Troy's story

[stillthere]

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/feature/24702711/troys-story

While Troy Polamalu was wowing NFL evaluators at his legendary USC pro day workout back in the spring of 2003, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert and coach Bill Cowher were a thousand or so miles away, with their eyes focused on Colorado running back Chris Brown.

Steelers defensive coordinator Tim Lewis, meanwhile, was in Southern California along with a scout, but selecting a safety in the first round at that point was a luxury the team probably could not afford. The locale of their top brass for these pro days indicated as much.

The Steelers believed they already had a verbal deal essentially in place with safety Dexter Jackson, who had just come off a Super Bowl XXXVII MVP performance for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and were prepared to spend what was big money by Pittsburgh's modest free-agent standards to solve their issues on the back end of the defense. So Colbert and Cowher were locked in on first-round running backs with the draft approaching, and the prospect of trading up to land Polamalu with the 16th pick of the 2003 draft -- as would eventually, and historically, take place -- wasn't a consideration at this time.

In fact, were it not for some divine intervention -- in the form of the preternaturally low-spending Arizona Cardinals of all teams swooping in late to make Jackson an offer he could not refuse – in all likelihood Polamalu would never have donned a Steelers jersey, much less come to rise to the pantheon of iconic Steelers' defenders like Jack Lambert, Mean Joe Greene and Rod Woodson.

As it turned out, Polamalu would become an ideal fit in the defense constructed by Cowher and the Steelers' next defensive coordinator, Hall of Famer Dick LeBeau, and, in what might end up being his final NFL season, the game-changing safety is putting the finishing touches on his own Canton-bound resume.

Though Colbert and Polamalu have discussed at times how close he came to never being a Steeler, it's a thought the soft-spoken superstar doesn't care much to entertain – “I don't really think about it,” he said. “I'm not the kind of person who really deals with hypotheticals,” a sentiment echoed by Cowher. But as many in the Steelers' organization think back on the series of events that resulted in the trade up to draft him, the serendipity is in the details.

Super Bowl MVP bolts to the desert

“Coach Cowher and myself were doing the college scouting circuit,” Colbert said, “and we ended up flying to Colorado to work out Chris Brown, the running back. We were flying on a private jet, luckily, and we had to make a stop in Nebraska to pick up fuel and check our messages, and we found out the optimism we had of maybe signing Dexter was gone, because he had decided to join the Arizona Cardinals. So it left us a little disappointed at that point. We wanted to get the veteran guy, but it also opened up the opportunity that now maybe we can draft a guy.

“It just so happened that Troy Polamalu was working out the same day we were traveling to Colorado … By the time we go to Colorado, we found out Troy had a super pro day, and now we got really excited about the opportunity to maybe draft him. And of course we traded up in the first round and Troy became really a legendary safety, a perennial Pro Bowler, and possibly a Hall of Famer. So we were very fortunate.”

Many of the particulars, now 11 years later, Colbert and Cowher remember vividly. They had already spent some time with Penn State running back Larry Johnson -- “He was our No. 1 running back,” Cowher said -- and prior to the Jackson contract falling through he was probably the pick at 27 if he was still on the board. The plane had stopped in Omaha to refuel when Colbert heard a voicemail from longtime front office exec Omar Khan. Khan didn't just blurt out the reality (that the Steelers had somehow lost out on Jackson), recalling, “I would never just leave bad news like that on Kevin's phone.” Instead, he left a simple message to call him back.

In fact, Jackson had been slipping away for a few days, only the Steelers didn't totally know it. “We had progressed with that negotiation and the visit and the physical and the whole bit,” Colbert said, “and thought we were in a good position, and we were looking to get an agreement done.” As some in the organization at the time recalled it, when it came down to actually getting Jackson to put final pen to paper on the formal contract, he became difficult to track down.

Jackson's agent, Peter Schaffer, was in communication with Khan, but “no one could get the kid on the phone,” said one person involved in the deal. “No one knew where he was. It seemed like they were buying time, maybe for something else.” Schaffer also assumed Jackson was going to Pittsburgh, with Cowher lobbying the player hard over the phone. Both teams had similar offers on the table (roughly $10 million over four years), when Jackson instructed his agent that if Arizona came up to $13.5 million on its offer, he'd go there, otherwise it was Pittsburgh.

“So I call Rod Graves (Arizona's general manager at the time) and say, ‘$13.5 (million) over four years and you have a half hour to do it,'” Schaffer recalls, chuckling a bit about it still now. “We thought the number was so high, there was no way they would do it. These were the Arizona Cardinals we're talking about (notoriously low-spending at the time). We thought we were going to Pittsburgh.”

Much to everyone's surprise, the Cardinals said yes. Khan got the news that Jackson had indeed signed elsewhere, while Colbert and the scouts were on the road, so he had the task of passing it along. If Jackson signed the Steelers' deal, no way they trade up to get Polamalu, and, with his stock soaring, Colbert doubts he would have been there with Pittsburgh's original pick, 27th overall.

“If Troy was there when we were picking, we may have still taken him,” Colbert said. “But certainly we would not have traded up.”

The Chin and the agent

Losing a key free-agent target was part of the business, and hardly an isolated incident, but Colbert took it a little more in stride than Cowher did. Cowher was not pleased when Colbert had to break the initial news to the coach on the way to Colorado. “Kevin told me, 'You might want to sit down for this,'” Cowher said. “We weren't real happy about what took place.” Cowher's Steelers had plenty of Schaffer's clients on the roster -- they had a good working relationship -- and in his mind Cowher knew this was part of the business, but he was still a little miffed as he headed to the Colorado workout.

Schaffer, based in Denver, happened to run into a Steelers delegation there, so Colbert tried to run interference.

Colbert to Schaffer: Coach isn't really in a talkative mood about this.

Schaffer to Colbert: No, no I really want to get this straight.

Colbert to Schaffer: Maybe we can do that, but today's probably not the right time. We need to let this simmer a bit.

Schaffer was undeterred, so he approached the coach anyway.

The Chin emerged, and he launched into Schaffer.

Schaffer on Cowher: Oh yeah, he did, big time. I had to explain to Bill, who thought we were going to get 30 percent higher in a half hour? Really, it was 15 minutes because Rod didn't even take the full hour.

Cowher: I said Peter, now is not the time for us to discuss this. I think I probably said some other things as well. I was not appreciative of how it went down, and I just told him I know you represent a lot of our players and we'll continue to deal with you in the future, but now this is one of those that, let's move on … And you should probably move on right now and talk to somebody else, because I don't want to talk right now.

As Schaffer was walking away, shaking his head, Colbert couldn't help chiming in.

Colbert: I told you -- you shouldn't have talked to him.

Cowher can say now that “it was just the business, and it's all part of it,” but in the heat of the moment, and before the Steelers were anywhere close to knowing they were going to land Polamalu, Cowher's pulse was raised.

“I don't believe in hypotheticals,” Cowher said, “but I do believe that things happen for a reason, and I do know for Troy Polamalu that Pittsburgh is the place he was meant to be.”

A plan emerges

It was the following morning, while still in Colorado, when Colbert and Cowher started hatching a new plan. The Steelers had received some good news the night before as Tim Lewis was absolutely raving about Polamalu's workout. Safety was now a primary need. In a perfect world, the team would have signed a proven veteran for that position. “There's a lot of learning and communication that has to go on at the safety position,” Colbert said, “so usually if you're looking for a safety we'll always look at free agency first.”

But suddenly Plan B, or in this case, Plan P, began looking quite attractive.

“I recall it specifically,” Colbert said, “we were sitting at the Lewisville, Colorado Courtyard Marriott, coach and I having breakfast. And, again, it's not that texting or instant information … I remember us talking about (Polamalu's pro day performance) and it was great. It was a good feeling to know that, ‘OK, this guy might really be special.' Because he was a special player, but when you have a special workout on top of it, it really puts the icing on the cake and got our minds thinking about, ‘How can we get this guy?' That's when we really started to think maybe we're going to have to trade up to get him.”

Cowher found himself using that same word, special, the more time he spent on following evaluations of Polamalu. He saw a prospect who could play nickel corner, dime corner, strong safety and probably free safety, too. “He was one of those guys who the more you watched him, the more he kind of grew on you,” Cowher said. “There are certain things you watched him do that no one else could do. He just had that great feel for timing, an unbelievable acceleration -- a burst -- and very understanding and knowledgeable of the game.”

Draft dealings

Polamalu knew a lot was riding on his pro day outing.

He had missed the Orange Bowl and suffered through what he referred to as “an injury-plagued senior season.” He had put in long hours with trainers making sure he was at his best when the scouts arrived en masse. He had heard rumblings that the Steelers and Ravens were two teams particularly high on him (Colbert wouldn't want to consider what it would have been like having to face Baltimore for a decade with Ed Reed, the Ravens top pick in 2002, and Troy Polamalu as their safety pairing).

“I remember my agent saying before my pro day that I was going to go late first or be a second-round pick,” Polamalu said. “But he also told me you really can't rely on any of those estimations. When I visited Baltimore, their defensive backs coach Dennis Thurmond, he was my defensive backs coach at USC, and he said Pittsburgh had interest in me (in the first round). And he really liked for Ed and I to play together in Baltimore, but to draft two safeties would have tough for (general manager) Ozzie Newsome to do at the time.”

The more the Steelers studied Polamalu the more they fell in love with him, and he ultimately ended up with a top-10 grade on their board. So when the Chargers, who needed safety help after losing Rodney Harrison in free agency, passed on him, it was time for Colbert and the Steelers to pounce. They did plenty of homework ahead of time that April, lining up potential trade partners.

“We really didn't think he'd get to 27,” Colbert said.

Through his preliminary work he knew the Chiefs, at pick 16, were looking to trade down (targeting that same Larry Johnson later in the round; had the Steelers stayed at pick 27 and Polamalu been drafted elsewhere, Johnson very likely would have been Pittsburgh's pick, too). Cowher had a strong relationship with Chiefs GM Carl Peterson, and they spoke several times in the days leading up to the draft, working out the intricacies of the trade the morning of the draft.

“I told Carl, listen, if the player we want is here (at pick 16), then we'll do this deal,” Cowher recalled. “So we came to an agreement. And he said, ‘I know who you want.' And I go, ‘OK, whatever.'” Peterson feared the Steelers were moving up to get his back, but, alas, Johnson was destined to go 27th regardless.

Pittsburgh dealt a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick to get to 16 – those Chiefs' picks were eventually used on Julian Battle and Brooks Bollinger – and the Steelers had their man.

His career got off to a rough start in Pittsburgh. Polamalu avoided all media reports on him and even got a little pep talk from Steelers owner Art Rooney late in the season. In 2004, when LeBeau arrived, Polamalu's career took off in his aggressive, hybrid scheme, and Pittsburgh began to feel like home.

“You think of all the guys who have played here for a long time, and they've really become a part of the Steeler family,” Polamalu said. “I've always considered myself -- since I've come here -- to be like a native Pittsburgher, and now I have two native Pittsburgers, two sons that were born here. So Pittsburgh is definitely home to us, and the Rooney family and the Steeler Nation is definitely a family to us as well.”

So forgive Polamalu if he refuses to mull how close he may have come to wearing something other than the black and yellow. Even if somewhere deep inside, he knows it may have all turned out so differently.

“Troy, he knows exactly what happened, but he'll never make a big deal about it,” Colbert said. “We're all just fortunate we've been able to have him as long as we have.”

[Legacy User]

I don't even want to think about where the Steelers would be today if they had drafted Chris Brown instead of Polamalu and Shawn Andrews instead of Roethlisberger.

[Legacy User]

Great story. Thanks for posting.

[Jobu]

Never heard that story before. Good stuff.

Troy and Ed Reed together in Rat Town??? I shudder at the thought!

[FC]

Great read.

Also shows Cowher had some juice with personnel

[V DUB]

Funny, I almost posted about this exact topic in a different thread.

Imagine if Jackson did sign. I remember being pissed when I heard that news...The fucking Cardinal's?!!?

Chips fell exactly right for us getting 5 & 6.

God HAS to be a Steeler fan.

[FC]

Best for the Steelers.
Best for TP.

You know what...I don't hate on Dexter Jackson for getting every penny he could

[Legacy User]

I don't even want to think about where the Steelers would be today if they had drafted Chris Brown instead of Polamalu and Shawn Andrews instead of Roethlisberger.

Not the Shawn Andrews bullshit again. This kind of Stillers fan ignorance make me sad.

[R_S]

The article said they planned on taking Larry Johnson at 27th if they didn't get Troy. Which wouldn't have been a horrible pick. Not Chris Brown horrible that's for damn sure.

[V DUB]

I don't even want to think about where the Steelers would be today if they had drafted Chris Brown instead of Polamalu and Shawn Andrews instead of Roethlisberger.

Not the Shawn Andrews bullshit again. This kind of Stillers fan ignorance make me sad.

Entrenched in lore, no amount of fact is stopping that train.