Before Jerome Bettis was The Bus, he was Roney.
To those in his Detroit hometown, the Pittsburgh Steelers running back still is. He got his childhood nickname because, when his mother says his name, it sounds like "Jerone."
"That's what we call him now to this day," his mother, Gladys Bettis, said in an interview with AP. "I never call him Jerome."
PHOTO: REUTERS
The NFL's fifth-leading career rusher will be among the brightest stars in the days leading up to Sunday's Super Bowl because the charismatic 13-year veteran likely will end his career at Ford Field, 13km from his childhood home.
Sitting in a beautiful house Bettis bought for his parents on Detroit's west side -- with a golf course in the backyard and limos in a neighbor's driveway -- Gladys Bettis shared stories and showed pictures of the youngest of her three children.
While Jerome Bettis is the face of this year's Super Bowl, his mother still can envision him scurrying off to school with glasses, a white dress shirt and a broken briefcase his dad discarded. When he was picked up for school, papers would fly out of the briefcase with broken clasps.
Was he a nerd? Yes, she says.
"He wanted to be like his dad, who did electrical work for the city of Detroit," she said.
Ethel Session-Burton was Bettis' teacher at Detroit Urban Lutheran School, and her first impression of the nine-year-old is the one many have 24 years later.
"He always had a big grin on his face," said Session-Burton, who was invited to attend Bettis' NFL draft and 30th birthday parties. "He would even smile when he started to help the janitor clean up before school -- every day -- when he was 12 or 13."
After school during the winter, Bettis would put on double-blade ice skates -- this is Hockeytown, after all -- and head to the backyard.
"My husband would get the hose out to make that rink every year -- it even had nice banks made of snow," Gladys Bettis recalled.
On other days throughout the year, Bettis would go tenpin bowling -- a sport he still loves.
Unlike many of the children in the neighborhood, Bettis didn't play little league American football. He began what is likely a Hall of Fame career at 14 in Detroit Henry Ford High School. After a semester, he transferred to Detroit Mackenzie High.
"I was sitting in my office doing paperwork and I heard this voice behind me, saying, `Coach, my name is Jerome Bettis. Can I play football for you?'" former Mackenzie coach Bob Dozier said. "I turned around and saw a 5-foot-11, 199-pound (1.81m, 90kg) Superman-like kid and said, `Hell yes, you can play for me.'"
In his second year, Bettis played on the defensive line and was a fullback who didn't carry the ball.
Bettis wanted to play linebacker, and he did in his third year, when Dozier went against Bettis' wishes and put the ball in his hands out of the backfield.
"In his first game, he ran 120 yards and two touchdowns, and 180 yards and two touchdowns in the next game," Dozier said. "Then, he said, `Coach, I like this.'"
Opponents did not like lining up against Bettis on either side of the ball.
Former Ann Arbor Pioneer High School defensive tackle George Michos remembers his coach taking their top running back out of the game because Bettis hit so hard.
Tough to tackle
"As a running back, I tackled him, but never by myself. We didn't have one solo tackle on him," Michos said. "We really didn't know who he was before the game, but we did after it."
Bettis' family always was startled to see the transformation Roney made once he stepped on a football field.
"As a kid, Jerome was the quiet grandchild," his cousin, Lewanda Franklyn, said. "He has some of the people skills of his mother, and a lot of his father's mild-mannered ways."
His parents pushed him to earn an academic scholarship before it was clear football would pay for his education, and he excelled in the classroom.
Bettis was a member of the National Honor Society, and his mother bemoans that his grade point average slipped to about 3.6 by the time he graduated from high school in 1990. He fielded scholarship offers from top programs all over the country, including the University of Michigan powerhouse just 64km away.
"Michigan didn't want him to carry the ball," his mother said.
So Bettis passed on playing for the Wolverines and went on to star at Notre Dame -- where his famous nickname, The Bus -- was born, his mother said. A student reporter at Notre Dame gave it to him because he ran over defenders like a bus.
Gladys and Johnnie Bettis have attended every one of their son's regular-season and postseason games, dating back to when he was 14.
"At first, we went to every game because he has asthma and we were afraid that somebody wouldn't have an inhaler," said Gladys Bettis, who had to be persuaded by her husband and son to let him play football. "We stopped carrying the inhalers when he went to college because the training staff took care of that, but we've kept following him from coast to coast every step of the way."
After three strong seasons with Notre Dame, the Los Angeles Rams drafted Bettis 10th overall in 1993. His first purchase as a pro was a new house for his parents.
"He always wanted to have Detroit as a home base," his mother said. "I started to look out in Bloomfield and places like that, but I'm just not a suburb person. We've always been Detroiters, and we always will be."
The Bettises try to lead a normal life, regardless of the riches their son has shared with them.
"When Jerome found out we were going to the laundromat, he said that wasn't acceptable and told us to go get a new washer and dryer," Johnnie Bettis said. "But I kind of liked the laundromat because you get to meet so many interesting people."
Because Bettis realizes many of those with a similar background haven't been as fortunate, he created The Bus Stops Here Foundation in 1997. It assists troubled and underprivileged children in Detroit and Pittsburgh with a scholarship fund and computer literacy programs.
Jerome Bettis Week
The city of Detroit will give Bettis a key to the city today, when it also will proclaim "Jerome Bettis Week." Governor Jennifer Granholm will issue a proclamation declaring Feb. 1, "Jerome Bettis Day," during a ceremony honoring him at Mackenzie High School.
"Jerome is the total package," Dozier said. "He has great character and he's a wonderful human being who is a self-motivated leader with an infectious, positive outlook on life."
Dozier, who flew back to Detroit from his home in Texas, contacted some of Bettis' former teammates and coaches for a photo opportunity and was awed when nearly two dozen showed up at Mackenzie's field.
"I'm so happy for Jerome because he was just another inner-city kid like the rest of us, but he made it big without big-timing people," said former Green Bay Packers player Gilbert Brown, who played in two Super Bowls. "He's living every little leaguer's dream of playing in the Super Bowl and to do it in his hometown is just unbelievable."
Bettis, who turns 34 next month, likely will have more time to spend with his foundation in the coming years and with his 1-year-old daughter and her mother, who he will marry this summer.
Bettis returned to play this season hoping to cap it back in his hometown. Many believe he will call it a career following Sunday's game, and his mother is hoping that's the case.
"I think he will retire, and I hope he does. It's time." she said, sporting a `The Bus Stops Here' T-shirt. "What else could he do to top this?"
On the Net:
Bus Stops Here Foundation:
http://www.thebus36.com/
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