Ex-Steeler Bettis shakes off some of the hard hits he's taken for his new book

'It's about my life, like it or not'

Sunday, September 02, 2007
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jerome Bettis' head throbbed. A trip to the dentist will do that to a guy. Of course, all the piling-on that some people in Pittsburgh did after excerpts from his new autobiography -- "The Bus: My Life in and out of a Helmet" -- were released late last month didn't help, either.

"If this book hurts my reputation in Pittsburgh," Mr. Bettis said, somewhat sadly, "then I guess I didn't have much of a reputation to begin with."

Mr. Bettis has taken criticism on local talk shows and from many in Steeler Nation since revealing that he faked the timing of a knee injury during Steelers training camp in 2000 so the team wouldn't release him. He also has many Steelers fans buzzing over his contention that former coach Bill Cowher conspired with the team's owners to set quarterback Kordell Stewart up for failure because they didn't believe in him and didn't want to pay him huge money.

"That's my opinion. Am I supposed to change it because some people don't like it?" Mr. Bettis asked in his first extensive public comments about the book, due in stores Tuesday.

"If they're questioning my loyalty to the Steelers or saying that this is a rip of coach Cowher, they're wrong. I know he always made his decisions in the best interests of the football team. I just happened to disagree in this instance. I thought it was an ugly way of handling things. That's the truth the way my eyes saw it. If people want to turn on me because of my opinion, I think that's pretty sad."

Mr. Bettis, who retired at the end of last season, said he wrote later in the book that Mr. Cowher wasn't just his coach, but "also my friend. ... I'd love to buy an NFL franchise. If I did, coach Cowher would be one of my first hires, either as the head coach, the general manager or as an adviser. The man understands coaching, talent evaluation and the business of the game."

Mr. Bettis said he was convinced his relationship with Mr. Cowher and the Steelers was going to end in the 2000 training camp because of his knee injury, which required surgery during the 1999 pre-season camp and bothered him throughout that season.

"This is what I was up against at the time," Mr. Bettis said from his home in Atlanta, his words a bit more clear as the effects of the dentist's painkiller had worn off.

"My knee was swelling up during my workouts before camp. I was going into the last year of my contract. The team had made the decision to re-sign [running back] Richard Huntley. There was some speculation that coach Cowher had promised him the starting running back job. The coach said he didn't; Huntley said he did.

"All I know is they were looking for reasons to get rid of me. I had to find a way to stay on the football team. I had a whole lot left in me. I had to do something."

Mr. Bettis wrote that he faked getting injured during a running play on the practice field at St. Vincent College: "Man, did I do a nice job of acting," he says in the book.

Because the Steelers couldn't release him while he was injured, his roster spot was saved.

"Was it the right thing to do? Probably not, but I never said it was the right thing," Mr. Bettis said.

"It was what I had to do.

"The team was going to do what was in its best interests. I had to do what was in mine. I had to look out for No. 1. Anybody who says you shouldn't do that is naive. Anybody who says they wouldn't do it is stupid.

"I'm not necessarily proud of it, but it made me a better person and it made the franchise a better franchise."

Mr. Bettis ended up with the starting job in the 2000 season and ran for 1,341 yards despite getting fluid drained from his knee nearly every week. "No one can say I faked all of those yards," he said. The Steelers signed him to a new contract after the season and he played five more years, helping them to the AFC Championship game after the 2001 and 2004 seasons and the Super Bowl XL championship after the 2005 season. That Super Bowl ride takes up a sizable portion of his book. The game was played at Ford Field in Detroit, Mr. Bettis' hometown.

"But it's not just about the Steelers or my time in Pittsburgh," Mr. Bettis said. "It's about my life, like it or not."

The most revealing aspect of the book is Mr. Bettis' admission that he briefly sold drugs and carried a gun for protection while growing up in a "ghetto" and running with the "Aurora Boulevard Posse."

"During that time, I led a double life," Mr. Bettis wrote. "My mother and father knew one Jerome -- the National Honor Society member (and sergeant at arms), the kid who had his mouth washed out with soap on a rope because he cussed one time -- but the streets knew a different Jerome ... .

"I let the environment shape my decisions as a young man. In retrospect, I should have been stronger."

When asked why that confession was included in the book, Mr. Bettis said, "If you're going to write your life story, you have to write the whole story. You can't be omitting stuff. You can't just include the good stuff. That's television. That's Hollywood. That's not real life ... .

"I think it's important that people see the transition I made. I'm human and I made mistakes. I want people to see that. I want them to see my vulnerabilities and my weaknesses, but I also want them to see my strength in overcoming them. I'm hoping maybe it will inspire some people, that maybe they'll see they can overcome their mistakes and become somebody, too."

Mr. Bettis will take that message across the nation this week when he begins a national press tour to promote the book. You can see him, among other places, on the "Live with Regis and Kelly Show" Tuesday morning and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" Wednesday night.

"People haven't even had the chance to read the book yet," Mr. Bettis said. "I hope they don't just base their opinions on the excerpts. If they read it and still want to criticize me, I can handle that. If that's the backside of getting my life story out, I can definitely live with it."


First published on September 2, 2007 at 12:00 am
Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.