Here is an interesting debate leading up the Super Bowl: Is Jerome “The Bus” Bettis a Hall of Fame running back? David Schoenfield argues no:
Here’s the bottom line as you see Bettis featured on “Good Morning America,” “The Daily Show” and “Emeril Live!” over the next week: He’s Don Sutton or Harold Baines, a good running back who played a long time to compile some impressive career statistics.
But he is not one of the five or 10 or 15 or 25 greatest running backs of all time.
His nickname, however, ranks right up there.
I have mixed feelings about this as you might imagine. If you have strong feelings use the comment section. I will give you my opinion later.
I love the Bus, but Schoenfield’s point is correct that he is not one of the top 25 backs of all time. He certainly never captured the attention of the league in any given year, like Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith did. He’s just always been around…. for a long time.
Still, durability counts for something, and so do cumulative stats. I don’t think the Bus is a first-ballot HoFer, but I think he’s a HoFer. If the Steelers win next week, also I think that helps his case tremendously.