“Mike Logan, the starting safety my rookie year, shared his full knowledge of the game, wholeheartedly showing a level of humility that helped shape my career. Like many other teammates, his selflessness paved a greater opportunity for others at his own expense. It is unnatural in the most competitive environment to train your replacement, yet this is our culture. Steeler culture.”
Those were words from the legendary Troy Polamalu, who did eventually replace Mike Logan as the starting safety in the Steelers defense and of course went on to a Hall of Fame career that was capped off on Saturday night by his tremendous acceptance speech in Canton.
Logan joined The Fan Morning Show Monday to talk about being taken aback but also enjoying the honor it is for Troy to give public tribute to Logan’s impact on his career.
“Emotional. And I never thought that just a teammate, a friend, a brother, just speaking my name would move me to emotions. However, it did,” said Logan. “It made me reflect. I just thought about the moments that I was able to spend with Troy while playing. It was a very special moment I’ll never forget.”
“My son was sitting there with me and I was kind of explaining to him, because he heard my name, and he said, ‘Did he say Logan?’ and I said, ‘Yes, he did’ and he said, ‘Is that your friend?’ and I said, ‘No son, that’s my brother.’”
Logan said that despite Polamalu’s struggles in his rookie season, he knew there was potential in him. He could tell by his work ethic that he was capable of much bigger things and that Troy just tried to do too much at first. Once he settled down and focused on his assignments, he took off.
When Logan thinks about Troy Polamalu the person, there’s one word that comes to mind.
“Integrity.”
“I remember Tony Dungy saying one time, there’s not levels to integrity. You can’t have integrity sometimes, you can put it on a low level and say you have integrity sometimes. You have to be the way you are all the time. Troy is the most consistent person in being who he is that I’ve ever met in my life.”
It’s because Polamalu, in particular, was the one to say his name in his speech…it’s because Polamalu is that kind of person, that Logan felt better about himself afterward.
“It really made me feel better about being Michael Harbor and Linda Logan’s son, knowing that they instilled something great in person that’s infectious to other people. I pray that you guys, I’ve been around you guys in fellowship and in work environments, I hope you feel the same way about me. I hope people would speak about me in that manner aside from what I did on the football field.”
It really lets me know that I’m headed in the right path, it really lets me know that God is directing my steps and hopefully my children see that, man. That would be the ultimate success for me.”