Sunday, April 23, 2006
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Several years ago, Jerome Bettis watched Emmitt Smith leave the Dallas Cowboys to sign with the historically pathetic Arizona Cardinals and predicted it would not go well.
"Before he even lines up," Bettis said, "he doesn't have a chance. I wouldn't do that. I'm not looking to just being a punching bag."
Instead of trying to squeeze the last dime out of football, Bettis took two consecutive and steep salary cuts to remain with the Steelers in a different role, first as a backup to Duce Staley and then to Willie Parker.
It paid off in more ways than money.
No athlete's career ended quite the way it did for Bettis, a fairy-tale finish except that this was real.
Many athletes, coaches and managers went out as champions, most notably Denver quarterback John Elway, who retired after winning consecutive Super Bowls. No one with Hall of Fame credentials had bowed out by kissing the Vince Lombardi Trophy on the floor of the Super Bowl in his hometown after a weeklong party celebrating his accomplishments -- until the Bus stopped in his native Detroit.
It is that marvelous 13-year career, 10 of them in Pittsburgh, and the joyful ending that brought Jerome Bettis his only Super Bowl ring and the Steelers their first Lombardi Trophy in 26 years that the Dapper Dan will celebrate next Sunday when they present the Bus as Sportsman of the Year.
Bettis, the NFL's fifth-leading career rusher, takes his place among Pittsburgh's long list of pro sports icons, from Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell to Mario Lemieux and a slew of Super Steelers before him.
"It's been an incredible ride," Bettis said after the Steelers beat Seattle, 21-10, Feb. 5. "I decided to come back to win a championship and mission accomplished. So with that I have to bid farewell."
He won't fade from public view. NBC-TV hired Bettis as one of three studio hosts for the network's Sunday night NFL games. He will be on that job in Heinz Field when the Steelers kick off the NFL season Sept. 7 against the Miami Dolphins.
Bettis also will join his teammates on a visit to the White House early in June and receive his Super Bowl ring shortly thereafter.
"It means everything," Bettis said of the ring. "That's why I play this game. That's why I started years and years ago on this quest to win a championship."
He achieved personal success long ago as the most prolific big back in NFL history, at 5 feet 11, 255 pounds. A fullback at Notre Dame, he became the Battering Ram his rookie season with the Los Angeles Rams, rushing for 1,429 yards in 1993. The Rams traded him to the Steelers in 1996 and, rejuvenated as The Bus, he rushed for more than 3,000 yards in his first two seasons in Pittsburgh. He would hold the Steelers' single-season rushing record if he had not rested in the 1997 regular-season finale before the playoffs. He finished with 1,665 yards, 25 fewer than Barry Foster's 1992 total.
Bettis ended with 13,662 yards, 10,571 with the Steelers. He will be a strong candidate to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he first becomes eligible in five years.
"He's big and he's strong and he can take that pounding," longtime Steelers backs coach Dick Hoak said. "A lot of guys wouldn't be able to do that."
It also is appropriate that the Dapper Dan, the charity arm of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, honors Bettis because his work through his Bus Stops Here foundation has been tireless. He earned the 2001 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year for his community service.
His foundation has raised and distributed money for poor children. He issues the Jerome Bettis Friends Forever Scholarship and established the Joseph Gilbert Scholarship Fund at his alma mater, Detroit's McKenzie High School. He started Save Children Opportunity Recreation Education (SCORE) to refurbish inner city parks and playgrounds. He conducts an annual football camp in Detroit free for kids. An asthmatic since his teens, he has worked to help find a cure.
Bettis nearly missed the spectacular ending to his career because he considered bowing out one year earlier after the Steelers went 15-1 and lost to New England in the AFC championship to close their 2004 season. He weighed his decision for weeks before opting to give it one more try for what had been an elusive Super Bowl appearance.
"I struggled with it for a while," Bettis said the night the Steelers won the Super Bowl. "Even after I told coach I wanted to come back, it was tough for me. I went out to St. Louis and was training with Bob Kersee, the track coach, and there were some days I said to myself, 'What am I doing out here? I don't know if I want to keep doing this.'
"The love of the game kept pushing me around the track. The commitment was there, and the resolve was great for me to be here."
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878. )
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