CLASS OF 2020
Assistant Editor
One found out from a knock at the door.
One got the surprise of a lifetime on live television.
Another got a phone call.
The way they learned the news might have been different, but there is one thing they all have in common.
Troy Polamalu, Bill Cowher and Donnie Shell are all members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020.
Over the past month, the Pro Football Hall of Fame unveiled the Centennial Slate of the Class of 2020, and it includes Cowher and Shell.
And during Super Bowl LIV weekend, Polamalu joined them as one of five Modern-Era members of the Class of 2020.
It put the bow on what is going to be an epic time in Canton, Ohio, with three members of the Steelers organization being immortalized forever in football lore.
“It’s going to be a special summer, a special time in Canton,” said Steelers President Art Rooney II. “We will be celebrating a lot this whole year. It will be an exciting time for Steelers fans.”
TROY POLAMALU
It takes a special player to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Well, there is no doubt Troy Polamalu was a special player.
That was proven when Polamalu was a first-ballot selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a Modern-Era member of the Class of 2020, getting the famous knock on the door from Hall of Fame President David Baker.
“It’s surreal. It really feels surreal,” said Polamalu. “All of my teammates, it’s truly a tribute to them. I feel honored and unworthy of it, to be honest.”
“It’s a tremendous blessing. With Coach Cowher, the fact that he drafted me. It was a huge blessing for me to play for a Hall of Fame coach for the time period we had together. As well as Donnie Shell. The Pittsburgh Steelers defense of the ’70s laid the foundation for the great defenses I have been a part of. It’s a tremendous honor for me to be in the same class with him as well.”
Polamalu, who joins Steve Atwater, Isaac Bruce, Steve Hutchinson and Edgerrin James as the Modern-Era members, was drafted by the Steelers in the first round of the 2003 NFL draft, the 16th
