This is Part 2 of a five-part series on Steelers legend Troy Polamalu, in advance of his scheduled Aug. 8 induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Today: BACK TO LA ... AND STARDOM
As he grew up with his aunt and uncle, Shelley and Salu Polamalu, in tiny Tenmile, Ore., Troy Polamau's athletic talent began to shine. He was an all-state player at Douglas High School in football and baseball, where he roamed centerfield like he would one day roam the Steelers' secondary.
He batted .550 in his senior season and, though he played just four football games as a senior because of injuries, colleges came knocking based off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons as a sophomore and junior as a running back and defensive back. Lots of them.
In fact, few know Polamalu originally intended to go to Colorado. His uncle, Kennedy Polamalu, was running backs coach under Rick Neuheisel there in 1997 and 1998. Kennedy brought young Troy into football camp at Colorado for his first taste of football outside the confines of rural Oregon.
"He went in there to the camp and really just shined," Kennedy told me. "I was training him to be a running back because I thought he was going to be a running back. You saw it later in life. Every time he got an interception, he was like a running back. He just enjoyed the culture there, the environment and being around family, so he committed there. Then the head coach decided to leave and all that changed."
"Kennedy and I made the trip up there to meet with him," Hackett told me. "We met with him at his aunt and uncle’s house and it was unbelievable. Their house was right on the edge of the river. It ran through their back yard. The welcome they gave me was unbelievable. They were so friendly. We sat out on the back porch and talked. And Troy barely said a word. He was just so quiet.
"You wondered about how his play would translate. He was at such a small school. It was easy to look at the kids from the schools around LA and figure out how they would make the transition. With Troy, we weren’t as sure. A lot of the coaching staff didn’t want Troy because of that. But Kennedy and I were adamant about him."
"There were colleges that wanted me only for baseball and not football," Polamalu said. "Most colleges were both, including USC. When I went to USC, the agreement was that I was going to play both. After the football season, Paul Hackett was like, ‘Sorry, you’re a football player.’ I’m like, ‘Wait, what are you talking about?’ He said, ‘No, you’ve got a football scholarship.’ I didn’t play baseball. He was a great coach. I learned so much from him. He had a huge influence on me."
"When (Hackett) got fired, there was a lame-duck period before Pete Carroll was hired," Polamalu said. "That's when I played baseball. At that time, USC has Mark Prior. They had a really good baseball team. There was a lot of talent. They might have won (the championship) the year before I had gotten there. But I was scrimmaging with them and I quickly learned how much I had lost my skill. It was hard for me to throw. I had been lifting so much. Being able to hit a fastball was easy. But then I saw my first legitimate off-speed pitch and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ It felt like the pitcher didn’t throw it, the third baseman threw it. I realized the commitment I needed to make to be a decent baseball player. I knew I didn’t have it. I understood I didn’t have the commitment to be a really good baseball player while also making the commitment to being a good student and football player."
"Those first two seasons, you saw the suddenness," Hackett said. "He played a lot of special teams. He was blocking kicks, making tackles on special teams. But he was still quiet. He just let his play do all the talking on the field. He just had an ability to contort his body while also being so sudden. That suddenness was always there. He’s just a phenomenal player. One of my favorites that I've coached."
