DETROIT – For once, Gladys and John Bettis didn’t have to travel very far to watch their son, Jerome, play football. They could have taken a bus to watch The Bus last night at Ford Field.
A journey that began down the highway at MacKenzie High and stretched to Notre Dame and St. Louis and Los Angeles and ultimately Pittsburgh, culminated in Super Bowl XL, where Jerome Bettis tried to get one for his thumb after all these collisions, all these yards, all these years. No one, not even Bettis, knows whether this was the last game of a Hall of Fame career. But everyone of his teammates wanted to get a ring not only for themselves, but for the symbol of what these Steelers are all about, their beloved Bus.
If you didn’t realize what The Bus has meant to them, you learned fast enough when the Steelers stepped off the team plane and showed up for their first press conference clad in Bettis’ green No. 6 Notre Dame throwback jersey.
His love for his hometown, and his hometown’s love for him, were there for the world to see during the entire week. His mother cooked dinner for the team. Bettis, 33, has made a commitment to help the city get back on its feet with a downtown developmental project. He flew his high school coach in for the game. He attended a Pistons game. He received the key to the city. The fat kid who overcame asthma, who loved bowling more than anything, got to live a dream.
“It’s one of those things you don’t want to end,” Bettis said.
Remember, it was Ben Roethlisberger who cried alongside Bettis in the waning moments of last year’s AFC Championship Game and pleaded with him to not to retire, to come back so the kid quarterback could take him back home to Super Bowl XL.
“I don’t like to make a promise I can’t keep,” Big Ben said.
Remember, it was Joey Porter who verbally lambasted Jerramy Stevens for daring to suggest that The Bus would endure a sad day without the Lombardi Trophy in his hands.
“We’d love to win it for him,” Big Ben said.
Gladys and John Bettis have seen every one of their son’s games, except for a pair of preseason games outside the country. Tears and cheers ready and waiting. Asked where a Super Bowl victory would rank in his personal life, The Bus said: “I think No. 1, because everything that you do individually does not measure up to what you do collectively as a team. For me to win this game, it means we are champions.”
Win or lose, Jerome Bettis is a champion.