Monday, December 12, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
He is 33 and in his 13th season of taking the brutal pounding that comes not just from being a running back in the National Football League, but also from being the kind of big running back whose preferred route is through tacklers, not around them.
By every measure known to the game, he long ago should have been rendered ineffective by the ferocity of those hits and sent on to retirement. History tells us that such backs rarely last past their 30th birthday.
But Jerome Bettis is not your ordinary running back. That's a fact he proved one more time yesterday in the muck of Heinz Field as he helped keep the Steelers season alive with a 21-9 victory against the Chicago Bears.
In a performance that rightfully could be called astonishing, Bettis came off the bench to rumble and roll for 101 yards, all but one of which came in the second half.
This performance came in only 17 carries against the No. 1 defense in the NFL and from the man who in the previous four games had run 25 times for 50 yards.
"He amazes me every day," said teammate Verron Haynes. "It's just amazing at this stage of his career to still be rumbling the way he does. You can never count out No. 36."
When Bettis was finished for the day, he had 3,453 carries in the NFL. To put that number in perspective, consider the total carries of some of the other great big backs in NFL history:
Jim Brown quit at his peak with 2,359 carries. But Earl Campbell was done after 2,187, as were Larry Csonka after 1,891 rushes, Jim Taylor after 1,941 and John Riggins after 2,916.
Bettis started slowly yesterday, carrying once -- a 1-yard touchdown run -- in the first half.
He replaced Willie Parker early in the Steelers' second possession of the second half and ran for 2 and 8 yards. Parker returned on the next play, but when the Steelers got close to the goal, Bettis got the call. He ran for 3 yards to the 5 and then, on a play where he looked as spry as a rookie, he bolted through the line, evaded the safety and collided with All-Pro linebacker Brian Urlacher about 2 yards short of the end zone.
"I knew it was [Urlacher]," Bettis said, in recounting the play. "I was trying to bang off him and use his leverage against him. I knew it was going to be a very big hit. I just tried to keep those legs churning.
"He didn't let go, but I made a living carrying people. That's why they call me The Bus."
That's why it was another Steelers' touchdown.
The next time Bettis touched the ball, he ran left, broke through the line, cut to the outside and for a second looked like he might outrun the Chicago secondary. But only for a second. As cornerback Charles Tillman was about to run him down, Bettis headed out of bounds.
Was he out of gas?
"I never had much gas," he said to gales of laughter. "My job is to get all the yards I can get and live to fight another day.
"I knew I wasn't going to make it to the end zone. That's the difference between me and Willie Parker. He's the home-run guy. I'm the bunt, get-on-base, manufacture-a-score guy."
It says so much about Bettis that he accepts a role behind Parker, the unproven second-year player who gives the Steelers the speed at running back they've never had in Bill Cowher's tenure.
"This is Willie Parker's opportunity and I'm backing him up," Bettis said. "I'll just keep doing the same thing that I'm doing, and, hopefully, when they call my number again, I'll be ready."
A back of Bettis' stature -- a certain Hall of Famer and the fifth-leading rusher in NFL history -- could easily use this performance to lobby for more playing time. But he not only accepts his backup role, but he also embraces it.
"He epitomizes what the Pittsburgh Steelers are all about," Hines Ward said.
"You can't say enough about what he means to this team," Cowher said.
The wear-and-tear of the season and steady second-half snow showers, made the field perfect for Bettis.
"I've always been known as a mudder," he said, "and the field really played into my favor in terms of being able to run the ball.
"I know where I'm going and they don't. I get a head of steam going, and they have to play off blocks, and it's hard for those guys to stay in there and get leverage on me. This type of weather is very beneficial for me."
Cowher called the Steelers "desperate" and no one appreciates that more than Bettis.
"When you're in a situation where it could be your last play, not your last game, it is a real sense of desperation," he said.
"I'm just trying to encourage my teammates and lead by example. We have to find a way."
(Post-Gazette sports columnist Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1468.)
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