Meet Logan Lee, the young boy from Illinois who once trick-or-treated as Troy Polamalu. Now meet Logan Lee, the first-year defensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers who talks to Troy Polamalu around the locker room. That is the reality of being a Steeler, the rookie says, and there’s certainly a surreal aspect to it.
Now, Troy Polamalu is already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and last played in 2014. Lee was just starting high school at that time or thereabouts, so it’s not like they’re sharing a post-practice shower. But being with the Steelers, you never know who you’re going to see wandering around the facility. At least, you don’t until you’re there, and you, like Logan Lee, meet some truly legendary people.
“A couple guys, like, older guys, not currently on the team but like, Mel Blount, Joe Greene, Troy Polamalu”, Lee told Kory Kuffler for KOAD News. “I was Troy Polamalu one year for Halloween. And [now] I just casually get to talk to him now and he is just around the building all the time and we’re able to start developing a relationship a little bit”.
There was reportedly a bit of bad blood at the end of Polamalu’s tenure in Pittsburgh, the suggestion being that, although he officially retired, the Steelers coaxed him into doing so. All of that, if it ever existed, appears to be water under the bridge now. His making himself available to guys like Logan Lee is just one example, but he is far from the only legend doing so.
“It’s really neat to be able to see the camaraderie everybody that has been here still has with the organization, just because of that stability we have in the coaching staff”, Lee said of encountering so many players from the past like Polamalu, Greene, and Blount. “It’s much like Iowa. It’s like, we’ve had three head coaches in since the 70s and it’s just unbelievable”.
Like rookie first-round pick Troy Fautanu, Lee says he grew up rooting for the Steelers. He is probably as big a fan of the team as ever, after it carried him as the eighth lineman. There is still no telling how long he will last on the 53-man roster, but the fact is, he is here until he’s not. And even if the Steelers do release him, he is likely to resurface on their practice squad.
It seems clear the Steelers are interested in developing Lee. After all, even Polamalu, a first-round pick, needed a season to get his bearings. Now, Logan Lee isn’t exactly in the same category, a sixth-round pick out of Iowa. But he wouldn’t be on the roster if the Steelers didn’t see something in him.
And perhaps guys like Polamalu and Greene and Blount see that in Lee as well. Or perhaps they’re just willing to talk to anybody in the Steelers’ locker room. You never know what someone will do in the future. Or what they can do with some encouragement out of the right mouth, like the guy you once collected candy as.
