Troy Polamalu's ill-timed block attempt

It's hard to deny the effort of Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. No one else would dare the risk of looking like a fool in front of millions of people.

Then again, very few, if any, have done it successfully often enough to say "yeah, I could see what he was trying to do there."

Imagine if, say, Shamarko Thomas, had tried that (or Thomas Shamarko, as Dan Fouts might call him)? We'd still be laughing. In this particular instance, a blocked extra point would have radically changed the Ravens' strategy on the ensuing kickoff.

Another one of those zany onside kicks would have likely worked in Pittsburgh's favor.

As it is, Polamalu's efforts aside - especially in a game in which he played inside linebacker for a fair stretch of it - it comes off as comedic only because it's possibly the only time in history a player managed to reach the holder before the ball arrived on an extra point.

More than that, though, he didn't even mis-time his jump by all that much. Be warned, future opponents.

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