Regular readers may have noticed at some of your GetReligionistas are big sports fans, which includes the National Football League in several cases. This continues to be the case even though young master Daniel Pulliam is inactive, while serving as editor of a law review.
Regular readers may also know that we are big fans of intelligent question-and-answer interviews, especially when this format allows a skilled journalist to let intelligent and colorful people stretch out and tell their own stories and describe their own beliefs in their own words.
Regular readers may also know that I am a convert to Orthodox Christianity and, it goes without saying, I am interested in the views of other Orthofolks.
However, just about the last thing I would expect to see in public media is a long and highly intelligent interview with an NFL superstar, commenting on the role of his Orthodox faith in his life as a parent, husband, churchman and athlete. Can you imagine the odds against that?
So, click here and check out Gina Mazza's conversation with -- you guessed it -- the mane man in Pittsburgh, which would be Troy Polamalu, the star safety for the Steelers. I don't quite know where to start with the interesting material in this one (Can you say, "Mount Athos?"), but let's start with this part of the introduction:
Fatherhood is new in Polamalu's life since the birth of his son, Paisios, named after a beloved contemporary Greek Orthodox monastic, Elder Paisios, on Oct. 31, 2008. Has daddy-dom been life-changing? Will he encourage his son to play professional sports? How's that beautiful new mom doing?
And last but not least: Faith. In order to properly meet Polamalu where he lives, this is the requisite, the grounding force that gives meaning to everything he does, every play he makes. Polamalu's evident gratitude to the one who made him is marbled throughout our talk -- from his training regime to his travels to Mount Athos, a monastic site in Greece, a place he calls "heaven on earth."
So this interview includes some very unusual questions, in the context of sports. How about, "Would you want your son to be a priest?" But, you see, that isn't the biggest question.
Here's a major chunk of the interview:
What is your greatest wish for your child?
Without a question, my greatest wish would be for him to understand the spiritual struggle and to be a pious Orthodox Christian. That's what I want for myself, as well. Sometimes parents want their children to be what they never were. And that's one thing that I am gracious for Paisios to have: that he's able to grow up in the Orthodox church around monastics and priests that I was never able to experience as a kid -- to grasp that, not take it for granted and really culture that. ...
How would you define the spiritual struggle you referred to earlier?
It's the struggle of good and evil, and with that comes the struggle with greed, jealousy, materialism, sexual morality, pride, all these types of struggles that we face every day, in every second of the day.
Your faith continues to evolve. In the past few years, you formally converted to Greek Orthodox. Where do you worship?
My wife and I go often to a Greek Orthodox monastery in Saxonburg [Nativity of the Theotokos], a monastery in Arizona, and several parishes in Pittsburgh. We like the monastery because it's most serene there and we can talk to the monastics. To see their daily struggles really fascinates me.
What intrigues you about the monastic life?
For me, faith is to be simple in this way. If anybody believes in God and believes in the Holy Bible, how can you be in any grey area? I'm talking about myself here, how can "I" think one way and do another way? To me, Christianity is very black and white. Either you take it serious or you don't take it serious at all. The monks' example to me is that they take salvation seriously in every facet of their lives. This is a model for me as a Christian and for my family on how to live our lives.
Read on. This has to be one of the most off-the-wall (in a good way) interviews of the year. Enjoy.
Photo: From the TroyPolamalufan.com website.