Jerome Bettis Quotes (132 Quotes)

That's something you gotta live with. It is what it is.

I'll wait until the season is over. I don't want to rush it and make a decision I'd regret. I don't want to get in the way of this franchise going forward. That's the last thing I want to do.

This feels great. It makes everything that I've ever had to go through worthwhile. I've always wished it could have been me, and now that I have the opportunity, I relish every moment of it.

That's a tough thing when you've got a team that's looking at you as a leader and you're a rookie. You've got to develop that. First of all, you have to understand that's expected of you. How do you understand that if you don't know

That will be a tough situation, ... But it's not like we haven't dealt with bigger issues than that. That's why we have quality backups, because everybody is capable of playing well. That's what we need right now.

The alternative to all this is that I could be at home watching, and for a lot of years I have been watching. So this is a good problem to have.

Bill deserves a lot of credit for this.

I hope they appreciate me, because we just brought a championship home. One for the Thumb

It makes it all worthwhile. It makes everything we had to go through as a team and everything I had to go through personally during the course of my career all worth it.

I guess they thought it was only fitting that on the road back to Detroit for everyone to wear Jerome's Notre Dame jersey.

I have bowled my entire life and gained great pleasure and enjoyment from the sport. This is a tremendous honor.

Hopefully, I'll get in early and see what happens but, as a role player, you have to understand that the opportunities may be there and may not be there, ... It depends on how it works out.

I believe in this city and its future.

It won't be hard for the sheer fact that I'm 0-3 in these title games. So I understand that it can be as close as 60 minutes or it can be a lifetime away.

The coaches are doing a great job with that, ... My job is to give him a little bit of the nuances of what he's going to see, some of the pre-snap reads and just some small things that give him an opportunity to be successful just kind of ease that anxiety level as well.

I was impressed a little last year and I was really impressed in Week 1 of how well he was running inside. From that aspect, yeah, I knew he was capable of it, but to see him really, really pound it in there was fun to see.

We know we have the pieces in place, ... That's evident. You look at last year, with us being a game away. So we know that. The question going into this camp is can we create that same chemistry Can everybody play at that same level that we played last year Can we be that same football team In this business, that's the hardest thing to do.

It's the reason why I started 13 years ago on this quest, to win a championship. Along the way, I amassed a lot of yards, a lot of Pro Bowls, but none of that was significant because it wasn't the team goal.

We set out a long time ago to bring this back home to Pittsburgh. You all believed in us, believed we could get it done. I'm just so thankful for everything that this city has been able to give me. I'm just so happy we were able to give this city the one for the thumb.

I'm ready to go to work. That's what I do. I didn't come back to be able to carry it 50 times. My goal was to come back, and if I was going to come back, to be able to go if they needed me, and right now it looks as though they need me.

From a gaming standpoint, I have no interest and don't want any interest. I would hope we get a revitalized city.

Hopefully, we can get some noise on our side this time.

I was thinking, 'If this is my last (Heinz Field) game, this will be my final opportunity to look out of this tunnel. I wanted to have a mental snapshot of the moment so that I could carry it with me forever.

He understands what you have to have to win and he doesn't deviate from his game plan. That's why we're consistent, year in and year out.

I thought it could've been pretty serious because I felt some pain in there, ... But as these days have gone, it's felt progressively better. That's definitely a good sign.

I think it's been my work ethic. I've just been a hard worker, a guy that's always trying to be positive and put a positive swing on things sometimes even in the darkest moments. And I think people can relate to that being a blue-collar guy. My game is a blue-collar game. Three yards and a cloud of dust and get up and do it again. That's the way in the Midwest, especially Detroit, which is a very, very blue-collar town. I think people relate to that, as well as Pittsburgh.

In my book (he has), but guess what My book don't mean much, ... I don't know. That's why you have to defer to the big fella, who's supposed to make those decisions. I don't get paid to make those decisions.

People count them out every time they play a worthy opponent and they find a way to beat them, and you have to respect that.

Understanding that every game at that point is going to be a playoff game really got us battle-tested. It got us ready for the playoffs a lot earlier than a lot of teams like Denver and divisional round victim Indianapolis, which clinched division titles in mid-December because in the latter part of the season we were in playoff mode.

One, I asked them to give me 110 percent. I told them if you walk away from this game giving that, I'm going to say thank you, shake your hand, give you a big hug and tell you how much I appreciate it. The second thing I told them was to get me home.

Fortunately, it's not the last time I carry the ball. It was a great play by the linebacker. He put his head on the football. That's the one thing you can't let happen.

The script right now, if you took it to Hollywood they'd turn it down, saying it couldn't happen.

I think he understands he doesn't have to win the game. I think last year he'd be the first one to tell you he was of the thought I have to win the football game. He just needs to make the plays he's supposed to make, and we'll win the football game as a result of that.

He's the reason we're here. He's a young guy who is wise beyond his years, and he's played like it.

I am looking forward to this new opportunity and to still be involved in the game I love.

It's a tough one to swallow because you feel you had the game in hand and you couldn't get it done.

Yeah, who knows It would have been hard to walk away from a last carry like that.

I went to Charlie and said, 'Give it to me, look it all the way in, follow me as I go through, and I'll do the rest,

Because I'm in the game, it gives me a medium to really talk about Detroit. I think it's great. If I'm the ambassador, I'm willing to carry that flag because I love the city.

That's the greatest feeling in the world, to actually have an opportunity to hold that Lombardi Trophy, and not hold it because somebody gave it to you. You hold that trophy because you earned it and you won it. That's the most amazing feeling in the world. It's a feeling I've been waiting for 13 years and I'm just glad I was able to come back and hoist that trophy and take it back to Pittsburgh.

I was fortunate. I'm supposed to take care of the football. That's my job. I fumbled the football that's a no-no, that's something you can't do.

We understand it is going to be deafening and we aren't going to be able to hear. But it helps having played there earlier this season.

I'm fifth all-time, and I fit in somewhere, ... It was like, wait a minute, I'm not just an ordinary guy. I've been able to do some extraordinary things in an ordinary body, but I'm not an ordinary guy.

I thought it all added up when Super Bowl 36 was at our doorstep. It was the AFC championship and it was in New Orleans, Super Bowl 36. It didn't happen.

Detroit was always in the back of my mind since we lost in the AFC championship game last year. I thought we could get there and I knew if we didn't turn the ball over we had a great chance.

I feel so bad for him. He knew this was coming, but you hate to see it happen during Super Bowl week. He's not even going to get to enjoy it.

The outcome will have a bearing on my decision. If it is my last game, all the people that saw me start my career get an opportunity to see me end it. My career will have come full circle.

I've been a Tigers fan all my time. I try to represent the Tigers every chance I get, so I'm always wearing my Detroit hat. People in Pittsburgh are a little upset about that.

I'm a champion. I think the Bus' last stop is here in Detroit. It's official, like the referee whistle. It's amazing. It's truly an amazing feeling. I'm the happiest person on the field, the happiest person in the world. We're the champions of the world and they can't take this away from us. It's all over. There aren't any games left. It's an unbelievable moment.

You assume we're going overtime. I wasn't down. I was getting ready to go. When I saw (the kick) go wide right, it was incredible.