Bettis (Jerome Bettis has scored 10 touchdowns this year, earning him a $100,000 bonus, But he was stopped for no gain on three runs from the Cleveland 1 in the fourth quarter, the first time he has failed to score this season in short-yardage situations. Before the game, Browns Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown called Bettis aside for a chat.): He just told me to keep it up, keep working hard, and he liked my style, ... He said we would talk in the off-season. Whenever the greatest of all-time tells you that, that's a compliment.
Bettis: I'm fifth all-time, and I fit in somewhere, ... It was like, wait a minute, I'm not just an ordinary guy. I've been able to do some extraordinary things in an ordinary body, but I'm not an ordinary guy.
Bettis: There was a possibility I could have played against New England, but we had a bye week after that, and they wanted to give me another two weeks. It turned out to be the best call.
Bettis: After Ben got hurt, I told Charlie, 'When you give me the ball, look it all the way into my body,' ... 'Just look it into me. I'll do the rest.
Bettis: The body doesn't bounce back like it once did, ... The beating has taken its toll, so physically you don't feel as strong as you used to.
Bettis: I was a spectator out there, ... I can't give you much more than that.
Bettis: It's a tough one to swallow because you feel you had the game in hand and you couldn't get it done.
Bettis: Hopefully, I'll get in early and see what happens but, as a role player, you have to understand that the opportunities may be there and may not be there, ... It depends on how it works out.
Bettis: These guys dominate their position, ... They cause offensive lines to double those guys to get any movement and that's when the linebackers take over. If you do want to get some movement on the center, you have to get a guard to help the center. If you do want to move that tackle, you have to commit something to it so it creates a problem.
Bettis: I'm happy for them, ... They got a chance to get one, that's the goal. I'm not bitter or anything like that.
Bettis: I went to Charlie and said, 'Give it to me, look it all the way in, follow me as I go through, and I'll do the rest.
Bettis: In my book he has, but guess what? My book don't mean much, ... I don't know. That's why you have to defer to the big fella, who's supposed to make those decisions. I don't get paid to make those decisions.
Bettis: We don't have to be as good as we were last year, ... It doesn't matter if we're 15-1 again - if we're 10-6 but we win the Super Bowl, that's a better season.
Bettis: We know we have the pieces in place, ... That's evident. You look at last year, with us being a game away. So we know that. The question going into this camp is can we create that same chemistry? Can everybody play at that same level that we played last year? Can we be that same football team? In this business, that's the hardest thing to do.
Bettis: We talked, ... We just talked about all the situations that happened in the game and everything that was going on. That's a conversation I'm going to actually keep and not really talk about.
Bettis: Maybe they're just laying low. But you'd better believe when Monday night comes they're going to be ready. This is the biggest rivalry in our division, and they'll be ready and we'll be ready.
Bettis: Toward the end of the game today, I said we've been hunting these teams, trying to get respect. And now maybe it's a situation where we're going to be hunted. We've got to understand the situation and stay as hungry and keep trying to prove that we're a good football team.
Bettis: 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.
Bettis: 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.
In 2006, Bettis stars in a commercial for asthma awareness. The commercial was shot at Carnegie Mellon University on their football field.
In his rookie year, he rushed for 1429 yards.
His number is 36 and he is running back for the Steelers.
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