Thursday night news came down that Steelers Strong Safety, Troy Polamalu, has decided to retire after 12 seasons in the National Football League...all of those seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The first thing that I did was shed a tear, because it was one of my all-time favorite players walking away from the game.
The second thing I did was breath a sigh of relief, because it was time...and the right decision to make. The Steelers had already planned on moving away from Troy Polamalu. He could still lay bone crunching hits. He still had the instincts and the ability to read a play pre-snap and know where the ball was going before anyone else on the defense. However, he no longer had the speed or athleticism to make plays off of those instincts and reads. He was still a good defender against the run, but had become at least somewhat of a liability in pass coverage because he could no longer get to where he needed to be.
If he hadn't retired, the Steelers were going to release Polamalu according to many reports that came out when free agency began. And I believe that to be true, the team was at some point this offseason going to release him if he chose to keep playing.
However, the team did the right thing. They kept his cap hit until he made a decision that could have forced their hand. Polamalu said that he's retiring for family. Because he wants to spend more time with his wife and kids, that this was the first time he has really gotten to do that since the family has now permanently moved to Pittsburgh. Also, he retired because he realized that he had to think about if he really wanted to keep playing, and he felt that if you even have to think about it, then it's time to walk away.
Some will say he played a season or two too long. I don't think that's true, I think it would have been true if he played in 2015.
In 2013, he played all 16 games and had: 69 total tackles/2 sacks/5 forced fumbles/1 fumble recovery/2 interceptions/1 defensive touchdown/11 passes defended.
In 2014 the bottom dropped out on the play making. He also once again missed some games due to injury. He looked slower. It was the season that told most people, including the Steelers front office, that he was no longer a starter in the National Football League.
It's sad to see such a great player go. He was truly the heart of this defense, if not the entire team. He wasn't the most vocal leader, but if you wanted to learn how to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, you watched Troy Polamalu. Not only did he work hard at the football stuff...workouts, film study, practice...he worked hard in the community. And the best part about it is, you really never heard about it. He didn't promote the work he did in the community of Pittsburgh because he did it unselfishly for the community, not for the recognition.
This is how kind of a player Polamalu was:
I remember a game against the Cincinnati Bengals many years ago. I think Chad Ochocinco might have still be Chad Johnson at the time. A Steelers player layed Johnson out with a really hard hit. Johnson was know for wearing gold fronts (teeth) during games, they were removable. He was hit so hard, his gold fronts got knocked out of his mouth. Troy picked them up and ran over to Johnson to give them back to him.
They didn't go to the same school. Never played on the same team. Many players wouldn't have touched the gold fronts. But Polamalu did the sportsmanlike thing and picked them up and gave them back to him. And he did this against a division rival.
Also, there were often times where after Polamalu would lay out a player with a bone crunching hit, he would tell the guy "sorry." Why? Because Polamalu wasn't a violent person, he just happened to play a violent sport that required it. I am sure David Carr still wakes up in the middle of the night from nightmares of Troy Polamalu after his three sack game against Carr in 2005.
Polamalu was to this defense what Joe Greene was to the Steel Curtain. Yeah, there's all this talk about outside linebackers. Joey Porter, James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley, and even Jason Worilds all had success (okay, the first three had a lot of success) at that position for the Steelers. And yes, they were a big, big part of the success of this defense for many years.
But Polamalu was the X-Factor on the defense. He was allowed to play outside of the scheme. He was the only player allowed to play outside of the scheme at all times. That's how much Dick LeBeau and Bill Cowher/Mike Tomlin trusted him. Sometimes he would lineup at a deep safety spot, the QB would read him as playing there, and then the ball is snapped and Polamalu was in the QB's face getting a sack or forcing a bad pass. Or he would line up at the line of scrimmage and the QB would read him as blitzing, he would snap the ball and Polamalu would be thirty yards downfield intercepting the pass because he wasn't accounted for as a pass defender on that play.
And the crazy thing is, on many of those plays, he did the opposite of what the defensive call had his position doing.
So for a player that meant that much to the team and community, you'd be expecting to hear an announcement before the season for Polamalu's #43 to be retired during a halftime ceremony at Heinz Field, probably during a game against the Ravens who he loved to torture in his career. I think the announcement that Polamalu retired might have been the happiest day of Joe Flacco's life.
However, for any fan that thinks that day is coming if not this season then next, don't hold your breath.
The Steelers don't just retire numbers. They've only retired two numbers officially in the history of the team: #70 (Ernie Stautner) and #75 (Joe Greene). Joe Greene is regarded as one of the best defensive players in NFL history, was the cornerstone of the Steel Curtain defense of the 1970's, and his number wasn't retired officially until last season.
Instead, at the decision of the equipment manager (yes literally, the equipment manager is the one who makes the decision), numbers are taken out of circulation. The following numbers are currently not options for players when they join the Steelers:
#1 (Gary Anderson)
#12 (Terry Bradshaw)
#31 (Donnie Shell)
#32 (Franco Harris)
#36 (Jerome Bettis)
#47 (Mel Blount)
#52 (Mike Webster)
#58 (Jack Lambert)
#59 (Jack Hamm)
#63 (Dermontti Dawson)
#86 (Hines Ward)
#88 (Lynn Swann)
Unless the Steelers start officially retiring the numbers of these guys, most of which are in the Hall of Fame, then you won't see Polamalu's number officially retired likely in your lifetime. Not that he's not deserving of such an honor, just because the Steelers don't grant that honor very often.It was 50 years between official jersey number retirements. I wouldn't be shocked if we waited 50 more years for another.
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