalu have been looked at the same way if he wasn’t in one of the best defenses in league history? He was the perfect chess piece given the talent around him.
Some of Polamalu’s best and most iconic plays came from him going off script and allowing his instincts and film study to take over.
Troy Polamalu looks back on one of the most memorable plays of his career. His goal line leap over the line against the Titans.
“I kind of, I guess, took a calculated risk there and thank God it ended up working out well.” #Steelers https://t.co/G3v4EF8G8u pic.twitter.com/LNXA70HhMi
— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) July 17, 2021
LeBeau was a Hall of Fame player and was known as one of the best and most innovative defensive coaches in the league for a long time. His defenses were constantly in the top five in scoring and yardage allowed. Many players referred to him as “Coach Dad” to speak to the level of respect that people had for him. Polamalu had LeBeau introduce him in Canton when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Having a coach like LeBeau who eventually grew to trust Polamalu and put him in positions to play with freedom to maximize his instincts was a key development that fueled Polamalu’s eventual Hall of Fame induction.
