Bettis retires after Super Bowl
DETROIT — As soon as it was over, the Bus announced that he'd reached the end of the line.
And in case anyone on board wondered if he might have second thoughts, Jerome Bettis said it again as he accepted the Vince Lombardi Trophy on the field after the game.
"It's official, like the referee's whistle," he said.
Bettis' hyped homecoming went exactly as his legion of family and friends had hoped: the Steelers won Super Bowl XL, 21-10, and the battering-ram runner got to go out with his first championship.
"It's been an incredible ride," said Bettis, the fifth-leading rusher in league history. "There's always a time when you have to call it quits. You play this game to win a championship. I'm a champion, and so I think the Bus' last stop is in Detroit."
He didn't play a major role in the Steelers' victory — he didn't even get on the field in the first quarter — but Bettis said he was proud that he earned the right to hold the trophy, that no one had to hand it to him. He also was thrilled to have done it at home.
"It was about the best feeling I've ever had in my life," said Gladys Bettis, his mother, as she made her way through the stadium to see him after the game.
It was a dream evening for Bettis, despite his modest numbers (14 carries, 43 yards). At the behest of Joey Porter, the mouthy Steelers linebacker, Bettis led the team onto the field before the game.
After Pittsburgh's victory, Porter scoffed at the suggestion of Bettis playing another year.
"What would be the reason for coming back?" Porter said. "If you could walk out of the game at the highest point, doing it in your hometown, why come back? He's a Hall of Famer already. Why do anything to tarnish that?"
It doesn't sound like Bettis will.
"I don't think you could've scripted it any better," Bettis said. "I think the script, right now, if you sent it to Hollywood, they'd turn it down because it couldn't happen. It's been an incredible ride, it's been amazing, and the football gods have really shined a light on me.
"For my family to be here, and for all of the people who've been with me the whole time, for them to be able to share this with me is amazing. It's truly, truly a blessing. I think I'm probably the luckiest football player that ever played, to do it here at home."
