Peter King: The Bus is Still Rolling

Peter King, SI.com

CINCINNATI -- Here I am, in the locker room of another stadium, looking at Jerome Bettis, resplendent in his black velvet sweatsuit, wondering: How many more times am I going to be standing here, talking to Bettis after he was the big factor in his team winning? The big factor, really.

I think back. I remember a game in 2001 in Tampa, Bettis going for 143 yards and outrunning the secondary. Literally. People think of Bettis as a big back with stodgy wheels. Wrong. He's a big back with quick feet. He outran John Lynch that day in Tampa, and the towel-wavers who travel the country to support this team were going nuts.

I saw him twice last year, in two Bettis instant classics. Steelers 27, Eagles 3: "Pennsylvania Super Bowl.'' The Eagles put seven, eight men on the line. No help. Bettis: 33-for-149. A ridiculously dominant game. "If I come back next year,'' he told me after that game, "there's no way I can come back in this role. It'll kill me.''

Then the Ben Roethlisberger-Eli Manning showdown on a Saturday in New Jersey. Great, great football game. Back and forth, forth and back. He lugs it 36 times -- 36 times, at the age of 32! -- for 140 grinding yards, and carries the Steelers to another survival-of-the-fittest win, 33-30. Then the playoffs. The Jets outplayed Pittsburgh, Bettis fumbled once -- a key fumble. But he stuck his nose in there 27 times for 101 bruising, clock-eating yards. Duce Staley spelled him in the second half, and the Steelers survived.

Sunday in Cincinnati, Bettis had the role he should have at this point of his life -- relief pitcher. You'll open your paper and see the numbers: 13 carries, 56 yards. You won't be impressed. Well, Bettis was the key to the game. With the Bengals concentrating on stopping him on Pittsburgh's first scoring drive in the red zone, tight end Heath Miller roamed free in the back of the end zone for an easy touchdown catch.

With the Bengals last-gasping in the third quarter, needing a stop at the Cincinnati 25, down 17-6, Pittsburgh had a third-and-3. Bettis is usually the third-and-1 type, maybe third-and-2. But here he came, trying to get three behind the Steeler mules, especially right guard Kendall Simmons. Cincinnati rookie linebacker Odell Thurman grabbed him and tried to hold him. It looked like the play would be whistled dead because the scrum was almost at a complete halt. But there was Bettis churning and churning. The side judge looked like he was going to raise his arm and blow his whistle, but he didn't. Bettis, two seconds later, burrowed for the last two yards of an incredible four-yard gain and the drive was sustained. Four plays later, Roethlisberger threw to Hines Ward for the insurance touchdown.
"One of the best runs of my life,'' Bettis said later.

Score one for brute force over Cincinnati finesse. The Bengals do not have the defensive spine to stop Bettis, and so they can't beat the Steelers right now. Steelers 27, Bengals 13. And it wasn't that close. A week after Bill Cowher forgot to call Bettis' number (four carries, four yards in the loss to Jacksonville) down the stretch, the Steelers

"If we wanted to control this division again,'' Bettis said later, "this was a game we had to have. We're not a pretty offense, but when we're running the ball, I think we can beat anyone.''
The numbers support him. Pittsburgh is 19-3 since opening day 2004 in the regular season.
"I thought you were retired,'' I said to Bettis after the crowd around his locker thinned out.
"They tried to put me out to pasture,'' he said, then laughed. "I'm not quite ready.''
Then someone said he was amazed that Bettis still had the ability to make people 10 years younger and much faster miss. He answered the question politely, then turned to me and quietly said: "I never get enough credit for that.''

Well, in a few years, I'll give him his credit, if I'm still sitting in the Hall of Fame selection meetings at the Super Bowl. Bettis is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Among the players I've covered in 22 seasons, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Lawrence Taylor, Brett Favre and Anthony Munoz should get to the Hall before Bettis. That's it. Seven players. Then Bettis. How many running backs are beating stacked defenses at 32 and 33 years old? Sunday in Philadelphia, the Eagles said: We're going to stop LaDainian Tomlinson. He got seven yards. A year ago, I'm sure the Eagles said: We're going to stop Bettis. And he got 149. (I give massive props to the Smith-Faneca-Hartings-led offensive line. He can't do it without those five guys. But the San Diego line is pretty good too.)

Enjoy him while you can, folks. This rodeo won't be in town much longer.