At first, Christian Fauria didn't take Troy Polamalu seriously during their first — and only — encounter on the field. The legendary Pittsburgh Steelers safety made sure it was a meeting the then- New England Patriots tight end wouldn't forget.
"The stupidest, dumbest, arrogant thing I ever did — this trips me out to this day," Fauria said Wednesday on the "NFL Players Second Acts Podcast." "Playing for the Patriots and there's this young rookie strong safety. Crazy hair, wears some stupid number — No. 43 — and I'm like, 'Who is this guy?' And it's Troy Polamalu . And we have all of these plays where we're comboing up to the safety. To my ignorance, I didn't really study him, didn't really know much about him. I literally just saw No. 43 and I'm like, 'Well, this guy must suck because it's a terrible number.' Those guys usually get cut."
Polamalu, the No. 16 overall pick of the 2003 NFL Draft and now a Pro Football Hall of Famer, was a two-time first-team All-American at USC. Fauria, who wasn't very versed on the college game, learned why.
Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame safety Troy Polamalu at the SteelHERS event at Acrisure Stadium on May 22, 2024. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
"Sure enough, a couple of plays and he's just coming down and blowing me up and he's blowing up the play," Fauria said. "And I'm like, 'Freakin' A, man. Why's this guy get downhill so fast?' And he has no fear, zero fear whatsoever, and I was not ready for it. … He humbled me in a hurry."
Fauria also mentioned that it was his last season in New England — before he finished his career playing for the Washington Redskins in 2006 and Carolina Panthers in 2007 — meaning the matchup he referred to was a Week 3 23-20 road win. According to Pro Football Reference, Polamalu, who was actually in his second Steelers go-round, had three combined tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass defended.
Polamalu finished that campaign with 97 combined tackles, the most during any season of his 12-year career. His 14 passes defended tied for the second-most.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Ex-Patriots TE Admits Misjudging Steelers Great Troy Polamalu
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