The Luxurious Troy Polamalu

"With all due respect, I honestly think Troy Polamalu is probably the greatest player I’ve ever played with or even seen play in person. The things that he did in my four years of being there … he’s jumping over the line of scrimmage at the snap of the ball. He’s tackling runners in the backfield. He’s jumping up, intercepting the ball one handed [and] returning it for touchdowns. Keeping the ball away from him … can definitely keep him from disrupting our team." - Santonio Holmes

As a New York fan, I have been nervous going into each playoff matchup. First, the Jets had to beat Peyton Manning and the Colts. Before the Wild Card game, Rex Ryan could not figure out how to stop Manning, losing five straight games as the coach of his teams' defenses. Rex finally got a win last year in a game that the Colts laid down for. Even though Rex made it personal to amp up his team, somehow it worked.

Then came a trip to Foxboro where the Jets last walked away with their tails between their legs.

45-3.

Playoff teams are not supposed to lose that badly. Again, Rex made it personal and the rest of the team followed suit and talked so much trash that their training facility in Florham Park started to smell like the Staten Island Dump. Few believed the Jets could back up that much talk with a victory, but Rex definitely outcoached and the Jets outplayed.

Now they head to the Steel City and I am nervous for only one reason. His name is Troy Polamalu. His hair is luxuriously large and his talent is even bigger. He is clearly the best defensive player left in the playoffs. I would put Polamalu just above Ed Reed as the best defensive player in all of football. He just knows what the QB is thinking and where the ball will be thrown before the QB thinks of it. Just as the best QB's in the league can read a defense, Polamlu can read the offense.

The Jets have already proven they can take down the two best quarterbacks in the NFL in consecutive weeks. While Ben Roethlisberger is a good QB, he's no Peyton or Brady. Big Ben has had the good fortune, just as Eli Manning had and Mark Sanchez is having, of playing on a team with an excellent defense. Aside from rings, tell me the difference between Sanchez and Big Ben. Both play for teams with superb defenses, both can evade sacks pretty well, both have made big plays when it matters and both have played well in the playoffs. (Big Ben: 9-2, Sanchez: 4-1) Sure, Sanchez needs to cut down on the turnovers, but if the Jets can stop Peyton and Brady, especially in the 2nd half, why wouldn't they be able to stop Ben?

Proof of Ben being worthless is how this season and last season played out. This year, the team was minus Big Ben for four games because of his off-the-field struggles with keeping his pants on. The Steelers barely noticed. Last year, Polamalu was injured and the team suffered pretty badly. Make no mistake, teams win games, not just QB's. Eli won his Super Bowl because of his defense, as did Big Ben. Sure, both needed to play well and make ridiculous plays, but their respected defenses shut down the undefeated Patriots, who broke records for offense, and the Cardinals, who had Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald basically playing Madden vs. the rest of the league.

The Steelers are Polamalu's team, not Big Ben's. The Jets may be able to shut down the Steelers offense as they did to the Colts and Pats, but shutting down Polamalu will be a different story entirely.

Hall of Question Marks

(I will begin with saying this is not my idea. I read of it years ago, but I do not remember the source. If I were to take a guess, it would be The Star Ledger sports section.)

The Hall of Fame needs adjustment. There will always be arguments as to who should be in and who should be out. Plenty of hitters are elected in while the all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, is kept out. That aspect will never change and it is part of the appeal of the Hall. Not one player has ever been unanimously elected and that shows agreements can never be made, even if the player is an obvious choice, like Hank Aaron, Ricky Henderson, Nolan Ryan.

Pause for a second and let the soak in. No baseball player has EVER been unanimously elected.

It is that fact, and the amount of years a player is eligible. The players' stats don't change after they retire. Burt Blyleven retired with 287 wins. That number hasn't gone up or down, only the flip-flopping sportswriters' votes have. Blyleven, in my opinion, should have been elected immediately but had to be patient while the writers wavered. Jim Rice was elected last year, which I disagreed with, but also probably should have been elected immediately.

I'm being distracted though. I came here to discuss to plan to revamp the Hall, not argue who should be in or out, though that is fun. I want the Hall to have tiers, and the eligibility to be cut down to three years. That is all. No big deal.

The tiers can be broken down into three. The top tier would include the upper echelon of talent. Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron. Guys who completely dominated their generation and any baseball fan knows instantly. The second level includes the guys that are still first ballot Hall of Famers. Joe DiMaggio, Willie Stargell, Tom Seaver. The bottom tier includes players who excelled in their career, but don't have the flashy numbers, or might not be worthy of a 1st ballot induction under the current format. Andre Dawson, Burt Blyleven, Robin Yount.

And secondly, as I said earlier, reduce the years of eligibility to three. Sportswriters get power hungry when given a chance to decide where to put a player. Roberto Alomar was the best second baseman of the 1990s. He should not have had to wait a year for the writers to teach him a lesson. If a player has to wait more than three years, I don't think they should be in. Sorry Donny Baseball, that means you.

I want this revamping because you can't compare Babe Ruth to Dave Winfield to Kirby Puckett. You can't compare Bob Feller to Burt Blyleven. While Kirby and Blyleven deserve praise, they don't deserve the same honor as Hank Aaron or Sandy Koufax.

The players above are examples I would use for my tiers. Who would you put in your three tiers? Are there players in the Hall that you would remove if given the chance? Would you elect Pete Rose? (I would).

Oh, and congratulations Burt Blyleven and Roberto Alomar Jr. for being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Credit @si_vault on twitter for these photos. Follow them if you want to see classic photos such as these.