Making a diving interception in Buffalo. Sacking Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco and forcing a game-turning fumble. Intercepting a pass against the Bengals and scoring a touchdown on a spectacular return.
Those plays were Steelers strong safety Troy Polamalu at his best — and a major reason why his teammates voted him team MVP Thursday.
Vintage Polamalu is what happened after he stepped to the podium inside the Steelers’ media room to accept the honor bestowed upon him by his teammates.
William Gay, he said, should get credit for the critical pick in Buffalo since Gay deflected the pass. Bryant McFadden, Polamalu said, disrupted the pass pattern that allowed him to make the first of his two interceptions against the Bengals.
And the play in Baltimore, which may rank as the Steelers’ most significant and memorable one of the season?
“That was a great call,” said Polamalu, the first safety to win Steelers MVP since Donnie Shell in 1980. “Anybody could have made that play. Nobody tried to block me or anything like that. I’m honestly not trying to be humble. This is the truth.”
His teammates know better.
“He’s one of those players that’s special, that can make plays that no one else can make on the football field,” Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel said of Polamalu. “A lot of us in here think he should get the league defensive MVP.”
Polamalu is the Steelers’ MVP in more ways than one.
He is also the Steelers’ 2010 Walter Payton Man of the Year.
Named after the late, great Chicago Bears running back, the award recognizes community service. Every NFL team nominates one player for the national award, which will be announced the week of the Super Bowl in early February.
Active in a number of different causes, Polamalu champions the plight of homeless veterans, regularly visits kids with cancer at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and plans to one day build an athletic complex in American Samoa.
Polamalu does not like to bring attention to his good deeds away from the football field. That is why he said yesterday that getting recognition for them made him “kind of uncomfortable.”
Not that he basked in becoming the Steelers’ first defensive back to win the Steelers’ MVP award since since Rod Woodson in 1993.
“If I was ever a coach, I would probably never have an award like this just because it’s such a team sport, there’s too many parts that go into making plays on the football field,” Polamalu said. “I think people just vote because they have to vote.”
Polamalu, who got named to his sixth Pro Bowl earlier this week, made it hard for his teammates not to vote for him.
He is tied for second in the NFL with six interceptions, and the eighth-year veteran is fifth on theSteelers in tackles (81) despite missing the last two games because of a lower leg injury.
“This year he’s meant the most,” Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton said. “There’s a difference when he’s not out there.”
By: Scott Brown
Anne
Glad you were back in the game today, Troy. It’s just not the same without you. Congrats, too, on the honors, and thanks for being a football player my kids can look up to. Blessings on the rest of your year. PITT FANS in ARKANSAS
brandy
You are the reason i became a Steelers fan, Keep up the hard work.