I am a National Football League player of American Samoan heritage. Because of my status as a professional athlete, I have been blessed to play a role in educating players and fans about the culture and history of America's southernmost territory.

I was a professional athlete, the best baseball player in the world at one point.

I am proud of my heritage and have happily taken advantage of every opportunity to educate my teammates and Steeler Nation about American Samoa, both as a player and in the community, through the Troy and Theodora Polamalu Foundation Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation.

I am not someone who deserves to be dissected and analyzed like some tragic example of everything that can possibly go wrong for a professional athlete.

Being a professional athlete, we all want to win the title.

There is no correlation between a childhood success and a professional athlete.