Name an accolade, and legendary Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu probably won it. Two-time Super Bowl champ, check. Defensive Player of the Year, check. Six-time All-Pro, check. Eight-time Pro Bowler, check. NFL 2000s All-Decade Team, check. Pro Football Hall of Fame, check.
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But really, the reason that Polamalu has gone down as one of the two greatest safeties of all-time (he is inextricably linked with fellow Hall of Fame Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed in that respect) is not because of awards and wins. It was his intangible greatness. No one was more unpredictable than Polamalu.
His majestic mane could be seen deep in the secondary, snagging passes with one hand. Just as often, it was spotted flying behind him as he leapt over the offensive line to stuff a quarterback on a short-yardage play.
Polamalu was allowed to roam where he pleased, as he had a football IQ and feel for the game that were unmatched in our time. He was a soft-spoken, hard-hitting safety who did the sign of the cross after every big hit. Polamalu was unique as they come. And that had everything to do with the immeasurables, according to the coach that drafted him, fellow Hall of Famer Bill Cowher.
“Troy is a very instinctive guy, and nine times out of 10, even if he’s got the flat, if he goes, we’re gonna give up the flat, okay. We’re gonna let him do what he needs to do, and just let him play. I don’t want to harness this guy. He’s too good of a playerm,” Cowher said via NFL Players Second Acts.
Polamalu’s almost telepathic instincts were even sharper against familiar foes. Back in college at USC, he had been roommates with 2002 Heisman Trophy winner and 2003 No. 1 pick Carson Palmer. The two later landed in the same NFL division, with Palmer quarterbacking the Bengals in Cincinnati.
Luckily for us, Cowher shared a classic Polamalu story about how the safety managed to get the better of his old roommate, picking him off three times in 10 regular-season matchups.
“We were big on disguise… We’re playing Carson Palmer and the Bengals. And so Carson Palmer and Troy were roommates in college at USC. And so, Troy comes up, we were calling Cover Two,” the former HC recalled.
“And all of a sudden, Troy’s up there and I just start yelling, ‘Cloud! Cloud! Cloud!’ And Troy’s like this, this this, (waves arm). The ball’s snapped, I go, ‘Dick, what the hell, Troy’s doing his own sh*t, he didn’t even play the defense!’ And [Palmer] throws to the flat and Troy makes the play.”
Cover Two generally calls for the safeties to drop into the deep halves of the defensive backfield, but Polamalu moved by the beat of his own drum. And because he was so intelligent, when he did stray from Cowher’s defense, his explanations were so good that the coach had a hard time staying angry with him. In fact, sometimes he would even put Polamalu’s ideas into action.
“And I go, ‘Troy, it was Cover Two!’ He goes, ‘I know, but I knew it was Carson, if I was in the box he would’ve thought it was three deep because it’s eight in the box. So I told [cornerback] Deshea [Townsend], you take half the field, I’m gonna take the flat from here in the box, so we had Cover Two covered,” Cowher continued.
“I go, ‘If you’re gonna do this, next time tell us you’re gonna do it.’ But then it’s like, ‘Well, we actually have to put that one in.’ He was playing head games with Carson… and he loved disguise.”
No safety will ever come close to Troy Polamalu #steelers I pic.twitter.com/Btb1DJRvp8
— Matthew Luciow (@matthewluciow92) August 12, 2025
And that, in a nutshell, is why Troy Polamalu was one of the greatest, most respected, and most beloved players in modern NFL history. Not only was he so good at his job that he improved on what the coaches had called on the fly, but he was always able to explain his unique thought process well enough so that no one was angry about his impromptu improvisations on the field.
