11:10 a.m. - 2006-01-23
j-do's sports page
Well, I'm sure you know by now, that the PITTSBURGH STEELERS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!
I know, if you're not into sports, or if your favorite team lost early on, this is not very exciting to you. But, for those of you who don't pay much attention to the NFL, maybe you didn't know this little story...
Jerome Bettis has been playing for the Steelers since the year after they last went to the Superbowl. 1996 and my senior year of high school, to be precise. They lost. Bettis joined the team and has become one of those players that everybody on the team loves. He's got that cuddly teddy-bear stature and a really great smile that lets you know he loves what he does. Bettis has managed, over the course of his 12 or so years as a professional football player (he played for the LA Rams for a couple years prior to his decade with the Steelers) to really screw up his knees and other various body parts. When you see him on any given Sunday, suited up and on the field, you'd never guess that on monday mornings, the day after games, he can barely walk. Seeing him haul his 260 pounds up a flight of stairs, wincing in pain and watching his physical therapist wrap his knees that are old beyond their 33 years in giant bags of ice, it's just unbelieveable that he sucks it up every week, and not only sucks it up. As a Running Back, basically what he does is plow right through the other teams defensive line, dragging a couple of linemen with him. They call him "The Bus" and affectionately, "Bussy". His parents come to every game; his mother screams and dances and gets into it like she's on the coaching staff.
Other Steelers see Bettis as a mentor, a pretty stand-up guy who they can go to for advice or support. He's been active with charities. You just get the feeling you'd enjoy hanging out with him, or as I said to Kevin the other day "I just want him to come over so I can make him some soup and have a chat."
Last year, the Steelers lost in the AFC championship game after a pretty stellar year. They had a brand new quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, who had to come through when the Steelers regular quarterback, Tommy Maddox was injured very early in the season. Roethlisberger came out of no where, steady and sharp and confident for such a young player. He led his team into the playoffs but fell short during that AFC game last year. For those of you unfamiliar, the AFC championship game is the game that must be won in order to proceed to the Superbowl. When this game was lost, there was an additional sense of gloom in the air, because Bettis, with his worn out body, had hinted that 2004 may have been his last season. Hines Ward, a talented Wide Receiver who grins like a kid playing his first game when he's on the field, faught back tears and lost as he spoke to the media about the possibility that the AFC Championship loss may have been the last game for The Bus.
While Pittsburgh has seasonal weather changes, everyone knows there are really only two seasons: The football season and the football off-season. Everyone speculated through the spring, would Bettis be back or had we seen the last of the Bus? When the official announcment was made that Bettis intended to play one more year, Steelers fans rejoiced that their beloved Bus, a man born and raised in Detroit, would be back for more.
This season has had some serious ups and downs. The Steelers had to use 3 different quarterbacks this year, due to injuries. For a while, it did not look good for a final, winning season for the Bus. The Steelers eeked into the playoffs as a wildcard team and blew by Cincinnatti, Indianapolis and the mighty Peyton Manning and of course, the Denver Broncos. It all really came together in these last three games, all away games, a feat that has never been acomplished before. The Steelers were the lowest ranking playoff team in the AFC, when the playoffs began but a firey start to that Cincinnati game generated some real momentum that looks promising for the Superbowl in Detroit.
The tale gets pretty "storybook" when you consider that all of this means that in two weeks, Jerome Bettis, who ranks fifth on the NFL's all-time rushing list but has never been to the superbowl, who came back for one more year for his team and his fans, who endures agonizing physical pain to take his team to victory, will play what is almost certain to be his final game, with a team he's stuck with for 10 tough years, in his home town. Detroit hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers vs the Seattle Seahawks on February 5th. You'd be crazy not to watch it.
