Steelers safety Troy Polamalu makes Hall of Fame, guard Alan Faneca comes up short again

The good news for the Pittsburgh Steelers is the organization will be well represented when the Pro Football Hall of Fame holds its induction ceremonies this summer.

The bad news is they didn’t get every eligible candidate elected in the Class of 2020.

Safety Troy Polamalu was elected to the Hall of Fame on Saturday afternoon in his first year of eligibility, but former teammate Alan Faneca did not make the cut for the fifth year in a row. Polamalu will join Bill Cowher and Donnie Shell as Steelers representatives in the Class of 2020.

BREAKING: The 5 Modern-Era enshrinees for the Class of 2020 were selected earlier today in Miami. #PFHOF20

More on the Modern-Era members: https://t.co/MsbAxyj3Y6 pic.twitter.com/F5ejg3VefF

— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) February 1, 2020

Polamalu was among the five Modern Era candidates elected to the Class of 2020, which includes 15 members of the previously elected Centennial Slate. Also elected were safety Steve Atwater of the Denver Broncos, running back Edgerrin James of the Indianapolis Colts, guard Steve Hutchinson of the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings and wide receiver Isaac Bruce of the St. Louis Rams.

“It really feels surreal,” Polamalu told the team’s website. “I’m very thankful for all of my teammates. It’s truly a tribute to them. I feel honored and unworthy of it, to be honest.”

Polamalu won’t be joined in Canton by one of his teammates — not this year, at least.

Faneca survived the cutdown from 15 finalists to 10 on Saturday for the third year in a row. However, Hutchinson was the only offensive lineman elected by the 48-member electorate.

Falling short of election, in addition to Faneca, were LeRoy Butler, Tony Boselli, Richard Seymour, Torry Holt, John Lynch, Sam Mills, Zach Thomas, Reggie Wayne and Bryant Young.

Eliminated from consideration on the cutdown from 15 finalists to 10 were Butler, Holt, Mills, Wayne and Young.

Polamalu and the rest of the Modern Era class will be inducted Aug. 8 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio.

Congratulations @tpolamalu. You were a true game changer every time you took the field. It was a joy and a pleasure to coach you and nobody is more deserving of being a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer than you. So happy for you and your family.

— Mike Tomlin (@CoachTomlin) February 1, 2020

Cowher, who coached the Steelers from 1992-2006, and Shell, who won four Super Bowl titles in the 1970s, are part of the 15-member Centennial Slate that was elected in January.

A separate induction ceremony for the Centennial Slate members will be in September.

“It’s a great reflection in my mind of the Steelers organization, the culture that is built there,” Cowher said.

A two-time Super Bowl champion and eight-time Pro Bowl selection, Polamalu was named a first-team All-Pro four times (he was a second-team pick twice).

Polamalu won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2010 and was named to the NFL all-decade team for the 2000s.

“Troy was the kind of player who was able to impact the outcome of games from his safety position, and he did it with uncanny instincts that made it almost impossible for opposing offenses to predict where he would be,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement. “A proven playmaker who never failed to come up big in the biggest games, Troy deserves to be considered among the best defensive backs in NFL history.”

Cowher coached Polamalu for his first four seasons after the Steelers traded up to select him in the first round of the 2003 draft. Mike Tomlin coached Polamalu until the safety retired after the 2014 season.

“You were a true game changer every time you took the field,” Tomlin wrote on his Twitter account. “It was a joy and a pleasure to coach you and nobody is more deserving of being a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer than you.”

Despite making the Pro Bowl nine times and being a six-time first-team All-Pro guard, Faneca was bypassed. Like Polamalu, Faneca was a member of the NFL all-decade team for the 2000s.

Faneca spent the first 10 of his 13 NFL seasons with the Steelers and threw the block that sprang running back Willie Parker for a 75-yard touchdown run in the Steelers’ 21-10 victory against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. He spent two years with the New York Jets and one with the Arizona Cardinals before retiring after the 2010 season.

Faneca can take comfort in knowing it took other Steelers Hall of Famers a few years of eligibility before making it to the Hall of Fame. Teammate Jerome Bettis didn’t make it until the fifth try, and wide receivers John Stallworth (eight years) and Lynn Swann (14) had even longer waits before gaining entrance to the Hall of Fame.