Sunday's game probably last one at Heinz Field for the Bus
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions at Heinz Field could turn meaningless for the Steelers, but try telling that to Jerome Bettis. Sunday likely will be his last home game.
"I'm a realist in a sense that I do understand there is a good chance it is my last game," Bettis said yesterday.
Bettis will wait until after the season to reveal his plans, but people in the organization fully expect him to retire, and yesterday he sounded as if that is the road he will follow.
"I look at it like it'll last forever," Bettis said of an NFL career that has covered 13 seasons and should land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "But I know it has to come to an end. If this is it, then I want to enjoy it."
Coach Bill Cowher paid tribute to Bettis yesterday at his news conference and hinted that the organization has plans to honor Bettis Sunday.
"Certainly, we will take all of those things into account. ... This guy has been a consummate pro, a tremendous team player. I don't know if I've ever been around a player more respected on a football team."
How they honor him could be tempered by the fact Bettis has not announced his retirement and they might need to beat Detroit to make the playoffs. If San Diego beats Denver Saturday, it clinches a spot for the Steelers and would make Sunday's game meaningless to their playoff situation.
Cowher could choose to start Bettis at halfback, even for ceremonial purposes of introducing him one last time to send him bouncing out of the tunnel at Heinz Field and dancing through lines of teammates
"The don't have to," Bettis said. "I mean, it'd be nice, but it's not necessary. Whatever they do is fine with me. I started in so many, that's not critical. It wasn't on my Christmas list."
Neither is another 100-yard game. He recorded his 61st Dec. 11 against the Bears in Heinz Field. That's fifth on the NFL career list. He owns the Steelers record with 50 100-yard games.
"Of course, that would be sweet but it wouldn't make it any sweeter," Bettis said. "I've done it. A win in Heinz Field makes it sweet because now we're going to the playoffs. That's the sweetest part of all."
Bettis has rushed for 13,621 yards, fifth most in NFL history. He'll go down as the best big running back the game has seen. Yet he has never been to a Super Bowl. He returned to play this season after contemplating retirement for weeks after the Steelers lost in the AFC championship game in January. He doesn't regret doing so, even though his role was to back up Willie Parker this season. If he starts Sunday, it would be his first this season. He is second with 100 carries for 327 yards rushing and leads the team with six rushing touchdowns.
Yet he has enjoyed taking on a new role as mentor to Parker, an undrafted rookie who rushed for 1,067 yards in his second NFL season.
"It was definitely worth my while because it gave me an opportunity to get more football out of me," Bettis said. "As I look back on last year, if I would have retired last year, it wasn't out of me. And so to go through this year and to go through what we've had to go through, the ups and the downs, I think has made me appreciate what we were able to accomplish last year, what I was able to accomplish this year.
"I also was given an opportunity to be in a different role in terms of helping with a guy's progress and seeing that. And that was a journey in and of itself, to see Willie from the start, to see him gain 1,000 yards. I was so happy for him. It was fun.
"So this season for me has been fun because I've been able to maybe see more. ... I've had an opportunity, not to take a step back, but not to be a central focus.
"It's been fun."
"I'm a realist in a sense that I do understand there is a good chance it is my last game."
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-3878.)
Start the Bus on Sunday
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Black & Gold Insider
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Steelers should start Jerome Bettis Sunday, whether the game means nothing or everything. Send him through the tunnel one more time, let him, his teammates and the fans enjoy the ride.
And, whether it means something or not, I'd keep him in the game for awhile. His teammates will tell you no one gets them pumped up in a huddle more than Bettis. The place will be juiced and so will the Bus. I'd give him the ball and not stop and I'd bet he responds with his best game of the season.
Bettis responds to big games. Unfortunately, he's never been in a Super Bowl and he's been hurt in many of their post-season games. I talked to Tom Donahoe Tuesday morning about him and that's what he remembered most about Bettis too, that he was a big-game player.
"The tougher the stage, the better he played," Donahoe told me.
Donahoe is the man who brought Bettis to the Steelers, for a lousy fourth-round draft choice in 1997 and a flip-flop of choices in 1996, the Steelers giving the Rams their second-round pick for the Rams' third-rounder that year. It's the greatest trade in Steelers history. One of the best in NFL history. You don't usually get a Hall of Fame running back for, essentially, a fourth-round draft choice in a trade.
He's meant more than that to the Steelers, however. His attitude has permeated the locker room for a decade. Players go to him for advice. Young backs such as Verron Haynes and Willie Parker flock to him. Bettis told me on Tuesday that one of the joys he's taken out of this season was watching Parker blossom into a 1,000-yard rusher.
During one home game, Parker ran sideways a few times when he should have cut it up. He lost yardage. He came off the field and you could see Bettis talking to him for several minutes, gesturing how he should have cut it up. Parker corrected it during that game and has not repeated his error since.
When Bettis leaves, he will leave one big hole in the Steelers. Fans may not notice it and players come and go, but Bettis is one of those special players who come around once in a long time.
Plenty of players have talent, but there aren't many who have the talent, use it, turn it into the fifth-leading rusher of all time and carry himself on and off the field as if he were something manufactured out of an old Jimmy Stewart movie. Bettis stayed in Pittsburgh when he could have left. He became a part of the community, working for and with charities. He was a leader of his team on and off the field. He handled all the questions from the media with aplomb and intelligence, standing up in good times and bad.
Jerome Bettis would have been an asset to Pittsburgh and the Steelers if he had been half the player that he was. That he also was one of the best running backs in NFL history -- the best big back for sure -- and that he did it for 10 of his 13 seasons in Pittsburgh, places him among their most revered players ever.
Start him on Sunday, no matter what the circumstance.
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