Tyler Polumbus admits that he used to see the media as 'the enemy.'
At The Fan, Polumbus came into his own in part because he'd established more distance from his days on the gridiron."I was so close to the game that covering my teammates, who I had just won a Super Bowl with, and giving an honest opinion on their performance was hard," he admits."But I learned over time how to do that without getting personal. If I had a bad game and somebody wrote about it — 'Tyler gave up two sacks, he was terrible' — I never had a beef.
Partnering with D-Mac"was definitely a huge opportunity for me — and you don't get a show like that unless you've put in the work. I'm really proud of the show we put on for the last three years, and we had a great following." Polumbus avoids going into detail about how his contract situation deteriorated, saying only that"we were in talks and it came down to the wire and we didn't get anything done — and once I was aware that we weren't going to get anything done, I made the announcement. And fortunately, about 48 hours later, I was sitting in the office with Dave Fleck [the head of Altitude Sports Radio].
He shrugs off the idea that being replaced by Broncos teammate Wolfe was awkward."Derek and I are definitely close friends," he says."We won a Super Bowl together, and that's a bond that will never be broken. But in football, I've been cut and traded. I've taken friends' jobs and I've lost jobs to friends. You get accustomed to that transactional world in football; you're kind of mercenaries. And this doesn't feel a lot different.
At Altitude, Polumbus will get the chance to talk plenty about the Broncos, but"we'll certainly cover the Nuggets and the Avs more than I had previously, and I'm really excited about it," he notes."And the format's also a little different. We're just really focused on having a good time and entertaining, and wherever that leads, it leads. I've known Scott and Josh for a long time, and I know we're going to laugh a lot.