I was going to just add this recent interview Troy Polamalu did with Pittsburgh Magazine to a list of links, but after reading through it, it definitely deserves its own post.
The whole story is worth spending the time to read and goes deep into Polamalu’s new role as a father, his faith, and of course, football.
We’ve always known that Polamalu was some sort of a brilliant philospher and the interview would seem to prove that. Obviously, his football IQ is higher than most players, but it’s rare to see a rough and tumble football player so deep and so well spoken.
Here are some of the memorable quotes:
“Football is part of my life but not life itself,” he says. “Football doesn’t define me. It’s what I do [and] how I carry out my faith.”
“I think talking is overrated. Anybody in the world can talk about doing anything. The hardest thing is to do it.”
“I spoke with Olympic gold-medal decathlete Bryan Clay at a Nike symposium. I approached him with a lot of questions about training and really took in what he had to say, because decathletes have to do every move and coordinate every energy system from sprints to hurdles to long jump, high jump, pole vault. An athlete like that can play in every sport.”
“When I was watching the final Stanley Cup game, my heart was pounding – with 15 minutes in the game and we’re up by two. That’s too much time! Hockey is the greatest spectator sport ever. It’s nonstop action. In the last minutes, holding my son in front of the TV, I said, “Son, you’re going to watch history right now.” I was so nervous. It was crazy! I can honestly tell you I was more nervous in those final moments than I was sitting on the sidelines in Tampa. Sid and Evgeni – they’re so young, it’s like having LeBron [James] and Kobe [Bryant] in Pittsburgh – then to see them win it! That’s why Pittsburghers are so passionate about sports. We have these teams that do well.”
Also, I’m an avid reader of LGP, where a poster relays this awesome tidbit about Polamalu:
“my gf used to work at the cheesecake factor in ross park as a greeter while she was in nursing school and i was picking her up one day and troy walked in. he had a pick order under the name ‘socrates’ no lies. it wasn’t ready when he came in so he sat next to a woman and talked to her for about 15 minutes and when he went to get his food he gave the manager 100 bucks and said it was for her families meal. he is the man”
Great interview, great person. If you are still undecided on a favorite Steelers, this post should solve that problem.
