While emotional highs can be a motivating factor in a player’s career, lows can have a significant impact on their future. Jerome Bettis was in a similar situation following an embarrassing 41-27 loss to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the 2005 AFC Championship. Bettis initially retired, but wife, Trameka Boykin, and a former Steelers teammate convinced him to return to the gridiron. And what a comeback story it was.
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Shortly after his retirement, the bruiser-style back received a phone call from the NFL, asking him for a favor. They wanted him to participate in one last Pro Bowl as an alternate. The first thing Bettis did was check with his wife.
“Like a good husband, I checked with my wife, and she said, ‘If you really want to retire, this should be a great way to go out.’ So, I go to the Pro Bowl…” he said on the latest episode of They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce.
However, it was there that Jerome “The Bus” Bettis ran into some old teammates, one of whom gave him the push he needed to lace up for one more season.
“One of the guys from Detroit came to me and said, ‘It’s going to be a shame man, we’re going to go to the Super Bowl in our hometown and you’re not going to be there.’ I was like what? Nah, you’re not going to miss me!”
Just the mere thought of potentially missing out on that kind of experience was enough for Bettis. In a way, his former teammate and wife were responsible for one of the most memorable storybook endings in gridiron history. On February 5, 2006, he won his only Lombardi trophy, cementing his legacy in the NFL history books.
While it was clear that his best days were well behind him, The Bus still managed to contribute nine rushing touchdowns throughout the regular season. He played in 12 games that year in the build-up to the Steelers’ playoff run.
Helping to grind out first downs in the waning moments of Super Bowl XL, Bettis saw 14 carries for a total of 43 rushing yards as he solidified a 21-10 victory for the Steelers. Their opponents, the Seahawks, would have to wait another eight years before they could claim their first-ever Super Bowl win in franchise history.
Bettis left an unerasable mark on the game, having produced 13,662 rushing yards, the 8th most by a running back in NFL history, in addition to 91 career rushing touchdowns, the 12th most all time. In what was a highlight reel career, the picture-perfect sendoff for the Steelers legend is the stuff of dreams.
