The Patriots have been a continual source of frustration for Polian.
Reporters in the press box at Gillette Stadium remember the time he continually pounded his fist during a Patriots-Colts game in 2005, then screamed for the Colts to break the leg of Patriots backup quarterback Doug Flutie, who had entered late in the fourth quarter of a game that Indianapolis had all but sealed.
This past spring, Polian agreed to speak with Boston sports radio station WEEI after the Colts signed kicker Adam Vinatieri in free agency, which could have been viewed as adding salt to the Patriots' wound in their own backyard.
And as a member of the NFL's Competition Committee, Polian was part of the group that voted to make defensive contact a point of emphasis in the 2005 season, which was convenient, considering he felt the lack of penalties called on such plays helped end the Colts' 2004 season in a playoff loss to the Patriots.
So here was Polian yesterday, toeing a different type of line during media day festivities at Super Bowl XLI. Would he cross over the security line to meet the press? Or keep a lower profile, away from the spotlight of the NFL's championship game?
After some hesitation, Polian stepped over it, and a surprising thing happened. He couldn't stop praising the Patriots, the team the Colts beat to advance to Super Bowl XLI.
"There's no special feeling about [beating] the Pats, other than great respect for them," said Polian, whose Colts were knocked out of the 2003 and 2004 playoffs by New England. "They're a great football team, the best-coached team that you're going to play year in and year out, in terms of detail and creativeness. A great organization."
There was also Polian's response as to why the AFC has had more success than the NFC in recent years.
"I think you've had a lot of great quarterbacks in the AFC and you had a great team in New England, a transcendent team," Polian said. "They won three of the last six. That skews it a great deal."
