Former Steelers safety Troy Polamalu is one of the finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and before the final vote is taken on Saturday, a longtime opponent is putting in a good word for him.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady released a statement explaining just how tough an opponent Polamalu was.
“One key to success for a quarterback is to study a lot of film in order to understand defensive tendencies and know how the defense will try to defend everything you are trying to do as an offense,” Brady said, in a statement released by the Steelers. “But that never worked against Troy. He was one of the most instinctive and disruptive players I have ever played against. Outside of his incredible athleticism, his greatest skill was his unpredictability. You could never quite get a bead on what he was doing, yet he was always around the ball. Troy was just a playmaker who you had to account for on every play. It was amazing to watch film on him and to try to understand how we knew where to be and when. If you wanted to find Troy, you just looked for where the ball was going and you would always find him.”
Brady and Polamalu faced each other five times in the regular season and once in the playoffs, and Brady remembers the challenge of facing Polamalu well.