Jerome Bettis Shares How To Walk Away from Football Well
Here's how Bettis says you know when it's really time to go.
Jerome Bettis, known by millions around the world for his incredible football talent, ran for over thirteen thousand yards, made six Pro bowls and was a two-time All-Pro. He won a Super Bowl his last season in the NFL and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He recently sat down with our own Rob Maaddi.
One of the interesting elements of being professional athlete is the proximity you have to other athletes. For Bettis, he was very close to Ben Roethlisberger, now-retired quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bettis was able to see Roethlisberger develop and mature as a man in personally, professionally, and in his family.
“I got a chance to sell all those facets of him. You see him come in as a single guy and dumb, making mistakes and doing all this. The silly things that we all did at 22, 23, 24 years old, I'm included in that as well. But to see him develop, to see him make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, develop grow all that time, and I'm proud to say that I was a friend, I was a resource. If he ever needed, I was always available to him. And so to see him grow in that way was really special.”
Listen to the episode here:
FAITH ON THE FIELD IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY OUR PROGRAM SPONSORS:
Is Faith on the Field an encouragement to you?
Would you help us get our ministry into new markets? Your financial gift can help us do just that:
Roethlisberger recently hung up the cleats for the final time, but for some guys that can be a very difficult thing to do. Mainly, according to Bettis, they retire but football never got out of their system.
“(Walking away from football) is easy to do. But that shouldn't be the reason why you do it. You should step away from the game because it's out of your system. A lot of people retire and then the yearning and the itching comes back to want to play, but you’re retired now. You’re like ‘I want to come back’.
So I would just say retire when is out of your system because you don't get a chance to redo it. You don't want to live with that regret. You want to have all the football out of you. So that when you retire, you on to the next chapter in your life.”
