Polamalu’s Gasland Post Leads To Facebook Frenzy

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Steel­ers safety Troy Polamalu

Steel­ers safety Troy Pola­malu recently learned what we here at StateIm­pact have known for a long time: the issue of nat­ural gas drilling sparks pas­sion­ate debate.

The Post-Gazette recounts what hap­pened last month, when Pola­malu listed the anti-fracking doc­u­men­tary “Gasland” as one of his favorite movies.

The Pola­malu Face­book page was sud­denly home to a face-off over frack­ing, with one fan in Fort Worth, Texas, call­ing the film “left wing trash” that he was dis­ap­pointed to see com­ing with a Steel­ers seal of approval. Yet another thanked him, say­ing Mr. Polamalu’s “fame and clout” was help­ful in spread­ing the “Gasland” gospel to the Steel­ers Nation.

Soon the gas debate talk­ing points fol­lowed, over whether the jobs were worth the envi­ron­men­tal risk or whether national secu­rity relied on gas explo­ration. It’s prob­a­bly the first time a Steeler has inspired talk of OPEC.