The Bus Ride's Been Fun, But Now it's About Over

Sunday, January 01, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The perfect storm formed over the Midwest and collided in Western Pennsylvania in the spring of 1995, bringing with it a heavy dose of running back that would power the Steelers for the next decade.

In St. Louis, new Rams coach Rich Brooks somehow put his star back in the doghouse and wanted no part of him. In Pittsburgh, the Steelers went looking for a replacement for a back arrested on drug charges. In a catacomb office at Three Rivers Stadium, coach Bill Cowher told assistant Dick Hoak to look at some tape of the fat kid in St. Louis.

Hoak needed little time on the assignment before he reported back to Cowher: "Get him!"
Tom Donahoe, the Steelers' director of football operations at that time, then pulled what amounted to the Great St. Louis Bus Robbery. Donahoe traded his team's fourth-round draft pick in 1996 and second-round choice in 1995 for the Rams' third-round pick in 1995 and the fat kid, Jerome Bettis.

"It was," Bettis said, "a match made in heaven."

He went from "The Battering Ram" to "The Bus," and the Steelers rode him everywhere except a Super Bowl. Both Bettis and the Steelers plan to give it one more journey, the hard way.

Today, Jerome Bettis will run out of the tunnel at Heinz Field one last time. He likely will retire after the season, although neither he nor the Steelers have said so. But his 13-year quest to play in a Super Bowl, and the Steelers' attempt to win one after 26 years, will continue.

That's why Bettis corrected one questioner the other day when he was asked about playing in what may be his final game.

"The final home game," Bettis said.

The perfect end to this perfect storm, of course, would be for it all to conclude in his hometown of Detroit, the site of Super Bowl XL on Feb. 5. But for now, today's game against the Lions will belong to Jerome Bettis.

"You don't do anything special," Bettis said. "You appreciate things a little bit more, you glance at the lights maybe a little bit more than you normally would. But it's still a football game. First and foremost, you have to go out there ready to play -- and I'll be ready to play."

The Steelers have said they will salute him subtly because they do not want to appear to be pushing him into retirement. Expect plenty of Bus moments on the video screen.

Few Steelers greats had that opportunity to bow out on their own. Running back Franco Harris was cut in training camp and ended his career in Seattle. Quarterback Terry Bradshaw and linebacker Jack Lambert sustained injuries that forced them out before they were ready. Wide receiver Lynn Swann announced his retirement by telephone.

It may not be official, but Bettis will have his sendoff today as one of the Steelers' all-time great players.

"Oh, very, very definitely," said team owner Dan Rooney, who appreciates what Bettis has done off the field as much as on it. "He ranks right up there with all the great running backs. He and Franco are in a class by themselves.

"He ended up here when his maturity and his example, leadership, all of those things, meant so much to this team. He was able to show them and the guys how to do things. He was a little bit like [Hall of Fame defensive tackle] Joe Greene. He took the quarterback under his wing and tried to provide some maturity."

His attitude and presence permeated the locker room for a decade. Players sought him out for his advice. He was among the first to embrace quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Young backs such as Verron Haynes and Willie Parker flock to him. When Duce Staley came here to take his job, Bettis welcomed him and made Staley comfortable.

During one home game this season, Parker ran sideways a few times when he should have taken the ball up the field. He lost yardage. He came to the sideline and Bettis talked to him for several minutes, gesturing where he should have run. Parker corrected it during that game and has not repeated his error since.

After Parker scored his first pro touchdown, in a preseason game last year, he left the ball in the end zone. Bettis retrieved it and gave it to the young back to keep.

"Coming in as a rookie," linebacker Joey Porter said, "he pretty much gave me the blueprint how this NFL thing works and what to expect and how to go about things, and I just try to follow the blueprint he laid out for me, and it's been pretty successful."

Never in NFL history has anyone seen such a big back, 5-feet-11 and 255 pounds, with such quick feet and durability.

"When I look at my career I think it's pretty unique in a sense that I'm the only guy who kind of looks like me," Bettis said, then laughed.

Big backs flame out, but The Bus roared. His 13,621 yards rushing rank fifth in NFL history. He would own the Steelers' season record if he hadn't been rested in a meaningless finale in 1997 when he had 1,665 yards, 25 shy of Barry Foster's total. He led the NFL in rushing after 10 games in 2001 when a groin tear stopped him at 1,072 yards.

Of his 13 seasons, eight with 1,000 yards, perhaps none was more impressive than 2004. Staley, who came as a free agent from Philadelphia, took Bettis' job and ran with it. In the first seven games Staley accumulated 707 yards before a hamstring injury ended that run.

Bettis, who had played very little, jumped right in, made his first start against the Philadelphia Eagles at home and ran 33 times for 149 yards, the first of six starts -- all 100-yard games. He finished with 941 yards, falling short of a ninth 1,000-yard season when he again was rested in the finale.

That game against Philadelphia places high in his personal scrap book.

"That was the one where the question mark was beginning to seep in," Bettis said. "Can he still do it? I think that just" -- Bettis slammed his hand on a desk top -- "killed that with a sledgehammer. I knew what I was capable of."

Other games flash through Bettis' memory:

His 129 yards in three quarters against the Rams at home in 1996, including a 50-yard run after Brooks, his former coach, said he wasn't a game-breaker. "Ohhhhh, I wanted that one sooo bad."
His first Monday night game, at home against Buffalo, when he rushed for 133 yards and two touchdowns. "He had never played on 'Monday Night Football'," Donahoe said, "and he became Mr. Monday Night."

His touchdown in overtime to beat Jacksonville in 1997. A back who rarely fumbles, he had done so to let the Jaguars back in the game.

His 100-yard second half against the NFL's No. 1 defense, the Chicago Bears, this season.

His 104 yards rushing in the last game played at Three Rivers Stadium, Dec. 16, 2000, against Washington. "I just wanted to send it out on the right stage. That's the first time I ever really went into a game and said I need a 100-yard game, because this is it, the last one, there will never be another one. Whew! That was important to me because of the legacy of the guys who played before me."

Today's game will join that list.

"To have had such a long career here, the possibility of playing your last game is scary. It's scary," Bettis said.

His parents will be here from Detroit -- they have attended every regular-season NFL game he's played in his 13 years. Friends back home can watch on television. The last dance, at home.
"If you go back and look at my career, there's one thing I want people to remember," Bettis said. "That when you saw 36, you saw a real football player who loved the game, played the game the way it's supposed to be played, respected everything about it and genuinely enjoyed it and tried to show it through his play."

Mission accomplished.

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-3878.)