October 11, 2025 • 28 mins
Recorded: February 8th, 2024 | The boys were joined by the one and only Troy Polamalu. This interview was a football player’s dream — just a couple of older guys talking inside ball, breaking down X’s and O’s, and having some good old-fashioned dude time. Troy opened up about how relentlessly he studied other players, his love for watching film, and how he decided to make those legendary plays jumping over the line.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to bus with the boys.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We have an absolute legend with us, Troy Polamalu, Man, it.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is it is an honor to have you.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Yeah, outstanding Obviously here on behalf of Freedo Lace Right,
Freedo Lace.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
Cool Ranch Cool.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Wherever the fund wants to take you, it is Freedo
lay Right.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Before the pod, I was kind of asking him off
like us, like what have you been up to? Like
you've always done a very good job of staying under
the radar. And he was getting into uh, his two
boys fifteen and thirteen, Uh, they're starting getting to think
of it with sports and and what I wanted to
ask is what's it like being like, ah, you know,
being like one of those sport fathers, being those sport dads,
like navigating that you're talking about teaching them hard work
and everything else.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Well, to tell you the truth, like once sports are
over with and you know, like you get into the stands,
you become no different than any other dad. That's what
I realized. Like, first of all, for my children, they
don't give it. They don't care what I say, whether
it's about football or not.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Really.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Secondly, is I don't like, you know, the crazy sports.
That thing is, I've embodied that completely. I've tried my
best not to be that person. So it's it's pretty funny.
I've been all that. I've been the sports that I've been,
the coach, I've been all that, and that's that's kind
of been my experience since it's football. To be honest with.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
You, we had Ed McCaffrey on here. He's talking about
obviously his son Christian, he's playing in the Super Bowl
and all that. And Christian was on last year talking
about all the crazy things his dad would do during
the recruiting process, putting weights in his sock so we.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Weighed more IV during in the middle of school, pick
him up for a night and get an IV.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
He went to a private.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
School and he had to wear jeans and his dad
be like, jeans a little heavy for game day.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Do you catch yourself like obviously having the success you
did in the NFL and you see your young boys
like playing yeah, no soda, no carpetation, had the belly
like you see your your own boys like starting their process.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Is do you ever catch yourself.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Being like if you know, hey, sleep routine, diet, all that,
Because when I mean all men didn't play in the league,
but you know, we just kind of ate whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Right, it was high school. You kind of just figured
out as you win.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
But you having that knowledge, have you tried to put
that on your kids at all?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah, but then you but then you evolve towards doing
with the most optimal for your body and for your health. Yeah,
it's kind of tough to be honest with you. I'm geared.
I'm geared very much type A, although I may not
act that way, you know, so I am very regimented
and how I view things and how I do things,
so funny enough is yeah, absolutely, I've watched that Ed McCaffrey,
(02:39):
like his his inside the NFL and everything that he'd done.
That's how I obsessed I am. I study other fathers to
make sure like.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Dad.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
So so aside from that, you know, a very infamous
father and who I think is unfortunately characterized that way.
Marv Marinovich was my trainer, so he was kind of
like seen as the ultimate sports stat and you know,
bestowing all of his knowledge on his son. So yeah,
there is a certain balance there, absolutely, but without a doubt.
(03:11):
You know, as you know and you learn in the
in the NFL is it's always the little things.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Everybody does the big things with always the little things
and the accumulation those little things that kind of make
the big difference in those inches that are millimeters that
you try to gain throughout the sport. And for my
son it's it's it's a little bit of that, you know.
I'm not telling them, you know, wear jeans or not
wear jeans or any of that sort of stuff without
a doubt. I tell them how important sleep is. How
(03:38):
important I'm saying this for all the other kids out
there is, you know, the most important thing for kids
and for any athlete is sleep, hydration, and then the
diet and then the therapy and then the training. So
the things that are under your control or the sleep,
the diet, you know, and the hydration. So that's one
thing that I am very you know strict on is like, no, man,
you got a hydrate if you want to play too sports,
(04:00):
you want to play five sports, whatever the case is, Like,
these things are really important. So I am pretty strict
Aboyut some of those things.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Are they both are? They both very different?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Is one more type A is one more like you
that you feel like Okay, I can coach him this
way and coach the other one this way.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Oh yeah, absolutely, they're They're exact opposite ones, very geared towards, uh,
trying to please everybody, and one of them is very
much about himself.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah they do, they understand, I'm sure they do.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
But finding like that interest of like, oh my my
dad played at this high level. He's this hall of
fame guy, like the things he says, I'm more of
a sponger.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Is it very much that?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Uh? You know, since you're the dad one, you're out
the other at times, and then their coaches something like
I've been trying to tell you this the whole time.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
To be honest, I joke that my kids are like that.
But they aren't. They're very there. I'm very blessed. They
listen really well. They do. You look up old highlights
and things like that, but you know, they I'm very fortunate. Again,
we have a very a very great relationship with my
two boys.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Do you love looking back at usc and and and
watching that hit you put on Old Boy?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What was it on Special Teams?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
I don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Man.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
And funny enough, funny enough, My on that hit. It
was Aaron Locket, Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
It was.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
It was an ill timed hit. But what I always
tell people is that was the third one. The two
before that we're perfectly timed. So if you were to
watch the whole game, you want to saw the two
before that. But uh, my wife was like I had
met her at that time, right before, and she was like, man,
that guy's a cheap player. I hope I never meet
that guy. I'd say something terrible to Hi'm like, yeah,
(05:36):
I wouldn't want to meet him. There is a piece
of crap that she's later found out it was obviously me.
But yeah, with.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
The kids, like sticking on that for just one more,
like it was wherever a point in your life as
your kids get older, they discover they go to school,
their kids are talking about your your kids friends are
talking about their their dad, and like tempering those expectations
as they kind of go to sports, like, hey, you
don't don't have to Like the goal is not to
like achieve what I did. It's like to be the
best version of yourself. Did you ever have like were
(06:05):
they ever struggling with that anything?
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah? I think naturally they I me and my son
plays football and they both they both be playing tackle football.
So I think naturally they're going to deal with that.
And I mean, you guys have been in this all
We've been all the same circles. You know, these things
aren't to it an advantage to anybody right in our circle.
But I I I tell them to embrace that. You know,
that's only going to harden them, make them even better,
(06:29):
you know, in a lot of ways. And also is
you know I've I've also been on the other side
of where I've always been the jealous athlete, always trying
to knock down the who's ever on top, and and
you know, there was a lot of bad characteristics that
I had growing up because of that. So you know,
I try to coach my son like how to deal
with people that have similar character of how I was,
(06:51):
you know, growing up very jealous, very competitive, very alpha type.
So what they do have is they have, you know,
somebody who's got a lot of life experience, you know,
that's able to impart a lot of knowledge. And to
their credit, they're great listeners.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Who are some of those safeties that you were jealous of?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Oh, all of them. To be honest with you, but
are there a couple or.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Is there one that you're just like?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
So every year, every year, I watched five safeties and
I would literally watch every single one of their plays,
and I would make a highlight tape and a low
light tape of all of them. So that's what I
did throughout my whole career. Ed was somebody I watched
every I watched every single one of his plays. So
obviously Ed is somebody who I admired. But there's a
bunch of guys like Donnavan, Darius, Bob Sanders, a lot
(07:36):
of guys that don't get a lot of credit that
you know, were Hall of Fame type caliber players that
didn't have length. And to be very frank man, I
was in the most beautiful situation in Pittsburgh. I have
a Hall of Fame defensive coordinator, hall of Fame head coach. Man.
You could put any of these players in my position
and they would have been just as successful as I am.
(07:56):
I studied, I was obsessed with the game. I broke
downies in this way and even cornerbacks in this way.
So I don't say these things humbly. I see I
study these guys. I studied everything about them. You know,
I studied father, I studied MacCaffrey, I studied Marinvi. I'm'm
telling you, so these sort of things aren't aren't. Like
(08:17):
that's obviously who I am. Maybe a part of my
success as a football player, but it's it's it's just
who I am. It's the things of how I view
you know, trying to be a father or trying to
help train athletes or whatever the case is.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Were you very were was all this this uh student
of the preparation? Did you have all this in usc
and it helped carry you into the league or did
it obviously develops over time? But did you kind of
have that sense of urgency in preparation at college?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
No?
Speaker 4 (08:45):
I absolutely developed it over time. And what I did
is I studied the greats. Like if anybody at this
period of time knows, like saw how Ed Reid how
much he talked about how important film was, and he
didn't listen to that, you know what I mean? Like
this he was talking in college about this stuff, and
I'm listening to him in college and so so like
(09:05):
all of these sort of things became habits for me.
You know, here you hear here and there about what
Tom Brady is doing and all these guys about health, wellness, longevity,
and you know, how to keep a sharper edge. And
you know, you hear about how other athletes rob you know,
like Gilbert Rene is talking about how he watched Kobe
Bryant play and how he learned from these guys. And honestly,
(09:27):
it's very simple in that way. You know, you got
to have a student mindset in the sport. You nothing,
You're not going to be original in anything. There's a
lot of great players that have done a lot of
great things, and and and and you guys have walked
in these shoes. It's no secret, man, It's it's sacrifice,
it's grit, it's hard work. It's no special talent that
anybody else has. So you know, as long that to
(09:50):
me is it was my mindset. So that's why I
learned from guys like Ed, guys like Donovan Darius. A
lot of safeties that I studied that aren't quite very
famous out there.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
When you were talking about like Hall of Fame decordinators,
Dick Lebeaux, he was with the Tennessee Titans for a year.
And this is a guy who like walks into a
room and you're like, holy shit, dude, that's Dick Lebow
and he's a legend, and there's so many things that
we went and played the Steelers on thursdayight football.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
We got destroyed.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It was like it was ab catching the ball in
the back of his head. It was just an absolutely
they molly waffed us. But like he bought all these
other players in these Hall of Fame dudes is a
Kessel Kesel. Yep, he bought him and a bunch of
other guys, and they had conversations with us. But one
of the things they always would tell amazing stories about
Dick and I there was one time for Christmas, right
around Christmas time, we'd have a team meeting and I
(10:39):
don't know if he did this with you guys. He
sat and he read the night before Christmas in front
of the whole team.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
No he didn't.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Didn't.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
He cited the entire.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Book or story like verbatim, and so like, are there
any like some Dick loboisms that maybe the world doesn't
know about as much?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Well for to extend on that story, though, this is
something he did every year. So it was like a
tradition on the last game before Christmas and to me,
I always look forward to that every year because I mean,
you experienced it, you understand like the level of like
you kind of look around here like, dang, man, like
this guy's reciting the whole poem. He writes an intro
(11:17):
and you know, an intro to it that he wrote
himself that like it is perfectly in line with the
entire poem. And then you to me what I would
love to what I loved At those moments, I would
look around at all the younger guys and then they
that's when they like would really start to say, Man,
I'm part of something special and very different, Like they
don't do this normally different at you know, in the NFL.
(11:38):
So to me, that was always really special thing that
he would always do. In fact, even to this day,
on the night before Christmas, I'll pull up the video
on YouTube and my family will watch it as well.
But Kosa bo Is he's I mean, you experienced them
for a year. But in my career he was everything
to me. I mean he was came in my second
year and we left the Steelers together. Man. Every every
(12:03):
day was like a like a like a like a
like a there was like a wi sage moment with him,
it was like whoa, that was profound, Like thank you
for that.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
It was just like every day was that. And and
you don't get that from coaches that you like, you
know what I mean, Like coaches you get different type
of wisdom from he got gave like sage advice. So
and it came like at like like he was never
a yell er, He was never a custer, you know.
(12:33):
But so it was just just came like in a
very real sense, and especially the fact that he's a
Hall of Fame player, you know. The funny things that
he would always do is like he'd come to dB
line he just walked down you go twelve, fifteen, twenty seven,
fifty five, He's like, all of you guys don't amount
to the amount of interceptions that I have. He would
(12:56):
literally just go like that, like yep, that's fifty five.
All you guys come buy sixty three over early. So yeah,
he was he was awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Was his was the beauty of his coaching, The consistency.
Consistency like having him from a year two toll when
you finished, did he ever kind of waver.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
And absolutely absolutely not. But also like you know, he
I think that's one thing is is his consistency. But like,
I don't know, like it wasn't like he changed his messes,
it got stale, none of it. Never did that. But
he always kept us excited and happy. I don't know why.
It was just that that level of respect that we had.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
For him, such a unique like way to go about things.
I feel like the coaching world, at least when we
grew up in was like more yelling, more intensity, and
there was like such a calmness about him. Everywhere he walked.
He comes, see you, he remember everybody's name. Tap you
on the shoulder as he left, gentle tap on the shoulder.
You're like, man, we had a moment.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I feel the first time you experienced somebody like that too.
You're just thinking like, Okay, there's another way that goes
about it. And I'm kind of receptive to this.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Like he's he like told me one days, like he's
like he just for the heck of it, he went
like four hundred days eating a cheeseburger every day. So
you tried to do something like that with like you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
But I'm so fascinated with the way you were talking
about your preparation and being kind of obsessed with like
watching everybody else and kind of adding those parts of
the game.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I know we talk about doing things like that and.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Just that that that level of of detail. Could you
you have your style of play of like being up
on the line of scrimmage, rolling to the middle of
the field, jumping over the line of scrimmage, like doing
all these.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like unique things.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
And uh, was there a time Because I feel like,
when you're a player and you want to go make
a play, right coach coach will be in the film
ro I'm like, yeah, you make the decision, you better
make a play or it wouldn't work out. Like, was
there a time where you're studying these other guys and
you're thinking, Okay, Ed Reed just did this or this
this guy just happened, Like I'm going to start adding
this wrinkle to my and then when that moment did happen,
(15:02):
you're like, Okay, the leash of Palamolo gets longer because like, hey,
he's going out here and making these.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Plays, so oh yeah, there's there's absolutely a lot of
things for ed in particular that he would do that
I'm like, oh man, I need to incorporate that, and
and funny thing is that's what I would use Scout
Team for. To be honest with you, I'm like, I
want to I want to do Scout Team. I want
to do Scout Team because I'm like, oh, well, you know,
I want to try some of the things I've seen
how some of these other safeties do you know? One
(15:27):
thing that that I try to tell people about football
is it's a it's it's a hard sport to get
really good at in a sense because we spend our
off season working out. So like the mentality is every
off season the only way that we can get better
is to get bigger, stronger, and faster. You know, it's
not get better at our skill development. So for me,
(15:48):
I realized that, man, in order for as this for
a safety to become better, I need to get more
reps at practice. So I needed, like seemore, I need
to just continue to see it. So that's where that's
where I really started to change my practice habits to
like get more reps on the field so that I
could I could see see more. I actually learned that
(16:09):
from a book of the ten Thousand Hours book I
forget yeah outliers and just talking about like that, maximize
that rep. So I was like, man, I need to
maximize reps on the field. So whenever I would go
and do scout team, that's where I was maximizing the reps.
But then I would also incorporate the things that I
saw on film, like oh Man, ed disguis cover one
this way to make it look like cover six. So
(16:31):
he baited that front side post that they wouldn't throw
and cover three, but they would throw and cover six.
You know that he would do these genius type things
like oh man and maybe oh they call cover one, Hey,
let's make it look like six. And you know, these
sort of things that you could practice and Ryan would
be out there or Chris Hope, you know, the other
safety would be out there, so we'd be, you know,
practicing these guys together. The other thing was at Pittsburgh,
(16:55):
the unique thing that I hadn't as a role was
my rookie year. They maybe play safety, they may play
safety both safeties, which were two different positions at the time,
and then both nickel and the dime so end cornerback.
So I was end up being like the big safety
on corner. So I literally played almost every position on
defense and then on sometimes on three man rushes, I'd
(17:15):
be the fourth rusher, so I could run a text.
I can run the X game with some with the
with the d N.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So you could literally.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Say I played every position. What was really cool about that.
Terrible about that was I had to learn them all,
which was terrible because my whole rookie year I gave up.
I promised, I gave up a touchdown a game and
it was I'm serious. What's funny about that is my
second year, if any rookie it would have come in
and done that, I would have been like, get him
out of the game. Like my standard had been crazy different.
(17:45):
But anyway, when you look at an offense and then
you see, hey man, they attack you in this way,
and I'm a safety, I'm like, I play every position.
I know what everybody's doing. If I know the ball's
going there, coach, I'm just gonna switch with him. I'm
gonna say, all right, you know, linebacker, you play safety.
I'm gonna play linebacker because I know if I if
(18:06):
you play it right, but I know the play, I'm
gonna play, blow it up. So for me, it was
that's that's that's kind of where I started really developed.
It's hard as seeing. Man, I'm knowing everybody's role, and
if I know that the ball is gonna go there,
I'm just gonna switch positions with him.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So you would do that in real time in the game.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
In real time in the game.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
This when they wouldn't be a practicing, you'd be like, okay,
I have a really good inclase.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
It started.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
I started getting smart enough to know that when I
would do this and practice, the coaches would say you
can't do that. I'm like, all right, I'll just wait
for the game to do that. And then during the
games I'm like, oh, but you know I'm not talking
about I'm also giving up blitz this. I'm also saying, hey, James,
you'd be better and this was this blitz than I
am because I know you're going to get the running back.
I won't. I'll get the running back too. But you
know the same thing, like the same thing you know,
(18:54):
like I know I'm gonna get to tie it end.
Let's switch positions because I'll rush a d gap, you
rush your rush, contained I'll get the tackle, you get
the tight end. So like you know these little nuances
that you can make everybody better. Everybody didn't think like,
oh well, why would you switch the place? Are you
kidding me? James versus the tight end and me versus
the tackle. Of course I'm gonna lose. He's gonna win
one hundred percent of the time. Yeah, So that that's what.
(19:16):
That's what. What what started to make our defense really
roll together, and what's started to hurt our defense late
in my career is you get rookies out there. I'm like,
hey man, you got curl of flight. He's like, what's
curl the flat?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You can't be doing that.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I'm like, oh, man, do you remember the first play
where that worked out? Where you just kind of went
out of the box and and and took a shot
and it happened to work well to where it's like, okay.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
You know it was more or less that happens in
like coverage. You know, coaches will be yelling me, hey,
it's covered two, it's covered two, it's covered two. You
be in the half and I'm showing cover three. But
I'm telling the corner, hey, you got the half, I'm
gonna take the flat. So I'm showing cover three the
whole time, and coach is yelling at the side. Hey, hey,
(20:01):
you got to be back. You got to be back,
And I'm like trying to ignore him, and then all
of a sudden it's like, you know, I'll get to this.
Sound like coach, I just inverted with the corner. I
let him play the half. I played the you know,
I just want to give the quarterback a different look.
They've been calling this and cover three every time, So
those little things is what Coach Lebo started to allow us,
(20:22):
Like yeah, man, here's the call. Make it right, you
know what I mean, like just giving us that level
of flexibility in a lot of ways. We're talking about
how coach Tomman does too.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
How long did it take for a coach Bow to
be like, all right, I understand you think it's going
to be a point where you're supposed to be a
Cover two, but you're showing Cover three and you go
to sideline and it's like, you can't do that. How
many times did it work? How many times I have
to work before they were like maybe he's onto something
like yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
I'm I'm a little bit of a politician too, you know,
like I I would tell him you told me this though,
If you tell me it's one hundred percent run, then
I'm going to play one hundred percent run. Don't tell
me it's going to be something that it's not. And
that's what I try to tell the players, like just
don't study film to study film. You know, if Ed
(21:09):
taught us anything, man, it's like you make plays studying film.
Believe what you see is what he would always say.
I'm like, all right, I'll believe what I see. So
all of these like anyway, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
It's like for all the kids out there listening, make
sure you understand your install first, know what to do,
know how to do it.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
But no, that is it's just cool like hearing those stories.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Like I remember I got to play with Ryan Clark
in his last year when he was in Washington and
I was starting to come into the hull and get
some play and everything else, and Ryan at practice like
he was somebody that was such a student of the game.
And you'd be out a practice and you know how
it is. It's like you want to be a situational
master and like whatever down in distance it was, you'd
hear Ryan back their chirp and like how pivotal was it.
(21:48):
I'm sure that's what made your defense great. Everybody having
that level of standard of kind of knowing every situation,
know how to talk about it. But as the huddle breaks,
as the formations coming out, emotion happening. But how beneficial
was it to have like a back end like that
and somebody likes you, like Ryan Clark.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It's everything's I meant, it's absolutely everything. And it may
not be like that in every organization, but it's absolutely
everything to me and everything to our defense because the
level of trust and exposure that we would consistently put
each other in is you know, it takes a lot
of takes a lot of like cohesiveness to do that.
(22:25):
I meant, when we do some of this manipulation on
the back end, you have to understand you're completely exposing
somebody else. Oftentimes that was Ike, you know, like hey, Ike,
we're doing this over here. Sorry you're man and man
cover zero with their Chad o Cho Sinkle or Brandon Marshall.
You know, So we were always like we that was
the only reason why we were allowed to do what
(22:47):
we do is because you know, Ryan's communicating Ike cornerback
Brian McFadden there cover zero oftentimes where you know, we
want to do some cowboy type stuff. But they they
hold their own. They're the reason why we were, you know,
as successful as we were.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Man, Mike Tomlin just I was had the opportunity he
coached me at the Pro Bowl in twenty sixteen, and
just being around him and his presence was very like
Dick lebo esque. Yeah, just more of a calming, more
like positive and confident. Can you just like elaborate on
him and his legacy as a Steelers head coach?
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Man, I really enjoyed his podcast with Ryan. Ryan Clark
did a podcast with him, and I was just like, man,
I'm so happy people get to see coach Tomlin like
like who he really is, because he's he's not he
that's who he is. That's who he is as a coach,
you know what I mean? Like I guess, I guess
maybe like press conference, like the it's like the he's
(23:41):
like the Bill Belichick in the press conference, you know,
like completely the opposite. But man, it was really cool
to see that level of who he is because when
I mean, he was thirty four when I when he
came to coach the Steelers. I mean, it's it's amazing
that he was that young. And aside from that that
he had a family and had young children. So like
these kids that grew up in the locker room now
(24:02):
now that you like kind of see him, So I
don't know's he's an amazing father, Uh, Coach. I meant
later in my career he would we would have dB sessions.
I learned so much from him about protection routes based
on protections and all these different things. So he's incredible. Actually,
it's so fortunate to have him. Coach Kaward Dick Lebow.
(24:25):
That's why that's why I say humbly, but I say
in all sincerity, Man, you put anybody in my position. Man,
these guys are you can't do nothing but be a
Hall of Famer. To be very frank with you, how
was it that I know?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And we're getting the wrap up signal, but I have
to ask, like, how sick is it knowing that you
pulled off all those line of scrimmage plays. I mean
you're getting to watch back like diving over the line
of scrimmage, timing up snaps like that's pretty bad because.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
If it didn't work, yeah it's called.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Yeah it's funny it is. It didn't work sometimes, but
you know it goes back to the outliers. Thing what
I realized is that a safety needs to see everything,
and that means like not only the formation, not only
the personnel, but like how they break the huddle. And
you know this, You know the difference between zero, silent
(25:21):
count or onto and the urgency that offensive lineman comes
to you. It's all on zero. Man, they're gonna get
up there and then to get ready or if you know,
these sort of sort of game situations. So the funny
thing about it is that's where I started to develop
this because I was like, man, everybody breaks the line
very differently. When offensive line they come it's on two,
they break with different sense of urgency than when it's
(25:42):
quick snap or silent count. And when you start to
see that, you also see it when they run back
to the huddle. So I would always tell people watch
the full length of the play, as in like how
long the call it takes to make the call, how
long it takes for them to run through the line,
and all these things mean something. So the funny thing
is when it started to happen. I say started to
(26:04):
happen is I was just reacting. I had never thought
about it. I was just like, oh, jumping and then
to doing it, I'm like, oh man, oh wow, that worked.
It wasn't until I was like, okay, is this game situation?
Oh you gotta you gotta jump it. And then that's
when I would actually jump off side. So I started
to really understand how I was as an athlete that
I'm like, okay, you have to overly prepare so that
(26:26):
you can just be instinctial and be free rather than
like be a student out there that's always like you
know what I mean. I really just had to go
out there and be free. So when I did jump,
you know, blitz and do those sort of things, man,
it was I swear to you, pure instinct. It was
just like afterwards, I make it play like, oh man,
it was like it was a crazy ride. But it
(26:47):
wasn't when I was thinking that's when I would jump
offside and do it wrongly. So it was funny. Well,
I know, we got to one one, one last, This
is it?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
This is it?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Right? Like you as you became more famous and more
established as a player and all that, Like the hair
was always a thing that people were like, that's how
we know it's Troy Paul Ballow. Did it ever get
to the point for you were like, I literally can't
change his look up ever, because this is this is
me now, I'm a mustache guy.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
But you're saying you can never say success. This is
my identity.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I love it so much, But there's got to be
a point where're like, you know, maybe you wake up
and you had a little bed head. You're like, man,
it'd be so much easier if I just kind of
bicked it and let it go on a little bit.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
A better way to put it is, it was always
part of my identity before yea. So it wasn't like
it's something that had to hold on to. So it
was more or less like it was always my identity
before I even had it, and it was like it
was a specific identity. You know, like my my mother
in law, who's a classic as a classicist, very Greek classicist,
would always say all the greatest warriors through all time
(27:49):
had long hair. You know, you talked about Samurais, Native Americans,
the ancient Hebrews, to you know, all of them Polynesians,
they all had long hair. So I was like, oh, okay,
I like that. Probably they probably had mustaches to the.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Long haired mustache well, thanks so much man.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
This is awesome.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
It's making great having you.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Make sure to subscribe, comment, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah.
Welcome to bus with the boys.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We have an absolute legend with us, Troy Polamalu, Man, it.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is it is an honor to have you.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Yeah, outstanding Obviously here on behalf of Freedo Lace Right,
Freedo Lace.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
Cool Ranch Cool.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Wherever the fund wants to take you, it is Freedo
lay Right.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Before the pod, I was kind of asking him off
like us, like what have you been up to? Like
you've always done a very good job of staying under
the radar. And he was getting into uh, his two
boys fifteen and thirteen, Uh, they're starting getting to think
of it with sports and and what I wanted to
ask is what's it like being like, ah, you know,
being like one of those sport fathers, being those sport dads,
like navigating that you're talking about teaching them hard work
and everything else.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Well, to tell you the truth, like once sports are
over with and you know, like you get into the stands,
you become no different than any other dad. That's what
I realized. Like, first of all, for my children, they
don't give it. They don't care what I say, whether
it's about football or not.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Really.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Secondly, is I don't like, you know, the crazy sports.
That thing is, I've embodied that completely. I've tried my
best not to be that person. So it's it's pretty funny.
I've been all that. I've been the sports that I've been,
the coach, I've been all that, and that's that's kind
of been my experience since it's football. To be honest with.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
You, we had Ed McCaffrey on here. He's talking about
obviously his son Christian, he's playing in the Super Bowl
and all that. And Christian was on last year talking
about all the crazy things his dad would do during
the recruiting process, putting weights in his sock so we.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Weighed more IV during in the middle of school, pick
him up for a night and get an IV.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
He went to a private.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
School and he had to wear jeans and his dad
be like, jeans a little heavy for game day.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Do you catch yourself like obviously having the success you
did in the NFL and you see your young boys
like playing yeah, no soda, no carpetation, had the belly
like you see your your own boys like starting their process.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Is do you ever catch yourself.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Being like if you know, hey, sleep routine, diet, all that,
Because when I mean all men didn't play in the league,
but you know, we just kind of ate whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Right, it was high school. You kind of just figured
out as you win.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
But you having that knowledge, have you tried to put
that on your kids at all?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah, but then you but then you evolve towards doing
with the most optimal for your body and for your health. Yeah,
it's kind of tough to be honest with you. I'm geared.
I'm geared very much type A, although I may not
act that way, you know, so I am very regimented
and how I view things and how I do things,
so funny enough is yeah, absolutely, I've watched that Ed McCaffrey,
(02:39):
like his his inside the NFL and everything that he'd done.
That's how I obsessed I am. I study other fathers to
make sure like.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Dad.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
So so aside from that, you know, a very infamous
father and who I think is unfortunately characterized that way.
Marv Marinovich was my trainer, so he was kind of
like seen as the ultimate sports stat and you know,
bestowing all of his knowledge on his son. So yeah,
there is a certain balance there, absolutely, but without a doubt.
(03:11):
You know, as you know and you learn in the
in the NFL is it's always the little things.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Everybody does the big things with always the little things
and the accumulation those little things that kind of make
the big difference in those inches that are millimeters that
you try to gain throughout the sport. And for my
son it's it's it's a little bit of that, you know.
I'm not telling them, you know, wear jeans or not
wear jeans or any of that sort of stuff without
a doubt. I tell them how important sleep is. How
(03:38):
important I'm saying this for all the other kids out
there is, you know, the most important thing for kids
and for any athlete is sleep, hydration, and then the
diet and then the therapy and then the training. So
the things that are under your control or the sleep,
the diet, you know, and the hydration. So that's one
thing that I am very you know strict on is like, no, man,
you got a hydrate if you want to play too sports,
(04:00):
you want to play five sports, whatever the case is, Like,
these things are really important. So I am pretty strict
Aboyut some of those things.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Are they both are? They both very different?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Is one more type A is one more like you
that you feel like Okay, I can coach him this
way and coach the other one this way.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Oh yeah, absolutely, they're They're exact opposite ones, very geared towards, uh,
trying to please everybody, and one of them is very
much about himself.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah they do, they understand, I'm sure they do.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
But finding like that interest of like, oh my my
dad played at this high level. He's this hall of
fame guy, like the things he says, I'm more of
a sponger.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Is it very much that?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Uh? You know, since you're the dad one, you're out
the other at times, and then their coaches something like
I've been trying to tell you this the whole time.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
To be honest, I joke that my kids are like that.
But they aren't. They're very there. I'm very blessed. They
listen really well. They do. You look up old highlights
and things like that, but you know, they I'm very fortunate. Again,
we have a very a very great relationship with my
two boys.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Do you love looking back at usc and and and
watching that hit you put on Old Boy?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What was it on Special Teams?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
I don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Man.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
And funny enough, funny enough, My on that hit. It
was Aaron Locket, Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
It was.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
It was an ill timed hit. But what I always
tell people is that was the third one. The two
before that we're perfectly timed. So if you were to
watch the whole game, you want to saw the two
before that. But uh, my wife was like I had
met her at that time, right before, and she was like, man,
that guy's a cheap player. I hope I never meet
that guy. I'd say something terrible to Hi'm like, yeah,
(05:36):
I wouldn't want to meet him. There is a piece
of crap that she's later found out it was obviously me.
But yeah, with.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
The kids, like sticking on that for just one more,
like it was wherever a point in your life as
your kids get older, they discover they go to school,
their kids are talking about your your kids friends are
talking about their their dad, and like tempering those expectations
as they kind of go to sports, like, hey, you
don't don't have to Like the goal is not to
like achieve what I did. It's like to be the
best version of yourself. Did you ever have like were
(06:05):
they ever struggling with that anything?
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Yeah? I think naturally they I me and my son
plays football and they both they both be playing tackle football.
So I think naturally they're going to deal with that.
And I mean, you guys have been in this all
We've been all the same circles. You know, these things
aren't to it an advantage to anybody right in our circle.
But I I I tell them to embrace that. You know,
that's only going to harden them, make them even better,
(06:29):
you know, in a lot of ways. And also is
you know I've I've also been on the other side
of where I've always been the jealous athlete, always trying
to knock down the who's ever on top, and and
you know, there was a lot of bad characteristics that
I had growing up because of that. So you know,
I try to coach my son like how to deal
with people that have similar character of how I was,
(06:51):
you know, growing up very jealous, very competitive, very alpha type.
So what they do have is they have, you know,
somebody who's got a lot of life experience, you know,
that's able to impart a lot of knowledge. And to
their credit, they're great listeners.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Who are some of those safeties that you were jealous of?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Oh, all of them. To be honest with you, but
are there a couple or.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Is there one that you're just like?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
So every year, every year, I watched five safeties and
I would literally watch every single one of their plays,
and I would make a highlight tape and a low
light tape of all of them. So that's what I
did throughout my whole career. Ed was somebody I watched
every I watched every single one of his plays. So
obviously Ed is somebody who I admired. But there's a
bunch of guys like Donnavan, Darius, Bob Sanders, a lot
(07:36):
of guys that don't get a lot of credit that
you know, were Hall of Fame type caliber players that
didn't have length. And to be very frank man, I
was in the most beautiful situation in Pittsburgh. I have
a Hall of Fame defensive coordinator, hall of Fame head coach. Man.
You could put any of these players in my position
and they would have been just as successful as I am.
(07:56):
I studied, I was obsessed with the game. I broke
downies in this way and even cornerbacks in this way.
So I don't say these things humbly. I see I
study these guys. I studied everything about them. You know,
I studied father, I studied MacCaffrey, I studied Marinvi. I'm'm
telling you, so these sort of things aren't aren't. Like
(08:17):
that's obviously who I am. Maybe a part of my
success as a football player, but it's it's it's just
who I am. It's the things of how I view
you know, trying to be a father or trying to
help train athletes or whatever the case is.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Were you very were was all this this uh student
of the preparation? Did you have all this in usc
and it helped carry you into the league or did
it obviously develops over time? But did you kind of
have that sense of urgency in preparation at college?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
No?
Speaker 4 (08:45):
I absolutely developed it over time. And what I did
is I studied the greats. Like if anybody at this
period of time knows, like saw how Ed Reid how
much he talked about how important film was, and he
didn't listen to that, you know what I mean? Like
this he was talking in college about this stuff, and
I'm listening to him in college and so so like
(09:05):
all of these sort of things became habits for me.
You know, here you hear here and there about what
Tom Brady is doing and all these guys about health, wellness, longevity,
and you know, how to keep a sharper edge. And
you know, you hear about how other athletes rob you know,
like Gilbert Rene is talking about how he watched Kobe
Bryant play and how he learned from these guys. And honestly,
(09:27):
it's very simple in that way. You know, you got
to have a student mindset in the sport. You nothing,
You're not going to be original in anything. There's a
lot of great players that have done a lot of
great things, and and and and you guys have walked
in these shoes. It's no secret, man, It's it's sacrifice,
it's grit, it's hard work. It's no special talent that
anybody else has. So you know, as long that to
(09:50):
me is it was my mindset. So that's why I
learned from guys like Ed, guys like Donovan Darius. A
lot of safeties that I studied that aren't quite very
famous out there.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
When you were talking about like Hall of Fame decordinators,
Dick Lebeaux, he was with the Tennessee Titans for a year.
And this is a guy who like walks into a
room and you're like, holy shit, dude, that's Dick Lebow
and he's a legend, and there's so many things that
we went and played the Steelers on thursdayight football.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
We got destroyed.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It was like it was ab catching the ball in
the back of his head. It was just an absolutely
they molly waffed us. But like he bought all these
other players in these Hall of Fame dudes is a
Kessel Kesel. Yep, he bought him and a bunch of
other guys, and they had conversations with us. But one
of the things they always would tell amazing stories about
Dick and I there was one time for Christmas, right
around Christmas time, we'd have a team meeting and I
(10:39):
don't know if he did this with you guys. He
sat and he read the night before Christmas in front
of the whole team.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
No he didn't.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Didn't.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
He cited the entire.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Book or story like verbatim, and so like, are there
any like some Dick loboisms that maybe the world doesn't
know about as much?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Well for to extend on that story, though, this is
something he did every year. So it was like a
tradition on the last game before Christmas and to me,
I always look forward to that every year because I mean,
you experienced it, you understand like the level of like
you kind of look around here like, dang, man, like
this guy's reciting the whole poem. He writes an intro
(11:17):
and you know, an intro to it that he wrote
himself that like it is perfectly in line with the
entire poem. And then you to me what I would
love to what I loved At those moments, I would
look around at all the younger guys and then they
that's when they like would really start to say, Man,
I'm part of something special and very different, Like they
don't do this normally different at you know, in the NFL.
(11:38):
So to me, that was always really special thing that
he would always do. In fact, even to this day,
on the night before Christmas, I'll pull up the video
on YouTube and my family will watch it as well.
But Kosa bo Is he's I mean, you experienced them
for a year. But in my career he was everything
to me. I mean he was came in my second
year and we left the Steelers together. Man. Every every
(12:03):
day was like a like a like a like a
like a there was like a wi sage moment with him,
it was like whoa, that was profound, Like thank you
for that.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
It was just like every day was that. And and
you don't get that from coaches that you like, you
know what I mean, Like coaches you get different type
of wisdom from he got gave like sage advice. So
and it came like at like like he was never
a yell er, He was never a custer, you know.
(12:33):
But so it was just just came like in a
very real sense, and especially the fact that he's a
Hall of Fame player, you know. The funny things that
he would always do is like he'd come to dB
line he just walked down you go twelve, fifteen, twenty seven,
fifty five, He's like, all of you guys don't amount
to the amount of interceptions that I have. He would
(12:56):
literally just go like that, like yep, that's fifty five.
All you guys come buy sixty three over early. So yeah,
he was he was awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Was his was the beauty of his coaching, The consistency.
Consistency like having him from a year two toll when
you finished, did he ever kind of waver.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
And absolutely absolutely not. But also like you know, he
I think that's one thing is is his consistency. But like,
I don't know, like it wasn't like he changed his messes,
it got stale, none of it. Never did that. But
he always kept us excited and happy. I don't know why.
It was just that that level of respect that we had.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
For him, such a unique like way to go about things.
I feel like the coaching world, at least when we
grew up in was like more yelling, more intensity, and
there was like such a calmness about him. Everywhere he walked.
He comes, see you, he remember everybody's name. Tap you
on the shoulder as he left, gentle tap on the shoulder.
You're like, man, we had a moment.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I feel the first time you experienced somebody like that too.
You're just thinking like, Okay, there's another way that goes
about it. And I'm kind of receptive to this.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Like he's he like told me one days, like he's
like he just for the heck of it, he went
like four hundred days eating a cheeseburger every day. So
you tried to do something like that with like you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
But I'm so fascinated with the way you were talking
about your preparation and being kind of obsessed with like
watching everybody else and kind of adding those parts of
the game.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
I know we talk about doing things like that and.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Just that that that level of of detail. Could you
you have your style of play of like being up
on the line of scrimmage, rolling to the middle of
the field, jumping over the line of scrimmage, like doing
all these.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like unique things.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
And uh, was there a time Because I feel like,
when you're a player and you want to go make
a play, right coach coach will be in the film
ro I'm like, yeah, you make the decision, you better
make a play or it wouldn't work out. Like, was
there a time where you're studying these other guys and
you're thinking, Okay, Ed Reed just did this or this
this guy just happened, Like I'm going to start adding
this wrinkle to my and then when that moment did happen,
(15:02):
you're like, Okay, the leash of Palamolo gets longer because like, hey,
he's going out here and making these.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Plays, so oh yeah, there's there's absolutely a lot of
things for ed in particular that he would do that
I'm like, oh man, I need to incorporate that, and
and funny thing is that's what I would use Scout
Team for. To be honest with you, I'm like, I
want to I want to do Scout Team. I want
to do Scout Team because I'm like, oh, well, you know,
I want to try some of the things I've seen
how some of these other safeties do you know? One
(15:27):
thing that that I try to tell people about football
is it's a it's it's a hard sport to get
really good at in a sense because we spend our
off season working out. So like the mentality is every
off season the only way that we can get better
is to get bigger, stronger, and faster. You know, it's
not get better at our skill development. So for me,
(15:48):
I realized that, man, in order for as this for
a safety to become better, I need to get more
reps at practice. So I needed, like seemore, I need
to just continue to see it. So that's where that's
where I really started to change my practice habits to
like get more reps on the field so that I
could I could see see more. I actually learned that
(16:09):
from a book of the ten Thousand Hours book I
forget yeah outliers and just talking about like that, maximize
that rep. So I was like, man, I need to
maximize reps on the field. So whenever I would go
and do scout team, that's where I was maximizing the reps.
But then I would also incorporate the things that I
saw on film, like oh Man, ed disguis cover one
this way to make it look like cover six. So
(16:31):
he baited that front side post that they wouldn't throw
and cover three, but they would throw and cover six.
You know that he would do these genius type things
like oh man and maybe oh they call cover one, Hey,
let's make it look like six. And you know, these
sort of things that you could practice and Ryan would
be out there or Chris Hope, you know, the other
safety would be out there, so we'd be, you know,
practicing these guys together. The other thing was at Pittsburgh,
(16:55):
the unique thing that I hadn't as a role was
my rookie year. They maybe play safety, they may play
safety both safeties, which were two different positions at the time,
and then both nickel and the dime so end cornerback.
So I was end up being like the big safety
on corner. So I literally played almost every position on
defense and then on sometimes on three man rushes, I'd
(17:15):
be the fourth rusher, so I could run a text.
I can run the X game with some with the
with the d N.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So you could literally.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Say I played every position. What was really cool about that.
Terrible about that was I had to learn them all,
which was terrible because my whole rookie year I gave up.
I promised, I gave up a touchdown a game and
it was I'm serious. What's funny about that is my
second year, if any rookie it would have come in
and done that, I would have been like, get him
out of the game. Like my standard had been crazy different.
(17:45):
But anyway, when you look at an offense and then
you see, hey man, they attack you in this way,
and I'm a safety, I'm like, I play every position.
I know what everybody's doing. If I know the ball's
going there, coach, I'm just gonna switch with him. I'm
gonna say, all right, you know, linebacker, you play safety.
I'm gonna play linebacker because I know if I if
(18:06):
you play it right, but I know the play, I'm
gonna play, blow it up. So for me, it was
that's that's that's kind of where I started really developed.
It's hard as seeing. Man, I'm knowing everybody's role, and
if I know that the ball is gonna go there,
I'm just gonna switch positions with him.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
So you would do that in real time in the game.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
In real time in the game.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
This when they wouldn't be a practicing, you'd be like, okay,
I have a really good inclase.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
It started.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
I started getting smart enough to know that when I
would do this and practice, the coaches would say you
can't do that. I'm like, all right, I'll just wait
for the game to do that. And then during the
games I'm like, oh, but you know I'm not talking
about I'm also giving up blitz this. I'm also saying, hey, James,
you'd be better and this was this blitz than I
am because I know you're going to get the running back.
I won't. I'll get the running back too. But you
know the same thing, like the same thing you know,
(18:54):
like I know I'm gonna get to tie it end.
Let's switch positions because I'll rush a d gap, you
rush your rush, contained I'll get the tackle, you get
the tight end. So like you know these little nuances
that you can make everybody better. Everybody didn't think like,
oh well, why would you switch the place? Are you
kidding me? James versus the tight end and me versus
the tackle. Of course I'm gonna lose. He's gonna win
one hundred percent of the time. Yeah, So that that's what.
(19:16):
That's what. What what started to make our defense really
roll together, and what's started to hurt our defense late
in my career is you get rookies out there. I'm like,
hey man, you got curl of flight. He's like, what's
curl the flat?
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You can't be doing that.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I'm like, oh, man, do you remember the first play
where that worked out? Where you just kind of went
out of the box and and and took a shot
and it happened to work well to where it's like, okay.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
You know it was more or less that happens in
like coverage. You know, coaches will be yelling me, hey,
it's covered two, it's covered two, it's covered two. You
be in the half and I'm showing cover three. But
I'm telling the corner, hey, you got the half, I'm
gonna take the flat. So I'm showing cover three the
whole time, and coach is yelling at the side. Hey, hey,
(20:01):
you got to be back. You got to be back,
And I'm like trying to ignore him, and then all
of a sudden it's like, you know, I'll get to this.
Sound like coach, I just inverted with the corner. I
let him play the half. I played the you know,
I just want to give the quarterback a different look.
They've been calling this and cover three every time, So
those little things is what Coach Lebo started to allow us,
(20:22):
Like yeah, man, here's the call. Make it right, you
know what I mean, like just giving us that level
of flexibility in a lot of ways. We're talking about
how coach Tomman does too.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
How long did it take for a coach Bow to
be like, all right, I understand you think it's going
to be a point where you're supposed to be a
Cover two, but you're showing Cover three and you go
to sideline and it's like, you can't do that. How
many times did it work? How many times I have
to work before they were like maybe he's onto something
like yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
I'm I'm a little bit of a politician too, you know,
like I I would tell him you told me this though,
If you tell me it's one hundred percent run, then
I'm going to play one hundred percent run. Don't tell
me it's going to be something that it's not. And
that's what I try to tell the players, like just
don't study film to study film. You know, if Ed
(21:09):
taught us anything, man, it's like you make plays studying film.
Believe what you see is what he would always say.
I'm like, all right, I'll believe what I see. So
all of these like anyway, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
It's like for all the kids out there listening, make
sure you understand your install first, know what to do,
know how to do it.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
But no, that is it's just cool like hearing those stories.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Like I remember I got to play with Ryan Clark
in his last year when he was in Washington and
I was starting to come into the hull and get
some play and everything else, and Ryan at practice like
he was somebody that was such a student of the game.
And you'd be out a practice and you know how
it is. It's like you want to be a situational
master and like whatever down in distance it was, you'd
hear Ryan back their chirp and like how pivotal was it.
(21:48):
I'm sure that's what made your defense great. Everybody having
that level of standard of kind of knowing every situation,
know how to talk about it. But as the huddle breaks,
as the formations coming out, emotion happening. But how beneficial
was it to have like a back end like that
and somebody likes you, like Ryan Clark.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
It's everything's I meant, it's absolutely everything. And it may
not be like that in every organization, but it's absolutely
everything to me and everything to our defense because the
level of trust and exposure that we would consistently put
each other in is you know, it takes a lot
of takes a lot of like cohesiveness to do that.
(22:25):
I meant, when we do some of this manipulation on
the back end, you have to understand you're completely exposing
somebody else. Oftentimes that was Ike, you know, like hey, Ike,
we're doing this over here. Sorry you're man and man
cover zero with their Chad o Cho Sinkle or Brandon Marshall.
You know, So we were always like we that was
the only reason why we were allowed to do what
(22:47):
we do is because you know, Ryan's communicating Ike cornerback
Brian McFadden there cover zero oftentimes where you know, we
want to do some cowboy type stuff. But they they
hold their own. They're the reason why we were, you know,
as successful as we were.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Man, Mike Tomlin just I was had the opportunity he
coached me at the Pro Bowl in twenty sixteen, and
just being around him and his presence was very like
Dick lebo esque. Yeah, just more of a calming, more
like positive and confident. Can you just like elaborate on
him and his legacy as a Steelers head coach?
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Man, I really enjoyed his podcast with Ryan. Ryan Clark
did a podcast with him, and I was just like, man,
I'm so happy people get to see coach Tomlin like
like who he really is, because he's he's not he
that's who he is. That's who he is as a coach,
you know what I mean? Like I guess, I guess
maybe like press conference, like the it's like the he's
(23:41):
like the Bill Belichick in the press conference, you know,
like completely the opposite. But man, it was really cool
to see that level of who he is because when
I mean, he was thirty four when I when he
came to coach the Steelers. I mean, it's it's amazing
that he was that young. And aside from that that
he had a family and had young children. So like
these kids that grew up in the locker room now
(24:02):
now that you like kind of see him, So I
don't know's he's an amazing father, Uh, Coach. I meant
later in my career he would we would have dB sessions.
I learned so much from him about protection routes based
on protections and all these different things. So he's incredible. Actually,
it's so fortunate to have him. Coach Kaward Dick Lebow.
(24:25):
That's why that's why I say humbly, but I say
in all sincerity, Man, you put anybody in my position. Man,
these guys are you can't do nothing but be a
Hall of Famer. To be very frank with you, how
was it that I know?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And we're getting the wrap up signal, but I have
to ask, like, how sick is it knowing that you
pulled off all those line of scrimmage plays. I mean
you're getting to watch back like diving over the line
of scrimmage, timing up snaps like that's pretty bad because.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
If it didn't work, yeah it's called.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Yeah it's funny it is. It didn't work sometimes, but
you know it goes back to the outliers. Thing what
I realized is that a safety needs to see everything,
and that means like not only the formation, not only
the personnel, but like how they break the huddle. And
you know this, You know the difference between zero, silent
(25:21):
count or onto and the urgency that offensive lineman comes
to you. It's all on zero. Man, they're gonna get
up there and then to get ready or if you know,
these sort of sort of game situations. So the funny
thing about it is that's where I started to develop
this because I was like, man, everybody breaks the line
very differently. When offensive line they come it's on two,
they break with different sense of urgency than when it's
(25:42):
quick snap or silent count. And when you start to
see that, you also see it when they run back
to the huddle. So I would always tell people watch
the full length of the play, as in like how
long the call it takes to make the call, how
long it takes for them to run through the line,
and all these things mean something. So the funny thing
is when it started to happen. I say started to
(26:04):
happen is I was just reacting. I had never thought
about it. I was just like, oh, jumping and then
to doing it, I'm like, oh man, oh wow, that worked.
It wasn't until I was like, okay, is this game situation?
Oh you gotta you gotta jump it. And then that's
when I would actually jump off side. So I started
to really understand how I was as an athlete that
I'm like, okay, you have to overly prepare so that
(26:26):
you can just be instinctial and be free rather than
like be a student out there that's always like you
know what I mean. I really just had to go
out there and be free. So when I did jump,
you know, blitz and do those sort of things, man,
it was I swear to you, pure instinct. It was
just like afterwards, I make it play like, oh man,
it was like it was a crazy ride. But it
(26:47):
wasn't when I was thinking that's when I would jump
offside and do it wrongly. So it was funny. Well,
I know, we got to one one, one last, This
is it?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
This is it?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Right? Like you as you became more famous and more
established as a player and all that, Like the hair
was always a thing that people were like, that's how
we know it's Troy Paul Ballow. Did it ever get
to the point for you were like, I literally can't
change his look up ever, because this is this is
me now, I'm a mustache guy.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
But you're saying you can never say success. This is
my identity.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I love it so much, But there's got to be
a point where're like, you know, maybe you wake up
and you had a little bed head. You're like, man,
it'd be so much easier if I just kind of
bicked it and let it go on a little bit.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
A better way to put it is, it was always
part of my identity before yea. So it wasn't like
it's something that had to hold on to. So it
was more or less like it was always my identity
before I even had it, and it was like it
was a specific identity. You know, like my my mother
in law, who's a classic as a classicist, very Greek classicist,
would always say all the greatest warriors through all time
(27:49):
had long hair. You know, you talked about Samurais, Native Americans,
the ancient Hebrews, to you know, all of them Polynesians,
they all had long hair. So I was like, oh, okay,
I like that. Probably they probably had mustaches to the.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Long haired mustache well, thanks so much man.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
This is awesome.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
It's making great having you.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Make sure to subscribe, comment, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Yeah.
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Will Compton
Taylor Lewan
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