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Steelers safety Troy Polamalu announced his retirement from the National Football League last night, and he'll go down as an all-time great and will make the Hall of Fame one day. A number of players throughout the league highly respect Polamalu, and that includes Colts punter Pat McAfee.
Sad to hear the NFL won't have Troy Polamalu in it anymore.. An unbelievably talented long haired fella who used to terrorize the field
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 10, 2015
McAfee didn't stop there, however. Instead, the Colts' punter honored Polamalu in typical Pat McAfee fashion - with a funny twitter tale. On his twitter account this morning, McAfee wrote of when he almost scored his first NFL touchdown but how Polamalu kept it from happening. He wrote:
"Troy Polamalu is the reason I didn't score a TD this year… Let me explain
"Believe it or not, a lot of film study happens for special teams as well. Each week we watch the team's tendencies, player tendencies, alignments, everything really just to see if we can steal a possession or possibly a score… We noticed an alignment opportunity when we were preparing for the Steelers. A particular gap was left wide open every single field goal… We all agreed "If we get in this situation, we're running it"… We never even discussed a way to check out of the call, because for, I think 2 years straight, every rep, it was wide open… Low and behold, we get into the situation, and whammy it was called… I jogged onto the same field I won the Punt Pass & Kick when I was younger with the mindset that I was about to score my first touchdown since Midget football… We get on the field… Everything looks good… I peak my head up and see the curly black haired man bouncing around, back and forth and then line up directly in the gap that hasn't been covered in 2 years… The gap that was supposed to be wide open… I screamed "Gosh Darnittt"… I was so bummed out… It was as if Troy took my dreams and punted them to "ZeroFunSirLand"… I had to get up and scream to everybody that we weren't doing the fake… "Hey… Hey… We're not doing it… I know there wasn't a planned check out of this particular call… But things have changed… Because of Troy freaking Polamalu… We're not doing it"… Although he absolutely ruined my once in a lifetime moment… It was that type of unpredictability and insanely impressive instinct that made Troy such a fun player to watch all of these years… The NFL and its fans will miss that man, but for selfish reasons, I wish this retirement happened last year, because my celebrations would've been EP-IC… Have a great retirement, Troy, you deserve it."
So there you have it. Pat McAfee's best shot at scoring a touchdown in the NFL was ruined by Troy Polamalu covering a gap that wasn't usually covered. The great safety is retiring, however, so perhaps when the Colts take on the Steelers in the 2015 season, that gap will be open again.
Oh, and just for good measure, McAfee also is campaigning to take Polamalu's place as a spokesman for Head and Shoulders:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>You's guys want a little bit of this in your life now that Troy's luscious locks have left the field <a href="https://twitter.com/Headshoulders">@Headshoulders</a>? <a href="http://t.co/V16bimEN5g">pic.twitter.com/V16bimEN5g</a></p>— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/586543741529415682">April 10, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>