As the sun set beneath the lush foothills of the Pacific
Northwest, 13-year-old Troy Polamalu jogged alone on the practice
field at Winston Middle School in Tenmile, Ore., clutching a
worn-out football in his hands.
Practice had been over for more than an hour, but the future
All-American remained on the field at the bidding of his uncle,
Salu Polamalu, who sat in the car and pointed at the field whenever
his nephew tried to skulk away to the locker room.
“That definitely left a mark on me,” said Polamalu,
a three-year starter at strong safety for the University of
Southern California.
“The way I was raised has really shaped my work
ethic,” he said. “The opportunity to get better when
everybody else isn’t is where you separate
yourself.”
Despite being hampered by an ankle injury sustained in the game
against Washington State on Oct. 5, Polamalu is the most feared
element of a Trojan defense that has allowed just 18.9 points per
game. He ranks second on the team with 59 tackles, and has also
recorded a pair of sacks and an interception.
“You have to be aware of where Polamalu is on the field,
but we are not going to run away from him every time,” UCLA
head coach Bob Toledo said. “He is going to find the ball
carrier.”
Growing up in Oregon, Polamalu was not too familiar with the USC
program. Nonetheless, when former Trojan head coach Paul Hackett
asked him why he deserved a scholarship more than Southern
California prep stars who had faced tougher competition, Polamalu
had the perfect response.
“I told him, “˜If I come here, I am going to give you
everything I got,” Polamalu said. “You can judge the
level of competition and the performance, but you can’t judge
the heart.”
The sales pitch was effective, as Polamalu signed with the
Trojans and quickly made good on his promise.
Although he did not arrive with the hype or the press clippings
of some of USC’s other recruits, Polamalu drew the attention
of the coaching staff with his grit and determination.
“I went into fall camp trying to hit everybody as hard as
I could, and trying to out-hustle everyone,” Polamalu said.
“I didn’t know how successful I’d be. I just
looked at players like Kareem Kelly and Darell Rideaux, and thought
I couldn’t play with those guys.”
Poised to make the first start of his career against Stanford
midway through his freshman season, Polamalu suffered a setback
that delayed his progress. He collided with former Trojan fullback
Charlie Landrigan during practice, sustaining a severe concussion
that sidelined him for a month.
“The concussions scare me, but I use them as motivation
rather than fear,” said Polamalu who has suffered four in his
career due in large part to his head-first tackling technique.
“I don’t know when my last game is going to be. That is
more of a reason to go lay it on the line and not leave anything
out there.”
Polamalu started all 12 games as a sophomore, but he did not
emerge on the national scene until his junior campaign. The
first-team All-American led USC in tackling with 118 last season,
and tallied a team-high of three interceptions.
Despite putting up such gaudy individual statistics, Polamalu
was still unhappy with his own performance because it did not
translate into victories.
“A six-win All-American season is really not very good at
all,” he said. “Anyone can be a good player, but a
great leader can elevate the whole team. Obviously I failed at
doing that.”
This year, Polamalu is much happier with the course of the
season. The Trojans (8-2, 6-1 Pac-10) are in second place in the
conference, and are still in contention for a berth in the Rose
Bowl.
Although USC needs to win both of its final two games against
traditional rivals UCLA and Notre Dame to potentially secure a bid
to a BCS bowl, Polamalu is more excited about Saturday’s
contest because it’s against the Bruins.
“We have been looking forward to UCLA all year
long,” he said. “Some of us have played on the same
teams as those guys in high school, and we see them around town. We
don’t hang out in Indiana much.”
Despite all of his success at USC, Polamalu has remained as
humble and soft-spoken as he was in his youth.
“What I like best about Troy is that he has not changed at
all,” said Kennedy Pola, Polamalu’s uncle and the
special teams coach at USC. “He is still the same person that
he was as a kid.”
Nearly a decade after spending weekday evenings practicing by
himself on a desolate field in Oregon, Polamalu has kept the ritual
alive as a Trojan. Although his uncle no longer waits for him
outside of the stadium, Polamalu will often run through drills long
after all of his teammates have showered and returned home.
“Games are won every day you step out on the practice
field,” Polamalu said. “The success of this team is
evidence of that.”