“The Bus” finally will come to a stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer after a long, successful NFL career. But his ride to glory wasn’t exactly a smooth one.
With his Hall of Fame induction approaching in August, Jerome Bettis teamed up with Graham Bensinger for an exclusive interview that will air next week. In it, the former Pittsburgh Steelers running back went into great detail about his rough childhood in inner-city Detroit, admitting he and his brother at one point resorted to selling crack.
“The mindset was, ‘We’re in the hood. Mom and dad, they’re working their butts off. There’s no money around. We need to make some money,’ ” Bettis told Bensinger. “So we said, ‘You know what? Let’s give it a shot.’ And it was one of those moments that you regret, but at the moment, that was the only thing that was really available to us.”
Bettis, who went on to star at Notre Dame before being taken 10th overall by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1993 NFL draft, also said he shot at people while in Detroit.
“That was part of growing up in our environment, in our neighborhood,” Bettis said. “That wasn’t out of the realm of normal. When you go back, it’s nothing that I ever wanted to glorify, because I know in retrospect that it was awful. Here you are in a position to take someone’s life, and that’s never a good thing.”
Bettis certainly was able to leave his past behind, going on to become the sixth-leading rusher in NFL history while earning the adoration of millions of fans.
Check out a preview of Bettis’ interview below, and tune in to NESN at 5 p.m. ET next Thursday to catch the full episode.
Thumbnail photo via Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports Images
