The Bus pulls into the station with a ring

DETROIT -- As grand exits go, it wasn't much.

The Bus didn't win the Super Bowl for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the final game of his career. Didn't even have a lot to do with it, until he was given the ball to grind up some yards and run down the clock toward the end.

Don't believe for a minute, though, that this wasn't Jerome Bettis' game.

It was from the time he told his teammates to take him home before they went out and beat the Denver Broncos to get here. It surely was after the Steelers landed in Motor City and Bettis showed them his town.

He lumbered alone onto the field for the pregame introductions, then turned around and beckoned for his teammates to follow him. He threw a block to help Ben Roethlisberger score and then walked around the end zone searching for a souvenir in the ball his quarterback had spiked.

In between, he rooted teammates on, sprinting on the field to congratulate them after big plays and giving them words of encouragement when things went bad.

When it was over, he finally had his Super Bowl championship. He celebrated on the field, while his mother -- who had never missed a game since Bettis began playing football -- cried and his dad celebrated in a luxury suite above.

Detroit celebrated with them, perhaps hopeful that this was a good omen of things to come in a city that so desperately wants to improve itself. It was almost as if a city whose own team is woeful had won a title through one of its own.

For his part, during all the celebrating, Bettis made his retirement official. And he left the way few athletes ever do -- holding a championship trophy over his head before roaring fans in his home town.

One for the thumb? How about one big one for the Bus?

"I'm a champion, and I think the Bus' last stop is here in Detroit," Bettis said.

-- AP