Thursday, January 26, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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His dream of going home to Detroit for Super Bowl XL accomplished, Jerome Bettis is determined not to let it deteriorate into a nightmare of distractions.
"I'll keep it under control," Bettis promised yesterday. "My cell phone is going to black as soon as I touch down in Detroit, so that will take a lot of pressure off of me. I just kind of want to focus in."
Bettis spent yesterday morning making logistical arrangements for family and filming a Disney commercial and last night filming an asthma-awareness ad. In between, he sat down for a few quick interviews and both answered and fended off non-stop callers to his cell phone.
That's just the beginning.
Later last night, he recorded his weekly show for KDKA-TV. Fans had started lining up for it at 9:30 a.m. yesterday morning.
This morning, he's scheduled to go live on ESPN's Mike & Mike show. There's the popular Time magazine Ten Questions feature upcoming.
He and his mother, Gladys, will film a new Campbell's Soup commercial with Donovan McNabb and his mother Tuesday in Detroit. A week from today the Jerome Bettis Super Bowling Extravaganza takes place at the Majestic Theatre to benefit his charitable foundation (Ticketmaster is selling tickets). The tournament features NFL players such as Clinton Portis and Edgerrin James.
Oh, yes, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick wants to designate the days leading up to the Super Bowl as Jerome Bettis Week, and the Bus is on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the second time in the past three issues.
He needs more than 100 tickets to the game, but officially gets only 15 from the Steelers, prompting him to "beg and borrow" from other sources. Former teammate Mike Schneck of the Buffalo Bills offered his two, but no matter how many he gets, there won't be enough to go around. So Gladys Bettis came up with a way.
"My mother's rule is before you can send in a ticket request, you had to go to three games this season. She can really limit it. It draws to a smaller group, and people understand that they can't ask to go to the Super Bowl if they didn't ask to go to any of the other games. But still, there's going to be a raffle for some of the seats because I still can't accommodate everybody."
One of his tickets will go to his high school coach, Bob Dozier. Bettis also will pay to fly Dozier from his home in El Paso, Texas, to Detroit.
Bettis wants to enjoy his time going home to Detroit, but he also does not want it to become a disruption to him or his team. He knows he will be the most popular man in Detroit next week and believes that might actually help the rest of the Steelers as they prepare to play their first Super Bowl in 10 years.
"We still have to play football," Bettis said in the quiet of a back office at the team's UPMC training site yesterday. "A lot of people are saying there's going to be a lot of distractions on me.
Well, you know, hopefully, I can take some of the pressure off a lot of other players. Hey, you can focus on me. I'm not an every-down player, so I think that's very beneficial for our team.
"Everything that's happened to me, it's a situation where, if I was in year one, year two, year three, it would be harder. But in Year 13, I know how to handle it, know how to conduct myself and make sure I'm ready to play a football game. So the benefit I have is experience. That's not going to be an issue."
The hoopla surrounding his parents, Gladys and John, is another matter. It started when ESPN flew them directly from the game in Denver to New York to appear Monday morning on Cold Pizza. They've granted many interviews, and there are many to come.
"For them, I think it will be really huge," Bettis said. "I think a lot of people want to talk to them, want to interview them, want to meet them. I think for them, their world will be upside down.
"I think at some point later in the week, I think they're going to have to curb it because they're going to go out of their minds. But then, they don't have to play a game. There's no distractions for them, so there's no problem."
Bettis spoke with a gravelly voice yesterday, the result of his weekend experience in Denver. He used his inhaler to help his asthma more than usual during the game.
"I got sick in Denver. I think it was the flight. By the time I landed I was in rough shape. The asthma was rough, I was sick on top of that -- and the altitude. It made for a difficult time. I got through the game."
All he needs now is to get through one more.
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)
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