Could we have seen Jerome Bettis make another stop in 2006 had the Steelers’ 2005 playoffs gone differently? Not even The Bus knows for sure—but fortunately, we didn’t have to find out. Bettis famously announced his retirement while hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in his hometown of Detroit.
But a few weeks earlier, in Indianapolis, he couldn’t picture that moment. Not right after fumbling the ball at the goal line and putting the game in Peyton Manning’s hands. Bettis talked about that moment and his thought process on The Christian Kuntz podcast recently.
“The one in Indy was scary as hell because I didn’t know if I was gonna get a chance to redeem myself”, Bettis said, talking about the rarity of his fumbles. He talked about how the Steelers prided themselves on closing out games because of him and how he let them down. And he did so at the worst possible time, nearing the end of his career.
“I thought that it could possibly be my last play ever. That’s what scared me the most, was, ‘This could be my last play ever. And that’s the play’? That was scary”, Bettis said. “I would’ve had to come back for one more year, and I’d be dragging. I’d be dragging, struggling”.
Christian Kuntz asked Jerome Bettis if he was really serious about playing for another season had the Steelers lost that game because of his fumble. “I don’t know”, he admitted. “I thought about it. At that point, I’m like, ‘Shit, I’m about to play another year’”.
By 2005, Bettis had already been in the NFL for a dozen years with a Hall of Fame career. Famously, then-rookie Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is said to have convinced him to return after their 15-1 season fell short in 2004. As Bettis told it, it was a team effort at the Pro Bowl that year that made him change his mind.
In other words, everybody knows that Jerome Bettis intended for the 2005 season to be the Bus’ last stop. But that’s largely because the Steelers convinced him they could get him a Super Bowl. And the Super Bowl in 2005 just so happened to be in Detroit.
Could he have really come back for yet another season had the Steelers ended up losing to the Colts in that playoff game because Bettis fumbled the game away? Thanks to a touchdown-saving tackle by Ben Roethlisberger, we’ll never have to know. CB Bryant McFadden also deserves credit, of course, as does Colts K Mike Vanderjagt.
The Steelers’ 2006 season was a disaster, of course, but things likely go differently if they don’t win the Super Bowl the year before. Roethlisberger nearly dying in an offseason motorcycle accident didn’t help matters, but maybe he doesn’t do that without the glow of being a young champion. And feeling the weight of trying to get Jerome Bettis a much-deserved Super Bowl ring.
