Dying Embers in the Steel City

How do the Pittsburgh Steelers keep Jerome Bettis happy, despite making him the backup running back when he still believes he can be the starter on a contending team where running the ball is the bulk of their offense?

Apparently, they think the way to do it is to hand him the ball three times at the goal line and allow him to plow his way to the glory. That is exactly what happened in Week 1 of the NFL campaign for the Steelers.

Determined to make the running game the focal part of the offense in the Steel City, Bill Cowher had quarterback Tommy Maddox hand the ball off to his new running back, Duce Staley, on 23 occasions. Staley handled the load well, churning out close to 100 yards. Bettis only got the ball five times during the game, but crossed the goal line for three scores.

The running game allowed for Maddox to pass the ball only when he needed and the Steelers pounced on the Oakland Raiders before watching as their defense almost allowed the Raiders to sneak out of Pittsburgh with a win.

What Cowher did this week was to put a pacifier into the mouth of Jerome Bettis.

Bettis went from saying, "it's disappointing," last week, to saying after the game that Duce and himself had a "rapport" with one another. No, Jerome, a rapport between running backs is what Duce had last season. Two or more running backs sharing the load to help a team. Meshing together and doing whatever it takes to get a win, is a rapport. A rapport is harmony.

What they have in Pittsburgh is not a rapport.

What they have in Pittsburgh is a player who represents an era of Pittsburgh Steeler football. In a town that is tradition-rich in their sports and exudes simplicity, Jerome Bettis is a defining player in the history of Steelers football. There is Chuck Noll. There is Franco Harris. There is the defense. There is the Terrible Towel. Jerome Bettis fits in there, somewhere at least. His name doesn't sound as magical as many Steeler greats, but you can not deny that he became the No. 6 rusher in NFL history while in Pittsburgh.

Jerome Bettis is an era of Steeler football. An era that saw Cowher and Mike Mularkey try to phase out Bettis and the running game and implement some sort of pseudo-West Coast offense that was simply crazy and hard to define. Mularkey was in over his head. Sure, there were times when this Mularkey offense looked like it was going to take the Steelers back to the promised land, but that was mainly smoke and mirrors.

Mularkey is out the door and Cowher is back to his roots. It's a good thing, too, because Tommy Maddox isn't the quarterback that he was when he won the XFLs Million Dollar game (or challenge, whatever the hell it was).

Realizing that Amos Zereoue wasn't the answer in the backfield, long-term or in the immediate future, he was jettisoned and the Steelers brought in Staley to carry the burden of their ground game this season.

Bettis had to realize that. The Steelers didn't give Staley a healthy salary and Bettis a pay-cut for Staley to be in the backdrop of a Bettis tapestry. Bettis was polite about it, at the very least, but it was obvious that he wasn't happy. Or was he satisfied.

For the past three years of his career, damn near everyone has doubted Bettis. The doubts have rang louder than the cheers when Bettis does show flashes of the brilliance from the early days of his career. There has to be a desire to cover those doubts. Maybe not make them go away, but shade them a bit. It can't be a pleasant experience.

The cameras caught Bettis smiling a couple times after Staley runs on Sunday. Each time smiling while the lingering "Duce" chants passed around the stadium. When Bettis reached the end zone, the cameras caught him smiling again and cheers this time were for his sealing the drive with six points on the board.

It couldn't be the satisfaction that the running back bound for the Hall of Fame wants the most, but for now it is the satisfaction that he is forced to take.

Cowher didn't need to bring Bettis onto the field to cram the ball down the throats of the Raiders defense on those goal-line plays. Staley is a strong back that can finish from a yard out.

The thing with Staley is that Staley is just happy to get the ball 20 times a game. Staley learned last year that numbers weren't really the only thing that defined a football player. Staley is a feature back right now. That's what every running back wants. The yards are nice. The touchdowns are the icing. They just want to be the running back, because for what they do, they are a center of attention that only the quarterback understands.

While Bettis might not show it, he has to desire to be a feature back. The smiles that came with each score had to come with him knowing that Staley would get the credit. The Bus is still off-course, rambling in a direction opposite to that one in which the light sits, ready to shine down on Bettis. Bettis desires to be a featured back in the NFL. That's why he took a pay cut in Pittsburgh, where he has his best shot to become a feature back.

Pittsburgh is the place where most of his doubters lie, but those same doubters are the ones that would love more than anything else a return of course by Bettis. They just don't think it's possible. It is apparent that Cowher doesn't think it possible, either.

Yet Bettis lingers in Pittsburgh like the dying embers of a fire, hoping for one last great run.

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