Friday, September 15, 2006
By Colin Dunlap, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The way Steelers strong safety Troy Polamalu looks at it, these National Football League injury report thresholds are just an arbitrary barometer.
Yesterday, Polamalu, who sustained a shoulder injury in the Steelers' 28-17 season opening victory against Miami last Thursday, was upgraded from questionable to probable. Don't look for Polamalu to miss Monday night's game at Jacksonville.
He hammered the point home after practice yesterday, admitting that it would take a seismic happening to make this the first game he had miss in his three seasons in the NFL.
"God forbid, if I were paralyzed, died or called to do something else," Polamalu said. "That would be the only way I'd miss this game. Everyone gets injured playing this game at one time or another. You just have to deal with it."
Polamalu pointed to a three-play stretch in the second half against Miami as the point in which the injury occurred. On all three plays, he had rattling collisions with Miami players. After the game, coach Bill Cowher mistakenly said the injury occurred in the first half.
"It happened near the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth," Polamalu said yesterday.
"It is a bone bruise, a shoulder contusion and something with my bursa sac."
While Polamalu and tight end Jerame Tuman (hamstring) were elevated to probable, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (appendectomy) is listed as questionable.
Asked whether Roethlisberger's status could linger into a game-time decision, Cowher said, "It appears there is a good chance that could be the case."
But if practice is an accurate gauge, Roethlisberger should be the starter against the Jaguars. Yesterday, just 11 days after his appendectomy, was the second consecutive day he practiced.