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  1. #1
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    Troy Polamalu changes routine

    Troy Polamalu said he changed up his offseason rehab and training routine this year to try to ensure that his bothersome calf won't keep him off the field in 2013.

    The Pittsburgh Steelers' star safety missed missed more than half of last season with a calf injury. He said, for the first time in his career, he felt this injury was one that didn't have to happen.

    "There are times when people fall on my knee, and those type of freak accidents that can't be avoided. Last year was the first injury of my career that could've been avoided," he told reporters.

    The 2010 NFL Defensive Player of the Year declined to get into specifics on how he could have kept the calf healthy but says his offseason regimen continues to change as he matures.

    "Time is not stale," Polamalu, 32, said. "You have to continue to evolve as time evolves, your career evolves and your body evolves. I think when you become stale in that way, then it's just kind of a redundant thing."

    Polamalu's calf has bothered him since 2009, but last season was the first time it kept him off the field for a significant amount of time. He said his goal this offseason was to break up the scar tissue that has built up in his calf over the years. He said he "found a great physical therapist" to assist him in that area.

    "If you don't attack the problem of scar tissue, then you're just going to continue to have problems," he told reporters, adding that he hopes to "make these problems obsolete."

    [url]http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9301055/troy-polamalu-pittsburgh-steelers-hopes-make-calf-issues-history[/url]
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  2. #2
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    Ha. This should be a sticky for the board.

    We will see once the season starts how this new routine really helps. I am not holding my breath.

  3. #3
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    It's actually pretty amazing how much medical knowledge and the science of training has advanced and been put to use in the NFL. Players are enjoying longer careers at a higher level of output. Recovery from some catastrophic injuries is almost becoming the norm. A torn ACL was the kiss of death for at least a season or two. Now we have players coming back in 9 months to play at a professional level. But obviously, the later an injury occurs in their career, the less chance at a full recovery. Just wonder how Heath Miller's game will change when he makes it back. He is at that point where age begins to factor to a greater degree. I am hoping the Steelers can get at least 3 solid years from the guy. Then, look at a guy like Gronk. A great player, but it doesn't appear that a long career is in the cards for him (at least, not the kind of career he might hope for).

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by NorthCoast View Post
    It's actually pretty amazing how much medical knowledge and the science of training has advanced and been put to use in the NFL. Players are enjoying longer careers at a higher level of output. Recovery from some catastrophic injuries is almost becoming the norm. A torn ACL was the kiss of death for at least a season or two. Now we have players coming back in 9 months to play at a professional level. But obviously, the later an injury occurs in their career, the less chance at a full recovery. Just wonder how Heath Miller's game will change when he makes it back. He is at that point where age begins to factor to a greater degree. I am hoping the Steelers can get at least 3 solid years from the guy. Then, look at a guy like Gronk. A great player, but it doesn't appear that a long career is in the cards for him (at least, not the kind of career he might hope for).
    Something tells me guys like the GRONK started lifting at age 7 and now it's catching up to him. I can see where a change of routine can help anyone and let the body adjust to something new instead of taking the same beating day in and day out.
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by NorthCoast View Post
    It's actually pretty amazing how much medical knowledge and the science of training has advanced and been put to use in the NFL. Players are enjoying longer careers at a higher level of output. Recovery from some catastrophic injuries is almost becoming the norm. A torn ACL was the kiss of death for at least a season or two. Now we have players coming back in 9 months to play at a professional level. But obviously, the later an injury occurs in their career, the less chance at a full recovery. Just wonder how Heath Miller's game will change when he makes it back. He is at that point where age begins to factor to a greater degree. I am hoping the Steelers can get at least 3 solid years from the guy. Then, look at a guy like Gronk. A great player, but it doesn't appear that a long career is in the cards for him (at least, not the kind of career he might hope for).
    Funny you talk about the advances in sports medicine. Dr. Lewis Yokum just dies yesterday. He, along with Drs. James Andrews and Frank Jobe are probably the godfathers of the extended career. I was listening on the radio this morning to an interview with someone who was talking about that. Think about how it was years ago. When a player used to have surgery, you would wait and hear that "surgery was successful" to repair whatever damage he had. Today it isn't even necessary because almost every surgery succeeds, and rehabs take a fraction of the time.

    As a Canadian, the usual thought goes to Bobby Orr. The greatest Dman to ever lace them up. If he was playing today, he would have played at least 5-10 years beyond the 12 he played, as he was still head and shoulders above everyone else at the time that his knees did him in.

  6. #6
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    So Many Lessons to Learn from Troy

    By Jim Wexell
    Publisher SteelCityInsider.net
    Posted May 27, 2013



    The guy out on the practice field with the long, curly, black hair coming out the back of his helmet was playing safety at the Steelers’ spring practices last week with ...

    ... great enthusiasm, and was probably in the best shape of his life.
    No, the guy was not Troy Polamalu, but he looked just like him.

    Instead, this was January acquisition Ross Ventrone, and he was wearing No. 41.

    That was actually the number Polamalu wanted to wear when he came to Pittsburgh. It’s the number he wanted to wear when he went to USC. It’s the number he wore at Douglas High school, the number his older cousin Joe wore at Oregon State.

    But both of the times that Polamalu had requested the number he was rebuffed, and both times he was instead given No. 43.

    He was destined for it, I suppose.

    I know all of this because I probably know more than anyone should know about Troy Polamalu. He's been a research project of mine, and after this particular practice, after Polamalu had entertained a media throng with a rare breakdown of his medical condition, after I figured he was in the mood for sharing his thoughts, I approached and blurted out that it appeared he had finally been granted his wish and given his high school number.

    Troy laughed and said this:

    “Yeah.”

    Of course I was hoping for more, at least a useful line about the number, something I could use in, say, a book.

    So I tried another question.

    You always wanted that number, didn’t you?

    “I did, yeah,” he said.

    And that was it.

    Sometimes Troy will ramble philosophically, even spiritually, to me. But then sometimes, it seems, he thinks I just want more material for a book, and so he shuts it down.

    The book.

    My book.

    His book.

    The Universe's book.

    The latter is the way I choose to look at it. It’s not something I really have wanted to discuss openly, but I figure now is as good a time as any. I mean, I awoke early this Memorial Day morn and looked up at a TV screen emblazoned with the number 43 to describe the temperature at the time, which of course was 4:30 on the nose.

    I figured it was the universe calling me again, that it was time to write this column to, I don’t know, make another plea for Troy’s help with this book?

    For money? Well, sure. But for much more than that, as I tried to tell him a few years ago, after he had said no the first time.

    So I tried a second time.

    Kids need to know how you did it, how you beat all of the adversity.

    I actually tried that one: For the kids!

    “I’m sure you can find better examples than me,” he said.

    And he’s probably right. Troy may have been abandoned by his father at birth, and then his mother before the age of 10, but he was raised in a loving environment by an aunt and uncle who provided him far greater opportunities than those which his older – and some say more physically gifted – brother did amidst a gang life in L.A.

    So, really, Troy didn’t have to deal with too much adversity. And he was right; there are better examples in that particular genre.

    What I really should’ve said to him was that kids need his wisdom.

    I think about my sports-crazed daughter and how her potential as a soccer goalie drove me to the brink of purchasing the biography of one Hope Solo. But I changed my mind after clicking through readers’ complaints about how Solo had detailed in her book her lesbian experimentation, her hard-partying days, and in general her mistrust of authority.

    Hey, I might want to read this myself, I thought, but my daughter can read something else. Like a book about Troy Polamalu.

    If only ...

    Last night my daughter and I watched a great documentary about soccer star Abby Wambach. Now, Abby didn’t overcome any great adversity in her childhood. The documentary merely depicted her impressive work ethic, the obstacles she did overcome, the toughness it took to take staples in her forehead – on the field – and continue to play. It depicted how Wambach trained, how she ate, how she learned from having her heart crushed in her high school state championship game, and how, like all the great ones, she used that loss as an inspirational turning point.

    Wambach was also depicted as eagerly taking lessons from the great Mia Hamm, and then giving back as a mentor, in turn, to future great Alex Morgan.

    It was all such riveting and important stuff, and it made me think of a similar line of greatness I could draw from Donnie Shell to Carnell Lake to Troy and to the Steelers’ next strong safety, Shamarko Thomas.

    “He just wants to learn,” Polamalu said last week about the rookie. “The great thing about the people that we have here is that all we are going to do is give knowledge. There is no hesitation.”

    But there is hesitation with Troy when it comes to his life story.

    Humility is the reason Troy does not want to do a book. He told me to wait five years or so and he may give it some thought then.

    Let’s hope he chooses to do so, because the best way to learn, in my opinion, is from those who’ve done it. And I’m not just talking about football, but success in general.

    Polamalu also has the added characteristic of deep spirituality. What he’s learned in his quest for spiritual wisdom would no doubt interest, and benefit, many of us.

    In The Mountain of Silence, a book that’s said to have greatly impacted Polamalu’s life, there’s debate about the debt the monks, hermits, and saints owe society: Shouldn’t they share the wisdom they’ve gleaned through ceaseless prayer?

    But the legendary hermit Paisios was also quoted in the book as saying, “Woe to the monk who becomes famous. He can never find peace of mind. People will begin to weave all sorts of stories about him that are often not true.”

    While Polamalu would never consider himself a true holy man on a level with monks, hermits, or saints, he does share their dilemma of whether to share with society or wrap himself in solitude in, say, a hut in Samoa.

    “A book?” he said with surprise upon hearing my initial request. “Oh, I just couldn’t bring myself to do something like that.”

    But yet he continues his near daily battle with an oftentimes foolish and ignorant football media. Me included.

    Is this a redemption year for you?

    I think I asked him that in exasperation at one point last week.

    “Well, I don’t know,” he said. “It’s another year, which I’m very thankful and blessed for, for sure.”

    Again, nothing.

    Perhaps exasperation wasn’t enough on this day. So I tried to shock him.

    Don’t you read all the criticisms that you’re getting old?

    Instead of the hardness we might expect from the typical football star who’s feeling the effects of the aging process, Polamalu remained gentle.

    “No,” he said politely.

    He paused and added, “But thanks.”

    The group laughed; Troy smiled.

    “No, I don’t read any positive or negative things,” he said. “They’re both dangerous to deal with.”

    Maybe for you, Troy. Maybe for you. But I know a story that kids – and some of us immature adults – would really like to read.

    I’m certain that money doesn’t mean much to him, but a donation from every sale could go to his wife’s charity for veterans, or any other charity under his umbrella.

    And since I don’t have an agent, a lawyer, or a publisher, the size of that donation is certainly negotiable.

    But, really, it’s not about the money. I just have to get this book out of my head, and sooner rather than later. Waking up at 4:30 in the morning in 43-degree weather is kind of freaking me out a little bit.

    [URL]http://pit.scout.com/2/1294766.html[/URL]
    Steel Maniac's Time-Based Prediction: Lamar Jackson will be a bust and total flop in the NFL.

    What Actually Happened: Lamar Jackson became the youngest two-time NFL MVP winner ever.

    Gloat gloat gloat


    Boom........

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  7. #7
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    Steelers’ Polamalu strives to regain status as elite safety

    By Alan Robinson
    Published: Thursday, June 13, 2013



    Troy Polamalu is 32, or eight years older than the Seahawks' Earl Thomas, who was acknowledged as the NFL's top safety a season ago.

    Polamalu is coming off one of the most disappointing of his 10 NFL seasons, one in which he was on the sidelines more than he was at safety. The absence of one of football's true defensive playmakers didn't hurt the Steelers' No. 1-ranked defense statistically, but it certainly did psychologically.

    “It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know we're better with Troy Polamalu healthy and on the field,” safety Ryan Clark said. “He's the best we have in this game.”

    But 2012 certainly wasn't the best of Troy Polamalu, and he knows it.

    It was the second time in four seasons he missed a huge chunk of a season — a knee injury limited him to five games in 2009 — and it raised questions about how fit he can stay and how well he can play the rest of his career.

    And how much longer might that career last?

    “I don't know,” said Polamalu, who is signed through 2014 to a contract that costs the Steelers more than $10 million in cap space each season. “I don't look beyond tomorrow's practice.”

    Perhaps reflecting a time when playing into the late 30s isn't as uncommon as it once was, he insists that he and wife Theodora haven't discussed when it might be time to look to retirement.

    “I hope I know (when it's time to quit),” Polamalu said.

    “I hope I'm not scratching and clawing for a year (hanging on). I hope I can call it quits when I know it's time. But no, we don't talk about.”

    What he does talk about, and with a measure of enthusiasm, is a transformed defense that shed James Farrior, Aaron Smith, James Harrison, Casey Hampton and Keenan Lewis in the past two years.

    Polamalu likes incoming players such as safety Shamarko Thomas and outside linebacker Jarvis Jones, and the competition between Jones and Jason Worilds.

    “It's real exciting,” Polamalu said. “We've got some new faces. It will be exciting to see the difference in our defense without somebody like James.

    “We're going to have to evolve a little bit because we're missing a huge talent.”

    Of course, defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau would be excited to see the difference in the defense with Polamalu healthy.

    “Disappointing, I think, is the perfect word (to describe 2012),” Polamalu said.

    “To have injuries, to not go to the playoffs, to not be healthy all year. It started the very first game (in Denver), torn calf muscle, so that was disappointing.

    “But that was last year. Right now, all I can deal with is the present and maximize what I've got going on here now.”

    Polamalu worked longer, harder and earlier on his offseason conditioning, understanding his body won't quite respond now the way it would when he was 22.

    Asked how Polamalu looks, LeBeau said, “Tremendous.”

    “I went into the offseason pretty healthy; the previous season I was pretty beat up,” Polamalu said.

    Will it make a difference?

    “Only time can tell,” Polamalu said. “Who knows?”

    Polamalu wouldn't compare how he feels now and how he did in previous springs, saying, “What's important is how I feel in 16 games through the football season.”

    [URL]http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/...#ixzz2W5MYwPJl[/URL]
    Steel Maniac's Time-Based Prediction: Lamar Jackson will be a bust and total flop in the NFL.

    What Actually Happened: Lamar Jackson became the youngest two-time NFL MVP winner ever.

    Gloat gloat gloat


    Boom........

    Hahahahahahaha

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by hawaiiansteel View Post
    “What's important is how I feel in 16 games through the football season.”
    That must be a typo. He clearly meant 19 games.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by flippy View Post
    That must be a typo. He clearly meant 19 games.
    Nah. He likely meant 3.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by flippy View Post
    That must be a typo. He clearly meant 19 games.
    Or 20 if we get in the playoffs as a 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th seed. Add in the preseason, and that's 2 dozen games.
    Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.

    Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.

    We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.

    We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.

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