After suffering an embarrassing 41-27 loss at the hands of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship in 2005, Bettis was ready to call it quits. In fact, he did call it quits and retired. Thankfully, his wife and a former teammate convinced him to make a comeback. And what a comeback 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. After being sure to receive his wife’s approval, he attended the event expecting it to be the final performance of his historic career. However, it was there that he ran into some older teammates, one of whom gave him the push he needed to lace up for one more season.
On the latest episode of They Call it Late Night with Jason Kelce, the NFL legend, Jerome “The Bus” Bettis sat down to discuss, amongst various things, his infamous early retirement.
“One of the guys… came to me and said ‘It’s gone 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. His former teammate is now responsible for one of the best storybook endings in gridiron history, as his words gave Bettis the motivation to go out and secure one last Lombardi trophy.
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 that dreams are made of.
