PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – His entire life he loved Troy Polamalu. He wore 43 up until he was forced to switch moving to the offensive line as a sophomore in high school. USC tried to use Polamalu to recruit Troy Fautanu out of high school. Now he will be wearing black and gold himself after being drafted by the Steelers in the first round on Thursday.
“I was a little crybaby,” Fautanu said Thursday night. “I’m not going to lie. It was very nerve-wracking because you never know where you are going to land. I’m just so happy things happened the way they did and I was able to be drafted by a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Fautanu dropped Ben Roethlisberger’s name and said he knows a lot about the team and its history. Mike Tomlin said Fautanu’s father is a huge Steelers fan. Tomlin also said his son and 20th overall pick brings a lot of passion to the game.
“I’ve done everything to have this day happen,” Fautanu said. “It’s all I think about, football is all I think about, football is all I know. Especially playing offensive line, you really got to love the sport in order to do what we do in the trenches. It’s something I take pride in and something I enjoy.”
Fautanu said it doesn’t matter to him if he played on the left (where he played his whole college career) or right tackle.
Met Troy
USC and then head coach Clay Helton lined up Fautanu’s recruiting visit out of high school for a time Polamalu was on campus.
“Somebody knocks on the door and (Helton) said ‘go open the door’,” Fautanu recalled. “I open it and it’s Troy Polamalu. My idol growing up, my GOAT. It was a surreal moment. I didn’t know what to say. It is just so crazy because it’s so hard to visualize because he’s very soft-spoken, everything he did on the field and everything he contributed to football. It was very surprising.”
Asked why it didn’t work and he ended up at Washington instead of USC.
“Honestly because I knew Troy Polamalu was going to be there every day,” Fautanu said laughing. “You got to weed through a lot of that stuff in the recruiting process.”
Knee cool
There were reports about him having potential long-term issues with his knees.
“I’m just glad the Pittsburgh Steelers seen through all of that and took a chance on me,” Fautanu said. “That knee thing hasn’t bothered me in years. You play football, offensive line.. you play football and you haven’t been injured in years and years. You’re like a pony.”
He said he understands the physicality and is excited to get started. After a celebration with about 100 family and friends on draft night, he will be in Pittsburgh on Friday.