Staley Signing Spurred Bettis to Succeed

When Jerome Bettis was working at NBC over the past couple of years he could sometimes be criticized for being a little bland. At his best he offered some interesting insights (like when he correctly proclaimed that Bill Cowher was going to retire months before he did), but he generally could best be described as a forgettable analyst.

Apparently, he's a better writer than talker. Just two weeks into his Sports Illustrated column, Bettis (with the help of a contributing writer) has shown that he can be insightful and interesting, especially if you are a Steelers fan.Last week, Bettis accurately ripped the Steelers offensive line. This week he admitted that the Steelers decision to sign Duce Staley was needed to prod Bettis into getting into better shape, and he tied that to the Raiders current problems with JaMarcus Russell.

Here's another thing I don't like about how Russell's being handled: Oakland cut Jeff Garcia, and now there's no one to scare Russell. As a football player, you always need the threat of being benched. If you don't, you never have to push yourself. For me, that threat was Duce Staley. Pittsburgh brought in Duce at one point in my career and I got benched. I knew Duce was a good player so I had to do something. Duce got hurt, I changed some things, and I had one of my best years ever.

Bettis and Staley always said back then that they respected each other, but this is the first time I've seen Bettis admit that he might have needed some prodding after averaging 3.3 yards per carry. Of course it doesn't explain how the challenge of Amos Zereoue failed to provide that incentive before Staley arrived.