Troy Polamalu is an enigma. He just might be the closest things pro football has ever had to a superhero. He off-the-field alter-ego, however, is meeker and milder than Clark Kent. He had supernatural ability to immediately diagnose, then blow up an opposing team’s play. He vaulted over the line of scrimmage and tackled the quarterback nanoseconds after the snap. He took a flying leap to snatch a fluttering football from the snowy Heinz Field turf just in time. And he would jump, arms reaching skyward, to snag an interception because the opposing quarterback never expected him to be there. Polamalu didn’t wear a cape; he had something even better: That long, flowing black hair spilling out of his Steelers’ helmet. As a fan in the stands, the hair was always the signal something great was coming. There’s a chapter in the new Polamalu biography by Jim Wexell entitled, ‘Let them say they lived in the time of Troy Polamalu.’ Amen to that, because it’s a time we won’t see again. “Old and slow,” was the media mantra about the declining Steelers’ defense from 2012-14. Troy took it personally, but nothing more so that when Coach Mike Tomlin and the Steelers brass came to him days after the failed 2014 season with what amounted to an ultimatum: retire or be cut. This scene and Troy’s words really got to me – and they will get to you, too. I read some extended excerpts of Troy Polamalu’s agonizing last days as a Steeler exclusively in my Steelers Update Podcast. So listen up, Steelers fans. The scene is a real heartbreaker in an otherwise uplifting book.

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