Commentary
Tonight’s game in Baltimore may be the end of the road for ‘The Bus’ Jerome Bettis has been fabulous for the Pittsburgh Steelers as a player who’s been productive and as a gentleman who has enhanced the franchise’s image with his work off the field.
Those are reasons to throw him a testimonial dinner, not to give him a contract for 2004.
The Steelers wrap up the season tonight in Baltimore and it may be the end of Bettis’ career with the team. Mark your long-range planners to spend a day in Canton when he’s inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
Unfortunately the salary cap that makes the NFL the best league doesn’t have a provision for sentiment. If it did, Bettis would definitely be back in a part-time role.
The Steelers need to upgrade several positions and running back is one of them. They need precisely the kind of workhorse Bettis was when he came to Pittsburgh in 1996 and was eight years younger.
Bettis has done well over the past few weeks, running mostly against bad teams whose players have probably lost the will to confront a tank head-on.
Those who say, “He still has it” are only partly right. One of the reasons he has something left is he didn’t play very much in the first half of the season.
Can Bettis still hold up to the pounding of a heavy workload over 16 games? Highly unlikely. He had significant injury problems by the ends of the two seasons that preceded this one.
Bettis is high mileage and after all those collisions, he’s best suited for spot duty. The Steelers need a No. 1 back and Amos Zereoue’s limited role is a pretty good indicator of how much his stock has fallen.
There still might be a spot for Bettis if he can handle a reduced role and a greatly reduced salary.
But the days of the Steelers depending on Bettis to shoulder most of the load will end tonight.
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The silliest reason to bury Pitt’s Larry Fitzgerald on the Heisman Trophy ballot is that he’s a receiver and only touches the ball four or five times a game.
If two of those touches are touchdowns or long gains, doesn’t that matter as much as a running back who’s plodding forward three yards at a time?
Besides, Fitzgerald’s presence makes a difference for opposing defenses.
They have to double cover him, which could free another receiver. They have to respect the pass, which means they can’t load up strictly to stop the run.
If the number of touches matters, then let’s start casting some votes for centers.
They have their hands on the ball on every play.
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The Pittsburgh Pirates signed free agent third baseman Chris Stynes last week.
Even people who found a Chia Pet under the tree had a better Christmas.
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: johnmehno@lycos.com