Jerome Bettis has apparently told a professional writer his life story written an autobiography entitled “The Bus: My Life in and Out of a Helmet,” that’s set to release sometime in the near future. In the book, Bettis shares a few juicy details, such as his belief that the Steelers were about to cut him in 2000 — which is why he faked an injury in training camp. He also says that Bill Cowher and the Steelers conspired to set Kordell Stewart up for failure.
“For some reason, Coach would never really commit fully to Kordell … and because of that, we had no consistent leadership from the quarterback position,” Bettis wrote of Stewart’s on-and-off stay as starting quarterback from 1997 until Tommy Maddox replaced him in the third game of the 2002 season.
…
“You bench your Pro Bowl quarterback for a guy who had been out of football for years, who hadn’t started an NFL game in 10 seasons?” Bettis wonders in his book. “That just doesn’t happen by accident.“I think they pulled Kordell partly because they didn’t want to pay him a big salary and signing bonus. It was cheaper for them if he didn’t have success. If he recovered and had a huge year, then the public sentiment would be, ‘Hey, you’ve got to re-sign him for whatever it costs.’ I’m telling you, it was a monetary decision. The Steelers had no interest in paying Kordell his market value.”
And that’s not even the best part. Check out the next passage from the book:
Bettis had a secret appendectomy before the 1999 season.
“The funny thing is, the Steelers didn’t want the media to know about the surgery. So, when I went to the hospital, someone told me to register under the name Tex Goldstein. That was my alias. Do I look like a Tex Goldstein?”
Tex freaking Goldstein. Oh that’s brilliant. New fantasy football team name alert.
Well, I’ll say this much for Bettis, he sure stands to sell a lot of books with those types of stories. But he sure will be making some enemies around the league with ’em too. I can’t imagine Bill Cowher will be any too pleased to hear what the Bus had to say about him.
*Note: I have no idea who’s in that photo, I just know it looks like a Tex Goldstein.
