Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu should enter the Hall of Fame together

The debate may never end between who was better between Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed.

While the answer to that question will never be one everyone can agree on, I'd like to center the focus of these two iconic players on what's next for each for them, as opposed to what's happened in the past.

With Reed's recent retirement announcement coming a month after Polamalu decided to hang up his cleats, the two greatest safeties of their generation will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021. It's only fitting that Polamalu and Reed enter football immortality together.

The two have strikingly similar careers. In college, each helped revive perennial powerhouse college programs and lead them to national titles, Reed with Miami and Polamalu with Southern California. Each player was drafted in the first round with the hope of improving each defenses' Achilles' heel: the secondaries. By 2004, both Reed and Polamalu had ascended to the top of respective positions, Reed at free safety and Polamalu at strong safety.

From 2004-11, Polamalu and Reed played in six Pro Bowls together, and in 2008 and '10, they were named All-Pros. While Polamalu earned his first Pro Bowl berth in 2004 after recording five interceptions and helping lead the Steelers to a 15-1 regular season record, Reed won that year's NFL Defensive Player of the Year award after intercepting nine passes that included a 106-yard interception return for a touchdown. Six years later, Polamalu earned his Defensive Player of the Year award while helping spearhead the Steelers' run to Super Bowl XLV. Together, Polamlau and Reed tallied 17 total Pro Bowl selections and nine All-Pro nods, doing so while helping their teams battle each other for NFL supremacy.

Their teams met twice in the playoffs, with Polamalu and the Steelers upending Reed's Ravens on both occasions. Troy's Steelers won a total of five division titles along with three AFC championships and two Vince Lombardi Trophies. Ed's Ravens won four division titles, reached the AFC Championship three times and defeated the 49ers to win Super Bowl XLVII. Both Polamalu and Reed earned every team and individual award imaginable, and they did it by competing against the best of competition, each other.

But the greatness of these two one and a lifetime players goes beyond stats or physical awards. Both Polamalu and Reed played the safety position with a flair and a style not seen before, and their leadership abilities, while different, inspired their teams and fan bases alike. What's more, Polamalu and Reed played the game the right way, and displayed class and professionalism both on and off the field. Despite playing on rival teams, Polamalu and Reed symbolized the same thing: playing the game at the highest level while elevating your team to do this same, and doing it the right way and for the right reasons.

For these reasons, I hope that Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed, the best strong safety and best free safety of this century, are enshrined together in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021, as long as the one with the long hair from Pittsburgh goes first.

It will always be a rivalry, after all.