More like his old self
PITTSBURGH — Jerome Bettis hasn't carried a football since he retired after the Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XL three years ago.
But the Steelers might not have reached this week's AFC championship game without a conversation Bettis had with his heir in the pantheon of Pittsburgh running backs, Willie Parker, before Sunday night's playoff game against San Diego.
Parker, a two-time Pro Bowler, had lost his confidence. A nagging knee injury had sidelined him for five games this year, and after three straight 1,200-yard-plus seasons, he managed just 791 yards in 2008.
Bettis, on the sideline for the ceremonial coin toss, approached Parker and gave him a much-needed pep talk.
"He just told me to believe in myself," Parker said. "He heard and read all week long about how I am healthy, and he said he just wanted me to show him. I looked him in the eyes and put my hand over my heart, and I didn't really have to say anything."
Parker responded by banging out 146 yards and two touchdowns in the Steelers' 35-24 victory over San Diego. It was his first career 100-yard rushing game in the postseason, the third-highest total in Steelers postseason history and the most in a playoff game since Franco Harris produced 153 against the Baltimore Colts in 1975.
He resembled the "Fast" Willie Parker of old, who rushed for a career-best 1,494 yards and scored 16 touchdowns in 2006; the guy whose 75-yard touchdown run against Seattle broke open the Steelers' Super Bowl victory after the 2005 season.
"I tell him this all the time: 'Just trust yourself and believe in yourself,' " said Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. "He's too good of a running back to question himself (asking) 'Should I bounce it to the outside or go up in the hole?'
"I said, 'You know what Willie, you should trust yourself and do what you do best,' and he did that (Sunday night)."
Parker was coming off a 116-yard performance in a 31-0 win in the regular-season finale against a Cleveland team that had already packed it in. In the previous three games, he rushed for just 25 yards against Dallas, 47 against Baltimore and 31 against Tennessee.
"I was just frustrated because of the injuries," Parker said. "I'm not struggling anymore. It's real hard for a running back to make plays when he's struggling, and you're trying to make plays instead of going out and playing confident."
A year ago, after rushing for 1,316 yards, Parker missed the first-round playoff loss at home to Jacksonville because of a broken leg, and he realizes his well-being is critical to the Steelers' beating Baltimore and reaching the Super Bowl.
"This year, it is more on my shoulders than it was in 2005," he said of Bettis' final season. "Back then, I could kind of relax a little bit because he was taking more of the carries, but this year, it's all about me."
