January 23, 2006

Bus rolls toward Motown
Bettis headed to hometown for his first Super Bowl

By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH
The Kansas City Star

DENVER — As the minutes rolled down on last year’s AFC championship game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and the Steelers’ fate was sealed, a teary-eyed Ben Roethlisberger had to find Jerome Bettis.

“He was boo-hooing,” Bettis said, “and he turned to me and said, ‘Come back, I’ll get you to the Super Bowl. Just come back, give me one more year.’ ”

This may sound familiar to Broncos fans. In 1998, their second Super Bowl championship season, Denver’s rallying cry was “Win one for John,” as in Elway, their quarterback for 16 seasons who was likely going to retire.

The same emotional high that helped Denver win the Super Bowl has paved the way for Pittsburgh seven years later. Sunday, the Steelers beat Denver 34-17, and they won one for the Bus, who had never played in a Super Bowl and may retire after his 13th season. As if this whole thing wasn’t sugar-coated enough, Bettis grew up in Detroit, where Super Bowl XL will be played.

Bettis talked in front of the team Saturday night and asked two small things of them.

“I asked them to give me 110 percent,” Bettis said, “and if you walk away from this game giving that, I’m going to say, ‘Thank you,’ shake your hand and give you a big hug. The second thing I told them was to get me home.”

Bettis carried 15 times for 39 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t start the game. Bettis, once the star of the show, has been the consummate teammate backing up Duce Staley and Willie Parker the past two years.

“I knew we had a great football team,” Bettis said. “I wasn’t selfish in the sense that I had to be the starter. I understood that team concept. I could still provide a lot for this football team, and I was confident in my abilities.”

Although Roethlisberger may have been the only Steeler bold enough to promise a trip to Detroit to Bettis, the rest of the team has welcomed the challenge to send the big guy out on top.

“Jerome has affected in some way everybody on that team,” Steelers receiver Hines Ward said. “He’s someone you can count on. I think more players were trying to rally behind him and make sure they did their job to get him back to Detroit.”

Bettis was asked if he was going to retire after the Super Bowl, a question he’ll hear more and more as the game approaches.

“That’s a great question,” Bettis said. “I don’t know. I’ll look at it. The last thing I want to do is diminish anything by even thinking about that. I think this is an incredible opportunity we have, so I’m going to wait until after the Super Bowl to think about it.”

J. Brady McCollough - jbrady@coveringsports.com (email) - 816-868-2621 (cell)