7 Pittsburgh Steelers who contributed to black history
By Edward Hunt
Jerome Bettis
Bettis was another back who played the running back position when the position was king in the NFL. Younger fans are used to seeing quarterbacks and wide receivers dominate games but in the Cowher era, running the ball was how the Steelers succeeded.
The guy who carried the ball was a bruising back who was hard to bring down and bounced off defenders. Jerome Bettis was one of the greats of the Cowher era and won a Super Bowl in his last year in his home city of Detriot.
The 90s would not have been the same without the Bus, Hines Ward, and Kordell Stewart. Certainly, there were some great defenses in that era, but those defenders could not hold the spotlight like the Bus.
Willie Parker had earned the job as the running back the year the Steelers won Super Bowl XL, but that did not take away from the way Jerome Bettis won his Super Bowl. The Steelers went 15-1 the year before but lost the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game and that was a huge disappointment. Many thought that it was Bettis’s last year when he came back for the final year of his career to win the Super Bowl.
Jerome Bettis is statistically one of the best running backs of all-time. He is eighth in all-time rushing yards with 13,662 yards according to Pro Football Reference.