Troy Polamalu: “I did not seriously consider playing elsewhere”

by fiboploc Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:30 am

Posted by Darin Gantt on April 10, 2015, 6:36 AM EDT

polamalu

It was clear in the weeks leading up to Troy Polamalu’s retirement that the Steelers were done with him, and urged him to retire so they didn’t have to cut him.

But it took Polamalu a bit longer to come to the realization he reached last night, to retire after 12 NFL seasons.

He said he considered last year’s injuries to be freakish in nature, and not a sign he was breaking down. That gave him pause, and made him wonder if he wanted to play. But ultimately, he chose not to uproot his family for another year in the league.

“I did not seriously consider playing elsewhere,” Polamalu told Jim Wexell of the Uniontown Herald-Standard. “It was just whether or not I wanted to play. I had talked to a lot of people about what I should do with my situation, and what they kept saying back to me, and which was not a sufficient reason, was ‘Troy, you played 12 years in the NFL, you won Super Bowls, won individual awards. There’s nothing left to prove. You have a legacy.’ And I just kept saying, ‘First of all, I don’t care about a legacy. Second of all, I play the game because I enjoy it.’ That’s the reason to keep playing.

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he was one of a kind.