Steelers See No Sign of a Bus Stop Yet

Once again, Jerome Bettis has defied the odds.

The average life expectancy of a school bus running in cold-weather conditions is 10 years.

“A 12-year-old bus is pretty much a spare,” the president of a national bus company said.

Bettis, who turns 33 next month and goes by the nickname “the Bus,” has been rumbling along as an NFL running back for 12 seasons, the last nine with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He expected to be a short-yardage specialist this season but was thrust into the No. 1 role after starter Duce Staley suffered a leg injury.

Bettis has rushed for at least 100 yards in each of his seven starts. He will start today when the Steelers play host to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game. At stake is a trip to the Super Bowl, a place the Bus has never been.

“In dog years, I’m probably 60 years old ... but the love of the game and the opportunity to play for a championship is what drives me, what keeps me going, what gets me out of the bed in the morning,” he said. “It’s what keeps me dealing with the pain.”

The Steelers went 15-1 this season, earning home-field advantage in the AFC and a spot in the record book for Ben Roethlisberger, the most successful rookie quarterback in NFL history. As much as anyone, Bettis has carried the offensive load on his yard-wide shoulders. He tied for third in the conference with 13 rushing touchdowns, and added another in a divisional playoff victory over the New York Jets.

He might feel the workload in his legs, but a renewed sense of purpose shows in his face.

“It means everything to him,” his mother, Gladys, said in a telephone interview from her Detroit home. “I see it in his eyes, the way he talks.”

And no one knows him the way his mother does. Hours after losing the ball in the Jet game -- his first fumble in 365 carries, spanning more than two years -- Bettis walked into the guest room at his Pittsburgh home and plopped onto the bed next to his mom. The two seldom talk football with each other, but Jerome needed to clear his head.

“Mom,” he said, “I can’t believe I lost that ball.”

“I know, honey,” she said. “But they came through.”

It’s usually Bettis who is bailing out those around him. The Steelers will rely on him today to put a dent in New England’s vaunted defense, one that held the high-flying Indianapolis Colts to a field goal in a 20-3 victory last Sunday, shocking the league’s most prolific offense.

Bettis has yet to have a big game against the Patriots in the playoffs. In three postseason games against them, he has averaged 39.3 yards a game and scored one touchdown. For him, the most memorable of those games was the AFC championship game in January 2002, when the visiting Patriots won, 24-17, on their way to their first Super Bowl victory.

“It’s devastating to be so close but yet so far away,” said Bettis, whose first AFC title game was in January 1998 when Pittsburgh lost at home to Denver. “It’s been a frustrating feeling to know that you have a team that can go, but you don’t play your best game.”

Bettis understands how fleeting these opportunities are. He was the 10th overall selection by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1993 draft, back when he was known as the “Battering Ram.” Three seasons into his career, when the Rams had relocated to St. Louis, Bettis had a falling-out with first-year coach Rich Brooks, who wanted a more pass-oriented offense. That led to Bettis’ holding out of training camp, and after that season he had serious concerns his football career was over. He went back to Notre Dame to complete his coursework.

“I was so firm in my commitment on not going back to St. Louis that that was the game plan, to finish up and start in the real world,” he said. “That’s why I decided to go back to school.”

His mother said it was the most trying time she could remember for her son.

“He was miserable, with his head hanging down,” she said. “I said, ‘Hold your head up, you didn’t do anything wrong. You’re the best. You’re the greatest.’ ”

On draft day in 1996, the Rams traded Bettis to the Steelers and took Lawrence Phillips with their first pick. And, whereas Phillips’ career went south almost immediately, Bettis was reborn in Pittsburgh. He rushed for 1,431 yards in his first season there, more than double the 637 he gained in his final season with the Rams.

It was then that longtime Steeler radio announcer Myron Cope started calling him Bus, picking up on a nickname Bettis had at Notre Dame, where fans used to chant, “Here come da Bus! Can’t stop da Bus!” The nickname lives on. A popular T-shirt in Pittsburgh reads “The Bus Runneth Over,” and that’s what Terrible Towel-swirling fans have come to expect from No. 36, no matter what the weather. If it snows today, all the better.

“I’m a mudder,” he said. “A fast track really doesn’t do much for me. So, really, the worse, probably the better for me.... I’m pretty heavy so I can kind of sink in a little bit. I don’t have a problem that a lot of those faster, lighter guys have sliding around. You don’t see me [do] too much sliding.”

No signs of slipping, either. As the president of the bus company might say, they don’t build them like that anymore.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Leading Rushers

Jerome Bettis, who has spent nine of his 12 NFL seasons in Pittsburgh, is fifth on the all-time rushing list (* active):

*--* PLAYER YARDS YEARS *EMMITT SMITH 18,355 15 WALTER PAYTON 16,726 13 BARRY SANDERS 15,269 10 *CURTIS MARTIN 13,366 10 *JEROME BETTIS 13,294 12 ERIC DICKERSON 13,259 12 TONY DORSETT 12,739 12 JIM BROWN 12,312 9 MARCUS ALLEN 12,243 16 FRANCO HARRIS 12,120 13

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A Road Bump

Jerome Bettis has good numbers in the postseason -- except against New England.

*--* Category vs. Patriots vs. Others Games 3 5 Rushing yard avg. 39.3 62.4 Per carry avg. 2.5 3.9 Rushing TDs 1 4

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Stats Inc.