New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has played against many talented safeties in his 20-year NFL career, and few were better at the position than Pittsburgh Steelers legend Troy Polamalu.
Polamalu is among the finalists for the 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame class. This is his first year on the ballot. The final vote will take place Saturday before Super Bowl LIV, and five of the 15 finalists will be selected for enshrinement.
Brady, who played against Polamalu six times, recently gave the safety a strong Hall of Fame endorsement in a statement released by the Steelers.
LIVE stream the Celtics all season and get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App.
“One key to success for a quarterback is to study a lot of film in order to understand defensive tendencies and know how the defense will try to defend everything you are trying to do as an offense," Brady said. "But that never worked against Troy. He was one of the most instinctive and disruptive players I have ever played against.
"Outside of his incredible athleticism, his greatest skill was his unpredictability. You could never quite get a bead on what he was doing, yet he was always around the ball. Troy was just a playmaker who you had to account for on every play. It was amazing to watch film on him and to try to understand how we knew where to be and when. If you wanted to find Troy, you just looked for where the ball was going and you would always find him.”
This type of praise from the NFL's greatest quarterback should bolster Polamalu's Hall of Fame case, which, even without Brady's comments, already was pretty strong.
New England Patriots
Polamalu played 12 years for the Steelers, during which he appeared in 158 games and tallied 32 interceptions, 107 passes defensed, 783 tackles, 14 forced fumbles (seven recoveries), 12 sacks and three touchdowns. He also was a key member of Pittsburgh's Super Bowl-winning teams in 2005 and 2008.
