Troy Polamalu Football Quotations

I've never been a fan of individual awards because football is such a team sport. There's so many things that goes into making plays. It's about teammates trusting one another and working together.

I am a National Football League player of American Samoan heritage. Because of my status as a professional athlete, I have been blessed to play a role in educating players and fans about the culture and history of America's southernmost territory.

As a football player, you just deal with injuries. It's all part of the football game. I've dealt with injuries as much as everybody else. People have dealt with worse injuries than I've dealt with. It's all part of the game, all part of getting that tackle.

When I'm done playing football, I just might be the couch potato dad.

When people say that you kind of just get - you know, just feel like a little buzzed or dazed or had your bell rung - they consider that a concussion. I wouldn't. But if that is considered a concussion, I would say any football player at least records 50 to 100 in the course of a year.

I love the atmosphere football brings; I love being around my teammates; I love the struggle in football. I love the fact that it is a part of my life. I don't look at it as any more important or less important as any other part of my life.

I don't look at football as a violent, barbaric sport. It's a very spiritual sport, especially for someone facing the challenges during a game: the fear of failure, the fear of getting too big an ego, of making a mistake and everybody criticizing you.

The best thing about football for me is the reacting. It's a lot of instincts. But training, for me, it's more for the meditating. And I spend more time training than actually playing football. So I get into that zone during training more than anything.

We're very different football players. We play different positions. The defense calls us to do different things as well.

It's a shame that Coach LeBeau is not in the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame, the way he revolutionized football with the zone blitz.

There's a lot of Samoans in pro football because it's closely related to a family atmosphere.

Football doesn’t define me. It’s what I do [and] how I carry out my faith.

Football is pretty much played 16 times a year, where training is kind of a year-round thing.

In football, you're taught to react by being aggressive, taught to react with violence. If you can't separate that on the field and off the field, you're going to be in a lot of trouble in your life.

America needs football. It's a real blue-collar sport; it's played with a blue-collar mentality, a mentality that's the backbone of this country.

I take pride in my life-my wife, my family. I try my best not to have football define the person that I am.

The greatest thing for me football-wise is that it's a test of will.

I think it's important to cross train. Surfing is a good cross training sport for your shoulders. I don't think I know of any other football player who does it, who can go and paddle out past the sets.

I try to take what's given to me and then mold it to be a better football player.