At 5-foot, 11-inches, he was hardly an intimidating persona.
Weighing in at 252 pounds, he would at times appear pudgy and out of shape.
His perpetually smiling face hardly instilled the kind of fear that Ravens’ linebacker Ray Lewis’ scowl did.
Yet, despite these facts, former Steelers’ running back Jerome Bettis captured the love and adoration of Pittsburghers for a decade, and to this day stands as one of the most celebrated athletes in the city’s history.
When Bettis benevolently departed from the team and retired after the 2005 season, Steel City fans wept at the loss of the team’s go-to power-running weapon, and it’s easy to see why.
Bettis was selected to the Pro Bowl six times over the course of his career, and that’s not to mention the Super Bowl ring he helped secure for the Steelers during his final season in the league.
Between 1996 and 2001, “The Bus,” as he was affectionately known within Steeler Nation, amassed over 1,000 rushing yards each year.
Every year since Bettis retired, Steelers fans have strived and searched to and the qualities and nuances that made the Bus great in other Steelers’ backs.
This, quite simply, is a mistake.
In 2008, the Steelers selected running back Rashard Mendenhall out of Illinois University, and immediately the comparisons to Bettis began not always so favorably for the rookie rusher.
Mendenhall was critiqued for his lack of physicality, his predilection for fumbling and his sometimes lackadaisical play.
Time and time again, no matter how spectacularly Mendenhall seemed to perform, his play was never quite up to par with the impeccably high standards Bettis had set for future Steelers’ rushers.
Even now, when Mendenhall remains sidelined and injured for the beginning of the 2012-2013 season, Steelers’ backs are continuing to receive comparisons to the former Pittsburgh great, namely current starters Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer.
During their limited playing time, Redman and Dwyer have exhibited the hard-nosed, smash-mouth style of running play seasoned Steeler fans have become accustomed to, and yet it still hasn’t sufficed, due mostly to Redman’s inability to and vertical room to run, and Dwyer’s limited touches.
Steeler Nation, it’s time to stop searching for the next Jerome Bettis.
The face of the Steeler offense has changed dramatically since the Bettis years, when the rushing attack was forced to take the pressure off of a struggling pass game.
Now, league leaders such as Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Wallace stand at the helm of the team’s offensive side, and lead an aerial offensive week after week that befuddles defensive squads.
Ten years from now, Steeler fans will hungrily search for the next Roethlisberger and Wallace, in hopes that a new slough of players can replicate the aerial expertise of their forefathers, and once again I believe they will come up unsatisfied.
I only hope that the Steel City can refrain from making that kind of mistake here and now.
Photo Credits: Bleacher Report
