zulater
01-13-2011, 01:49 PM
The boy was a freshman in high school, 5'8" and maybe 135 pounds, every ounce of it speed, muscle and stones. He made the varsity football team at Douglas High in Winston, Ore., and late in the summer his team played in a preseason jamboree against other local clubs. When the boy got his chance to play, he ran down a ballcarrier and threw himself into the tackle with such adolescent force that both kids were knocked silly. Laid the wood to him—that's how his coach, Neil Fuller, would remember it 15 years later. And maybe that's the day people began to realize that Troy Polamalu was a little bit different.
Football is widely ruled by technicians, killjoys and personality police. But artists emerge, and they play the game as if it were jazz and not math. Joe Namath was an artist standing in the pocket, with white shoes and a quick release. Dick Butkus was an artist in pursuit of mayhem, forearms at the ready. Barry Sanders was an artist working in tight space, like liquid on cleats. They executed, but they also entertained. Polamalu, the eighth-year strong safety of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is their descendant, turning defense into a form of expressionism.
Late on Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, the Steelers, champions of the AFC North with a 12--4 record, will open their playoff run by hosting their bitter rivals, the Ravens. The 29-year-old Polamalu will be the most dynamic player on the field. He will blitz from the line of scrimmage, defend passes 50 yards into the secondary and tackle running backs from sideline to sideline for a Steelers' defense that allowed just 62.8 rushing yards—a staggering 27 less than the second-best run defense—and a league-low 14.5 points per game.
Polamalu will do all of this in a frantic and unpredictable manner, as if he were playing a sandlot game with friends. "I never know where Troy is going to be lined up," says Steelers linebacker James Farrior, who receives the defensive signals from coordinator Dick LeBeau and calls them in the huddle. And Polamalu will do it with a distinguishing riot of curly black hair falling from the back of his helmet in a way that only accentuates his urgency and brands his performance like the signature at the bottom of a painting.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1180698/index.htm#ixzz1AwkrCFqC
Football is widely ruled by technicians, killjoys and personality police. But artists emerge, and they play the game as if it were jazz and not math. Joe Namath was an artist standing in the pocket, with white shoes and a quick release. Dick Butkus was an artist in pursuit of mayhem, forearms at the ready. Barry Sanders was an artist working in tight space, like liquid on cleats. They executed, but they also entertained. Polamalu, the eighth-year strong safety of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is their descendant, turning defense into a form of expressionism.
Late on Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, the Steelers, champions of the AFC North with a 12--4 record, will open their playoff run by hosting their bitter rivals, the Ravens. The 29-year-old Polamalu will be the most dynamic player on the field. He will blitz from the line of scrimmage, defend passes 50 yards into the secondary and tackle running backs from sideline to sideline for a Steelers' defense that allowed just 62.8 rushing yards—a staggering 27 less than the second-best run defense—and a league-low 14.5 points per game.
Polamalu will do all of this in a frantic and unpredictable manner, as if he were playing a sandlot game with friends. "I never know where Troy is going to be lined up," says Steelers linebacker James Farrior, who receives the defensive signals from coordinator Dick LeBeau and calls them in the huddle. And Polamalu will do it with a distinguishing riot of curly black hair falling from the back of his helmet in a way that only accentuates his urgency and brands his performance like the signature at the bottom of a painting.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1180698/index.htm#ixzz1AwkrCFqC