‘Fa’a Samoa’: Polamalu’s love for heritage an enduring legacy
When Rob Ruck lectures students in his “History of Sport” course at the University of Pittsburgh, he uses one day each semester to apply the ideas and themes of the class to the town they’re all sitting in. What better place to impart those teachings than the “City of Champions”?
“Groups of people often use sport to tell a collective story about who they are,” Mr. Ruck says. “Brazilians and soccer. Kenyans and running. Dominicans and baseball. There are a couple cities and towns that use sport that way, and no town, no city, has used sport like Pittsburgh in that regard.”
In that sense, you could argue Troy Polamalu landing here and spending all 12 of his National Football League seasons with the Steelers as a strong safety was a perfect fit. But as beloved as he
was — and still is — in Pittsburgh, Mr. Polamalu’s legacy stretches far beyond Western Pennsylvania, even as he shies away from the spotlight before his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.
It’s in American Samoa where Mr. Polamalu embraces the challenge of uplifting his people. Though he wasn’t born in that U.S. territory covering seven South Pacific islands and atolls, Mr. Polamalu will become just the second player of Samoan descent and third Polynesian to be enshrined in Canton, Ohio.
Mr. Polamalu took pride in representing his alma mater, the University of Southern California, and his team, the Steelers, throughout his NFL career, but other than perhaps faith and family, nothing supersedes his culture. Mr. Ruck, who literally has written the book on the game in the Polamalu family’s homeland, boils it all down to the ideology of fa’a Samoa, or “in the way of Samoa.”
“I love what it means to be Samoan,” Mr. Polamalu said in a 2015 NFL Films documentary, “to be selfsustaining, to really embody the warrior-ness of being Samoan.”
As Mr. Polamalu dons his Hall of Fame gold jacket, he’ll take a brief step back into the spotlight, one he has often shirked since his retirement in 2015. Yes, you have seen the Head & Shoulders commercials and his signature billowing hair, maybe the occasional social media post or autograph signing.
But Mr. Polamalu is, as Steelers coach Mike Tomlin called him recently, “a deep guy.” He’s even a paradox of sorts. Aloof and distant from his football fame, but warm and welcoming away from that limelight. Serious and contemplative as he reflects on his journey, but charismatic and comical in a natural way.
“I’ll tell you what, the things you see in the public spaces of his deep-rooted faith and culture and family — he’s not afraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve,” said Penny Semaia, a friend and fellow Pittsburgher. “But then from the intimate side, Troy is really funny, has a great sense of humor, cares deeply, and it’s never about him. If anything, he’s always trying to push that away, and he’s just a really genuine human being. That’s the thing I’ve valued most in Troy.”
Mr. Semaia is a former Pitt football player who now serves as the school’s senior associate athletic director for student life. His path crossed with Mr. Polamalu’s in a most Pittsburgh way, with a chance encounter at what used to be the 7Eleven on Forbes Avenue in Oakland.
An undergraduate at the time, Mr. Semaia was in the store when he bumped into a woman named Theodora who asked if he happened to be Polynesian. He happily confirmed he was, so she told him her boyfriend was, too, and had just been drafted by the Steelers. Given that the Steelers and Pitt football team share a practice facility, it wasn’t long before the senior Mr. Semaia and the rookie Mr. Polamalu literally crossed paths coming on and off the field.
“I got to meet Troy in passing, and it’s just a thing with Pacific Islanders, when we see a fellow Islander, we always stop and pause and communicate,” Mr. Semaia recalled.
Given that Mr. Semaia stuck around at Pitt after graduation, the two ended up sharing a city, as well. He watched as Mr. Polamalu blossomed into a bona fide superstar, and they stayed in touch here and there. In 2012, Mr. Semaia approached Mr. Polamalu at one of his luau fundraisers at the Westin hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh and praised his work with the Troy and Theodora Polamalu Foundation. If he
ever needed a hand, Mr. Semaia would be happy to help, and it wasn’t long before Mr. Polamalu took him up on that offer.
Mr. Semaia became an integral part in the life skills and academic component of the Polamalus’ foundation. Soon, he was joining them on trips to American Samoa every six months or so. It was there he got to see the other sides of Mr. Polamalu — jokester, humanitarian, philanthropist … and wedding planner?
One of Mr. Semaia’s favorite Polamalu stories was in 2015, when they were on the island of Tutuila building a computer lab in capital city Pago Pago. Mr. Semaia was on the other side of the island when Mr. Polamalu called him with a question.
“Hey, are you ordained?” “Uh, no, but what’s up?” Mr. Semaia asked.
Mr. Polamalu began explaining how one of the couples who accompanied them on the trip was engaged, and the bride-to-be was so taken aback by the beauty of Pago Pago that she wanted to get married right then and there. So, Troy and Theodora decided they would make it happen.
Within hours, they had a wedding site and traditional Samoan dress made for the bride and groom. Mr. Semaia did indeed marry them but made sure to tell them afterward to make sure they get it authenticated later by someone more official.
“Troy was one of the groomsmen,” Mr. Semaia said with a laugh, “and then afterward, they jumped into the ocean.”
You could unearth plenty of anecdotes about Mr. Polamalu’s love for his heritage, but he and Theodora have used their platform to take aim at the hard numbers.
Much of American Samoa’s population struggles with health problems, with 93.5% of them classified as overweight or obese, and 47.3% living with diabetes, according to research by the World Health Organization. And in the classroom, a 2017 study of American Samoa high school students found that most scored below the basic proficiency
level on the reading and math portions of standardized tests. While football is ingrained in so many with Polynesian roots, just this past March, the House of Representatives in American Samoa passed legislation designed to increase awareness and education surrounding concussions in youth sports.
When Mr. Ruck traveled to Pago Pago, he was struck by the lack of concern for head injuries. In his book “Tropic of Football: The Long and Perilous Journey of Samoans to the NFL,” he wrote extensively to explain how the warrior mentality instilled in young football players there results in unreported concussions and a “stoicism about pain.”
“Like a number of cultures that produce disproportionate numbers of the most talented athletes, on the other end of the spectrum, the overall public health demographics are awful,” said Mr. Ruck, who has attended Mr. Polamalu’s football camp in Pago Pago. “Samoans are among the most obese and diabetic people on the planet. And the Polamalus are intervening in that.”
Next year, the Polamalus and filmmaker Adam Sjoberg hope to release a documentary 10 years in
the making, “Songs of a Lost Island.” It will tell the story of Troy, but also focus on the significance of football in American Samoa and the uphill battle many of its inhabitants face each day.
Sjoberg has been trekking to the islands with Troy and Theodora since 2011, but production was put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film now is in post-production, and Mr. Polamalu’s moment in the Hall of Fame sun figures to rekindle interest in one of the most popular players in Steelers history, one who has come to understand and embrace his adopted home much like his ancestral one.
“It’s tough to separate Pittsburgh fans from the City of Pittsburgh. I think anybody that grows up in Pittsburgh understands that if you’re in Pittsburgh and you’re not a Steelers fan, you’re not from Pittsburgh. You’re just kind of like a passerby,” Mr. Polamalu, still as soft-spoken as ever, said with a chuckle a few weeks ago.
“Pittsburgh, to me, is home. That’s really the best way I can explain it. I lived there longer than I lived anywhere in my life. It served as one of the most significant places in my life. It’s where I grew. It’s
where my wife and I were married. It’s where I learned about spirituality. … I don’t feel so much of a connection as a sportstown hero as much as I’m just another member of the community there.”
That’s the same ethos Mr. Polamalu has taken to his mission in American Samoa. Mr. Semaia sums him up as “having a pulse of self-consciousness — being conscious of self or others, constantly.” Mr. Ruck sees him as a gridiron legend who “never wanted to be a caricature of himself.”
Whatever Troy Polamalu is to you, it will be worth soaking up when he takes the stage in Canton, next to a bronze bust with a head of hair the Hall has never seen before. It sounds as if he has some incisive Steelers rhetoric at the ready, the stuff Joe Greene’s memorable speech — “In Pittsburgh, if you’re not at the stadium at 1 o’clock on Sunday in the fall, you’re in the wrong place” — was made of. But Mr. Polamalu, as he’s wont to do, also expressed an anxiousness about forgetting to thank someone, anyone, who impacted him along the way.
“For somebody like me, no small thing, no glass of water that somebody offered me, was insignificant,” Mr. Polamalu said. “Coming from where I come from, that meant a lot. I don’t want to miss out on that. I’m nervous that I don’t give the proper thanks and people won’t feel the gratitude that I really want to give.”
As more and more Polynesians, and specifically Samoans, rise through the college and NFL ranks, it will be Mr. Polamalu who receives much gratitude.
Current Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and Miami Dolphins quarterback Tagovailoa, the fifth pick in the 2020 draft, are among the new wave of stars of Samoan descent. Lions offensive lineman Penei Sewell, the No. 7 pick in this year’s draft, actually attended Mr. Polamalu’s camps as a kid growing up in a small village outside Pago Pago. And two years from now, Clemson University quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei has a realistic chance to become the first Polynesian, let alone Samoan, to be picked first overall.
The only other Samoan in the Hall of Fame is hardhitting linebacker Junior Seau. He was inducted in 2015, but he wasn’t there to see it. Seau fatally shot himself in the chest in 2012, and his brain was later found to have definitive evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a condition connected to repeated head injuries.
At least one proud Samoan in Pittsburgh will be thrilled to see Mr. Polamalu speak for himself and represent their lineage.
“I always say Junior Seau, for my era, was our icon and idol, and Troy has been that for this generation and so many others,” Mr. Semaia said. “There will just be a great sense of pride, a greater sense of appreciation for the times we spent together, and knowing that his contributions to the game have had tremendous ripple effects to his contributions in the world. I’m just looking forward to seeing what else is next.”