Troy Polamalu Retires - AskMen

Publish date: 2024-06-25

Trending News: Troy Polamalu And His Wonderful Hair Are Retiring From The NFL

April 10, 2015

Flip

Why Is This Important?

Because “The Hair” was one of the best defensive players in the league for 12 seasons.

Long Story Short

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu came to the realization during Easter Holy Week that it’s time to call it quits.

Long Story

When the Steelers were kicked out of the playoffs by the Baltimore Ravens last season, the franchise suggested to Troy Polamalu that he might want to retire after 12 seasons in the black and gold. But the team’s eight-time Pro Bowl defender declined.

However, after spending the offseason with his family and thinking it over during Easter Holy Week, Polamalu thought to himself: “‘Man, you know what? You’re done. You’re done. Your training is done. Your getting in your stance in football is done.’ It actually hit me in the middle of church. I was like, all right, man, it’s time to start living. Because I’ve been living the dream.”

The numbers lined up, too. At age 33 and 12 years playing, Polamalu is the age of Christ when he died and 12 is the number of apostles. “I’m not superstitious by any means but I always thought that if I played 12 years and retire from football at 33 and give my life and give my body and give my blood to this game, I think that would be a pretty significant landmark in my life.”

Polamalu made the retirement announcement to the Herald-Standard last night and has since blown up Twitter for NFL players.

Polamalu had a Hall of Fame career playing in 158 regular-season games, 15 playoff games and three Super Bowls, two of which he hoisted the trophy. In that time he made 710 tackles, 35 interceptions, forced 13 fumbles, recovered seven fumbles, and scored four touchdowns.

And all of that was done with one single team — a rarity in sports these days. But Polamalu “did not seriously consider playing elsewhere,” as told to the Herald-Standard. “It was just whether or not I wanted to play. I had talked to a lot of people about what I should do with my situation, and what they kept saying back to me, and which was not a sufficient reason, was ‘Troy, you played 12 years in the NFL, you won Super Bowls, won individual awards. There’s nothing left to prove. You have a legacy.’ And I just kept saying, ‘First of all, I don’t care about a legacy. Second of all, I play the game because I enjoy it.’ That’s the reason to keep playing.”

Polamalu was drafted out of USC in the 2003 NFL Draft 16th overall, a pick the Steelers had to give up three picks to get. But it was worth it.

Now the question is, with all this extra time on his hands will we see more hair commercials and possibly some TV analyst-time? Wouldn’t count him out.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Does Troy Polamalu deserve to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Disrupt Your Feed: Polamalu was the greatest athlete with the best hair of all time.

Drop This Fact: Polamalu was born in California, but is of American Samoan decent. In 2013, he wrote an opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pleading for Americans to turn their attention to the plight of the Polynesian territory, which is a part of America but can’t vote.