Jerome Bettis
Jerome Bettis
Jerome Abram Bettis Sr., nicknamed The Bus is a former American football halfback who played for the Los Angeles Rams/St. Louis Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. Bettis is sixth on the list of NFL rushing yards leaders. He retired in 2006 after the Steelers won Super Bowl XL in his native Detroit, Michigan, beating the Seattle Seahawks, and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015...
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth16 February 1972
CityDetroit, MI
develop expected leader looking team tough understand
That's a tough thing when you've got a team that's looking at you as a leader and you're a rookie. You've got to develop that. First of all, you have to understand that's expected of you. How do you understand that if you don't know?
backs feels sure team
It feels incredible. My team put me on their backs and made sure they wouldn't let me down.
feels game great incredible knew last stop team win
It feels incredible -- my team put me on their backs, and I knew they wouldn't let me down. This has been a great ride, and I've always said that you play this game to win championships, and now that I've got that championship ... I think this is the last stop for 'The Bus.'?
believed disrespect football knew people played portrayed sixth team
We never played the disrespect angle. We knew what it was. It wasn't disrespect. It was us being the sixth seed, so it wasn't disrespect. No one believed we could do it but us. We didn't feel disrespected, we just knew we were a better football team than people portrayed us to be.
ben charlie running team throw whether
But that's nothing new. We're going to be a running team whether it's Ben or Tommy or Charlie at quarterback. And we'll still throw the football, too.
ask head identity looks physical pittsburgh settle takes team tough type
You ask why have the Pittsburgh Steelers been a physical, smash-mouth type of a team for so long. I think it's because the team takes the identity of its head coach. He looks for tough players. He looks for physical players. And he doesn't settle for anything less.
along none pro reason team win
It's the reason why I started 13 years ago on this quest, to win a championship. Along the way, I amassed a lot of yards, a lot of Pro Bowls, but none of that was significant because it wasn't the team goal.
everybody team
It's disappointing for us. We know we're a better team than that. But everybody is 0-0 now. We did everything we had to do to get in. Now we're in, and let's see what happens.
career course personally team worth
It makes it all worthwhile. It makes everything we had to go through as a team and everything I had to go through personally during the course of my career all worth it.
breaking game last pressure season situation teammates
It's been a situation where my body's been breaking down. The last thing I wanted to do going into a game like this and going into a season was going to tell my teammates this was going to be the last game. I never wanted to put that kind of pressure on my teammates for them to even think that.
definitely encourage last lead matter matters situation teammates whenever
Whenever you go into a situation where it could be your last play, there's a sense of desperation. I definitely feel it, and I try to encourage my teammates and lead by example. It doesn't matter how we do it, all that matters is we get it done.
caliber care commitment conducive environment good keeps message morale perform player positive shows team whenever
This is good for the team, ... It keeps team morale up. Whenever you get a player of his caliber signed, it shows the commitment the organization has to its players. I think it reinforces a positive message that if you go out there and perform on the field, we'll take care of you. I think that makes a very, very conducive environment for us to go out there and work.
best bowl couple eventual felt sad super team three
No question. I felt, a couple of those years, we had the best team, that was the sad part. All three years, I felt we had the better team (better than the three eventual Super Bowl winners).
beat pittsburgh running stop teams
Right now, teams are saying, 'If we can stop the running game, we can beat the Pittsburgh Steelers,'