Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to In The Clutch, where sports is all that matters! We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a spectator. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. It's all that stands between you and participating in sports news discussion, live event discussion, and a variety of pick-the-winner and discussion competitions. And we promise not to hunt you down, stalk you, or sell your personal info for a whole tenth of a cent.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Polamalu "Tweaks" Ankle; Listed as Probable
Topic Started: Friday Feb 3 2006, 05:10 PM (96 Views)
WeatherManNX01
Member Avatar
The Yanks are coming!

From FOXSports:
Quote:
 
Steelers' Polamalu 'tweaks' ankle
Associated Press

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) -
Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu said he "tweaked" an ankle during practice Thursday and was added to the team's Super Bowl injury report as probable.

The cause of the injury wasn't immediately known. Only a pool reporter selected by the NFL is permitted to watch pre-Super Bowl practices, and Polamalu mentioned the injury to that reporter.

The injury was first revealed when the Steelers listed him on their daily injury report.

Polamalu, who lines up in a variety of formations in the Steelers' 3-4 defense, has starred in all three Pittsburgh playoff victories. He had 19 tackles, an interception and a half-sack in road victories over Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver.

"He's not like any other safety I have ever seen," Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said.

Polamalu is one of the NFL's most violent players, a whirlwind of speed, high-flying hits and wildly flowing hair who forces offenses to alter their game plans.

When he walks out of the Pittsburgh Steelers' locker room, Polamalu seemingly becomes a different person. He is peaceful and spiritual, quiet beyond a whisper, a man devoted to his wife and faith who never watches on TV the very game he plays.

This Super Bowl will be his first - not only to play in, but, remarkably, to watch.

"It's tough for me to watch sports," Polamalu said. "I'm more of a hands-on person."

And when those hands are around a football, an entire game can change.

That's why, for all the attention focused on the Seahawks' first Super Bowl, Jerome Bettis' last game and Ben Roethlisberger's possible arrival as an elite quarterback, it is Polamalu who may most influence the Super Bowl.

There has been no better or more disruptive player in the NFL playoffs this season. He has made plays that defensive backs aren't supposed to make, lined up in positions where safeties are not supposed to be. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning often ran down the play clock to the final second to find him, and it seemed in the AFC championship game that Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer never did.

A freeze frame from that game: On a key third-and-9 play, Plummer flipped a screen pass to running back Tatum Bell. Blockers Tom Nalen, Cooper Carlisle and an open sideline are in front of him.

Somehow, from across the field, Polamalu emerges, nearly flies over the blockers and drags down Bell inches short of the first down.

Much like old-time Steelers fans recall great plays by Joe Greene and Jack Lambert, this generation likely will remember that play.

"You have to find him on every play," Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. "On every play."

While Joey Porter is the loud and nasty voice of the Steelers' defense, Polamalu provides its distinctive personality, its uniqueness. He may line up as a lineman on one play, in deep coverage on another. He can blitz or cover, be a decoy or disrupt a play. He may even line up with his back to the offense, only to turn just before the snap and blitz.

"He is a mad man on the field," cornerback Deshea Townsend said.

Seattle coach Mike Holmgren's staff has found it difficult to simulate in practice what Polamalu can do in a game because he does so many things.

LeBeau seemingly finds new ways to use him every game, and it is unlikely this Sunday will be different.

"He's very motivated, very studious and he has tremendous instincts, so that's a pretty good combination," LeBeau said. "His talent lets us do a lot of things that you could not do with not many people. He has that rare ability to play at all levels of the defense."

Still, some teammates say they don't know Polamalu all that well or what really makes him tick. He rarely socializes during the season, preferring to stay at home with his wife of one year, Theodora, the sister of Miami Dolphins tight end Alex Holmes - a former Southern California teammate of Polamalu's.

Polamalu said his wife doesn't like football and doesn't watch it.

"It's nice to be able to come home and not have my wife tell me that I missed my read in Cover-6, you know what I mean?" he said.

Once the game or practice ends, it is almost as if his football life ends and another Polamalu appears, even if he says that isn't true.

"To me, it's the same thing and I'm the same person," said Polamalu, known to his teammates as the Quiet Storm. "If you tell me somebody is going to be barbaric on the field when they blow those whistle, then a peaceful, humble gentle guy off the field, there is something non-authentic about either the way he plays or his personal life. For me, it's the same person throughout.

"I'm passionate about everything I do. I'm passionate about reading the Bible, too."

However, Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart also talks of the two Polamalus. He remembers a practice when a Trojans teammate didn't call out a crackback block, and Polamalu absorbed a nasty shot.

"Oh my goodness, I've never seen him flip out like that," Leinart said. "He was so mad that the guy missed his assignment. He picked the guy up, threw the guy on the ground and started cussing - and he never cusses. He's like barbaric on the field. He just plays the game so intensely."

Polamalu's desire to make something of himself dates to an early age. At age 8, he left a crime-infested neighborhood - he says he was part of that crime - and his single-parent mother in Santa Ana, Calif., to spend a summer with an aunt and uncle in Tenmile, Ore.

He never went back. His aunt and uncle, Salu and Kelley Polamalu, and three older male cousins raised him, turned his life around, introduced him to sports. Another uncle, Kennedy Pola, is the Jacksonville Jaguars running backs coach.

"I was kind of raised by a community of people, not helter-skelter like, but I've been very blessed," Polamalu said.

The Steelers feel the same way. They moved up 11 spots in the 2003 draft to draft him 16th overall, a lower position that might be expected for a player of his ability. Some NFL teams felt he was too short at 5-foot-11 to be an impact player in the secondary, even if that very word impact defined his game.

Polamalu had three sacks, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries during the season, but the numbers do not begin to define his influence on a game or those teams that oppose him.

"To me, it's a very spiritual sport, especially for a man and the challenges he faces in a game," Polamalu said. "The fear of failure, the fear of gaining too big an ego, of making a mistake and everybody criticizing you. I just love to play football."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · National Football League · Next Topic »
Add Reply