Education and non-professional career

Polamalu went to the Douglas High School in Winston, located in the state of Oregon. He was named to the All-State first team during his junior year and he managed to win the Most Valuable Player for his school. However, his senior year didn’t go so well because he was injured. He only managed to play in four matches and he still got the Super Prep All-Northwest team award. He was a two-way player which resulted in him rushing for 671 yards, scoring nine touchdowns and landing three interceptions during this year.

His college career started off when he received an athletic scholarship. This allowed him to go to the University of Southern California where he played for the team of the USC Trojans all the way from 1999 to 2002. He was one of the most valuable players of the team all four seasons he played there. This resulted in him achieving 278 tackles, 3 touchdowns, 6 interceptions as well as 29 tackles for a loss.

Professional career

During his last college game Troy got a heavy knee injury during the warm-ups which prevented him to show what he is actually capable of. Anyways, he was drafted as a 16th pick amongst all others in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft. The team that selected him was the Pittsburgh Steelers – the same team that he would go on to play for during his entire career.

He quickly became a star and reportedly the jersey that he wore was the 15th highest selling jersey in the NFL history. Polamalu spent impressive 12 years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and eventually he did retire on the 10th of April, 2015. However, for the time he spent playing for the Steelers he recorded some astonishing stats. He ended his career with 770 tackles, 12 sacks of quarterbacks, 32 heavy interceptions, 14 fumbles and 3 impressive touchdowns. He also got a lot of titles to his name. In 2011 he was ranked as number 6 in the Top 100 Players of the NFL. He got the Steelers MVP in 2010 and the Rookie of the Year in his debut year back in 2003. He won 2 Super Bowl Championships and 8 Pro Bowls.

Personal life

Unlike most of the NFL players that were brought up in a civil and modern environment, Troy was raised in rural Southern Oregon. His birth name is Troy Aumua but back in 2007 he filed to get his maiden name changed to Polamalu. He’s got a variety of different hobbies such as surfing or making furniture. He even plays the piano. Both Troy and his wife converted to the Orthodox Christian church in 2007. He also keeps an Instagram account running and shares pictures and stories of his life regularly.