Local

From Detroit to Canton: Jerome Bettis' story full of highs and lows

PITTSBURGH — Jerome Bettis officially got inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday night, the culmination of a long journey and career that had its roots in his hometown of Detroit.

Channel 11’s Lisa Sylvester recently sat down with the Bus and his family and talked about the trials and tribulations that formed him into the man he is today.

Bettis’ story began in 1972, a time when he was a “tiny runt of a baby,” according to his mom Gladys.

“But by the time he got to be a couple months old, he started exploding and got to be a big boy,” she said.

Young Jerome, whose father worked two jobs as an electrical engineer for the city, always dreamed of playing professional sports.

However, his first love was a ball of a different kind.

“We were bowlers,” Gladys Bettis said. “On the weekends, Saturday morning, we were up at the bowling alley for leagues.”

Jerome Bettis didn’t start playing football until the age of 13 when he started playing for the Mackenzie Stags. The rigors and rules of football added a counterbalance to a life that could have easily been derailed by street life.

Bettis later admitted he sold drugs for a time to make quick money and ran with a bad crowd that called themselves the Aurora Boulevard Posse.

Coach Bob Dozier saw the young Bettis being influenced by the wrong crowd, so he decided to do something about it.

“Coach Dozier, he came to my house and said Jerome was about to get himself into trouble,” Gladys Bettis said.

That’s when Gladys sat him down and put him back on the right path, a path that included dedication to football.

Bettis quickly went from untested to one of the best players in town, and he finished his high school career as the number one player in the state of Michigan.

Recruiting letters came from across the country, but Bettis chose Notre Dame because coaches there promised he would be a running back.

Under legendary coach Lou Holtz, Bettis began making a name for himself and established himself as one of the best backs in the country.

In 1993, at the end of his junior year of college, Bettis was selected with the 10th pick in the first round of the NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams.

Bettis had a very productive rookie season but soon found himself traded to Pittsburgh because of a falling out with the new Rams coach.

For the Steelers, it was a no-brainer to trade for Bettis when they did.

“He was just a bigger, faster guy than most of the people he played with in his era,” recalled Art Rooney.

The rest, as they say, is history as Bettis ran himself into football immortality as one of the best running backs of all time. He won a Super Bowl with the team in 2006, although he soon went from elation to devastation.

In November, less than a year after winning the Super Bowl and retiring, his father died of a massive heart attack.

“2006 was the biggest year for Jerome,” Gladys Bettis said. “It took us from the highest that we could go to and by the end of the year, it had taken us just to the bottom. It just crushed us.”

Bettis’ father didn’t live long enough to see his son enshrined in the Hall of Fame, but Gladys is sure her husband is still here cheering their son along.

“I’m just thrilled,” she said. “I am so happy I’m able to be here for him to represent his dad and myself.”

There have been 279 men elected to the football Hall of Fame, four of them from Michigan, but only one from Detroit.

Suffice to say, Jerome Bettis has found himself in pretty exclusive company.

WPXI

0

Most Read