Jerome Bettis retired in 2006 after helping the Steelers win a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XL, the franchise's first in over two decades.
65 Facts About Jerome Bettis
2.
Jerome Bettis was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
3.
Jerome Bettis is the oldest of three children of Gladys Elizabeth and Johnnie E Bettis.
4.
Jerome Bettis did not start playing football until high school, as his primary passion as a youth had been bowling.
5.
Jerome Bettis attended Mackenzie High School in Detroit, where he was a standout running back and linebacker.
6.
Jerome Bettis enrolled at the University of Notre Dame to play college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
7.
Jerome Bettis finished his career with 337 rushing attempts for 1,912 yards, and made 32 receptions for 429 yards.
8.
Jerome Bettis left Notre Dame in what would have been his senior year to enter the 1993 NFL Draft.
9.
Jerome Bettis returned to Notre Dame in 1996 when he was having a dispute with the St Louis Rams and was considering retirement.
10.
Jerome Bettis took courses in "history, philosophy, marketing and business" totaling an 18 credit class load.
11.
Jerome Bettis later returned to Notre Dame to complete his college degree, and on May 15,2022, he graduated with a business degree.
12.
On July 22,1993, Jerome Bettis signed a three-year, $4.625 million contract with a signing bonus in excess of $2 million.
13.
Jerome Bettis quickly earned the nickname "The Battering Ram" as he rushed for 1,429 yards, drawing comparisons to Earl Campbell.
14.
Jerome Bettis had an NFL-best 79 rushing first downs and an NFL-best 38 runs of 10 or more yards, and tied for the league lead with seven 100-yard rushing games despite not becoming the full-time starter until the sixth game of the season.
15.
Jerome Bettis was named a First-team All-Pro and Consensus NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
16.
Jerome Bettis rushed for over 1,000 yards and was selected for the NFC's Pro Bowl team in each of his first two seasons with the Rams.
17.
New coach Rich Brooks instituted a more pass-oriented offense, a major reason why Jerome Bettis was limited to 637 yards, a significant dropoff from his 1993 and 1994 totals.
18.
Jerome Bettis stated he thought he could still help an NFL team with his running.
19.
In what would become one of the more lopsided trades in NFL history, on April 20,1996, Jerome Bettis was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a third-round pick in the 1996 NFL Draft, in exchange for the Steelers' second-round pick and their fourth-round pick in the 1997 NFL Draft.
20.
Jerome Bettis won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year, NFL Alumni Running Back of the Year, was voted Steelers' team MVP and finished the 1996 season as the leader in Football Outsiders rushing DYAR metric.
21.
Jerome Bettis rushed for over 1,000 yards in each of his first six seasons with the Steelers between 1996 and 2001.
22.
In 1997, Jerome Bettis rushed for a career-best 1,665 yards in the team's first 15 games.
23.
Jerome Bettis does hold the Steelers' franchise record for rushing yards in a single season when including postseason play.
24.
Jerome Bettis was a second-team All-Pro choice in 1997 and set a then NFL record with two overtime touchdowns in the same season.
25.
Jerome Bettis was leading the league with 1,072 rushing yards in 2001 when he suffered a serious hip and groin injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the regular season.
26.
Jerome Bettis spent the 2005 season as a short-yardage running back, but managed two notable games along the way: First, a 101-yard, two-touchdown effort in a pivotal week 14 win over Chicago.
27.
Jerome Bettis finished the season and his career as the NFL's 5th leading all-time rusher.
28.
Jerome Bettis was at the center of one of the most controversial calls in NFL history.
29.
Jerome Bettis appeared to call "tails" while the coin was in the air but referee Phil Luckett declared that Jerome Bettis called "heads" and awarded possession to Detroit, who would go on to win the game before Pittsburgh had the chance to have possession.
30.
The readers of ESPN voted the incident as No 8 on its list of the ten worst sports officiating calls of all time, even though later sound enhancements of the audio showed that Jerome Bettis said "hea-tails" and Jerome Bettis admitted starting to call "heads" before changing it to tails.
31.
Jerome Bettis entered the season in 6th place all-time and 684 yards ahead of Martin in 9th place.
32.
In doing so, Jerome Bettis passed Eric Dickerson for 4th place on the all-time list.
33.
Jerome Bettis sat out the final week of the season, and when Martin rushed for 153 yards that week he passed Dickerson and Jerome Bettis for the final time.
34.
Later, Jerome Bettis agreed to stay with the Steelers for another season.
35.
Jerome Bettis stated he would love to play in the Super Bowl in 2006 since it was to be played in his hometown of Detroit.
36.
Jerome Bettis finished his 13 NFL seasons as the NFL's 5th all-time leading rusher with 13,662 yards and 91 touchdowns.
37.
Jerome Bettis caught 200 passes for 1,449 yards and 3 touchdowns and threw 3 career touchdown passes.
38.
Jerome Bettis was named to the Pro Bowl in 1993,1994,1996,1997,2001, and 2004.
39.
Jerome Bettis won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award in 1996, and in 2002 he was the recipient of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
40.
Jerome Bettis received the nickname "the Bus" during his time at Notre Dame, as a reporter at the university's newspaper came up with it, stating that he looked like a bus that took guys for a ride.
41.
Jerome Bettis promised Bettis that if he came back for one last season, he would get him to the Super Bowl.
42.
In 12 NFL seasons, Jerome Bettis had reached the playoffs five times, but had never been in the Super Bowl.
43.
In week 17 of the 2005 NFL season, Jerome Bettis rushed for 41 yards and three touchdowns against the Detroit Lions.
44.
On January 15,2006, Jerome Bettis was the center of one of football's most memorable endings in a divisional playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts.
45.
Jerome Bettis ran for 46 yards on 17 rushes, including one touchdown.
46.
The first play from scrimmage went to the surehanded Jerome Bettis, who had not fumbled once the entire year.
47.
Jerome Bettis delivered a rousing speech to his teammates the day before the game, asking them to "Just get me to Detroit", his hometown, where Super Bowl XL was to be played.
48.
Jerome Bettis ran for 39 yards on 15 carries, including a touchdown.
49.
Jerome Bettis's number joins a list of other unofficially retired numbers such as those of Terry Bradshaw and Hines Ward.
50.
On May 21,2006, Jerome Bettis received an honorary Doctoral degree from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan.
51.
Jerome Bettis was one of several Steelers players being honored as part of the celebration of their five Super Bowl victories; Lynn Swann and Franco Harris were present.
52.
In February 2006, at the 2006 Winter Olympics, NBC Sports announced that Jerome Bettis had been signed as a studio commentator for NBC's new Football Night in America Sunday night pregame show where he was through the 2008 season.
53.
Jerome Bettis makes a cameo as himself in the episode "The Convention" of season 3 of the NBC comedy series The Office.
54.
Later, Michael claims Jerome Bettis is nicknamed "The Bus" because he is afraid of flying.
55.
In 2010, Jerome Bettis joined School of the Legends, an online community and partner of the NFLPA.
56.
Jerome Bettis was featured in an article on the D1 Training website in February 2011 and filmed training courses for SOTL that focused on his position as a running back.
57.
Bettis is currently the host of The Jerome Bettis Show on WPXI-TV, filmed at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, airing Saturdays at 7:00 PM and 1:00 AM.
58.
Jerome Bettis was a commentator for the NFL Network and a former NBC studio analyst for Football Night in America.
59.
The Jerome Bettis Bus Stops Here Foundation and other agencies sponsor the Jerome Bettis Asthma and Sports Camp annually for children with asthma.
60.
Jerome Bettis has delivered over 1000 pairs of cleats to children in the Detroit school system.
61.
Jerome Bettis returned to NBC to help Bob Costas preside over the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation at the end of Super Bowl XLIX on February 1,2015.
62.
Jerome Bettis starred in a Geico commercial in 2019, playing a running back in flag football that dominates the competition.
63.
Jerome Bettis portrays himself in the episode "Welcome to the Ex-Files" in Season 4 of the CBS comedy series The Neighborhood, where he visits the home of principal characters Calvin and Tina Butler for dinner after running into them at a restaurant.
64.
Jerome Bettis graduated in May 2022 with a bachelor's degree in business.
65.
On March 29,2008, Jerome Bettis accompanied Barack Obama on a campaign visit to the US Steel plant in Braddock, Pennsylvania.