Jerome Bettis, who played two seasons with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, recently shared his candid thoughts on the Steelers legendary QB.
During a recent appearance with Tiki & Tierney on CBS Sports Radio, Bettis said he was surprised to hear the longtime Steelers QB reveal that he has battled addictions to alcohol and pornography.
“I was shocked,” Bettis said. “I didn’t know anything about it. I never really saw it. From an alcohol perspective, I never saw him get pissy or drunk or anything like that. It was a surprise to me, but he’s human. That just shows that he’s human like all the rest of us. We’re all flawed in our own way. He has been man enough to show that.”
Bettis also spoke on his belief that the 38-year-old can recover from the elbow surgery that forced him to miss 14 games last season:
“It is a tough injury, but if he can come back and be 75 percent of the player he was – you need a veteran guy who can manage the game. If he can throw it 20 to 30 yards, you don’t need the deep balls all the time. They’re going to be able to run the football. You still got a really good offensive line…. If you just get 75 percent of what Ben was, I think you’re going to have a highly functional offense with threats all over the football field.”
The Steelers went 8-8 last season, missing the playoffs for the second straight year. Bettis believes the Steelers will be elite in 2020.
“I see this team as really a dominant football team,” he said. “They have that ability. The silver lining of last year was the defense. It came on strong. They had a playoff-caliber defense. They had zero offense. When your quarterback struggles, you’ve got no chance, but the defense kept them in every game that they played.”
