ATLANTA – It was a simple slant route, against press coverage, during a 7-on-7 football camp. Happened in 2021. And Jerome Bettis Jr. is still catching grief for it.
Coming off the line of scrimmage, an eyewitness critic concluded, the young wide receiver wasn’t physical enough in fighting off the cornerback’s hands.
Sure, he otherwise sparkled at the FBU camp, early in his high school days. But that one play, which his dad has on videotape, is in the bucket as a “lost rep” that remains a case that can be used against him…or as an everlasting teaching moment.
It figures. The loquacious father, Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis, is not one to mince words when compelled to make a point.
“We went over it in the moment, we went over it when we got home,” Bettis Jr. recently reflected. “And we just went over it a couple of days ago.”
A couple of days ago?
Rome, as Bettis Jr. is called, is now a freshman receiver at Notre Dame, his dad’s alma mater. Yet as he and his famous father chatted with USA TODAY Sports in the basement of the family’s suburban mansion in late May, the day before the kid headed back to college, it was apparent that there is no expiration date when it comes to feedback from ‘The Bus.’
Call it one of the privileges – that’s how Rome sees it — of being groomed by a father enshrined in Canton as one of the greatest players in football history.
Then there was the dropped pass against Collins Hill High last fall. Rome, 18, a three-star recruit who starred at Woodward Academy, calls it his biggest regret from his high school career.
Let Papa Bus explain.
“You’ve got to make the big plays,” Bettis preached. “This could have turned the game around. You, being the guy, you have to think that way. Every opportunity, you have to seize. And this was an opportunity that he let slip away. You have to make the difficult catches! That’s what you’re going to be gauged on. Can you make that one play that’s going to change the game? You have to hold yourself to a higher standard.
“I need him to raise his level of what he expects from himself. If you want to be the player that you say you want to be, that’s the play you’ve got to make.”
Bettis, 53, who retired from a 13-year NFL career after winning Super Bowl 40 with the Pittsburgh Steelers in his hometown of Detroit in 2006, insists that he never demanded that Rome pursue football. He often told him that he played football so that he didn’t have to.
“Sometimes, you push a kid, he resents you for that,” Bettis said. “The last thing I wanted was to be that dad that my son resented. I just tried to encourage him. And then at an early age, I got him with other coaches, so he wasn’t listening to my voice all the time. He could hear someone telling him the same things I was telling him, but just in a different voice. I was hoping he wouldn’t be turned off to football because of me.”
Still, Bettis calls himself “a rollercoaster dad” with a distinct sense of pride. “I was going to ride with him on every play.”
That was surely passed down. Bettis’ parents, Gladys and his late father, Johnnie, never missed a single game during his entire football journey from high school through the NFL. A generation later, the son has added a layer to that tradition. The Bus swears that he has every snap that Rome played in high school (both ways, including cornerback) that he taped himself on his iPhone.
“Whenever he sees something that we need to touch on or something to clean up, he’ll bring it to my attention and we’ll go from there,” Rome said.
Father and son both emphasize the mind. While Rome points to his dad’s advice about intentional and maintaining a structure for his approach to the game, Bettis stresses the importance of a “psychological toolbox” to deal with adversity in the heat of competition.
“At this stage in these kids’ lives, there’s nobody really giving them the psychological side of it,” Bettis said. “Some kids develop it more than others, but it’s there. You just have to tap into it. I’ve tried to provide that type of resource and give him the why as to a lot of these things happening or not. And give him a better perspective of where he’s trying to go.”
It can be argued that Rome, a finance major, might have increased pressure by choosing Notre Dame. He also considered Duke and Texas A&M, yet insists that he doesn’t feel ay added weight because of his dad’s legacy in South Bend.
“Yes, my dad’s influence caused me to choose Notre Dame, but not in the way that everybody would think,” he said. “What made me make the decision was the way I was raised by him and my mother.”
The nod to his mother, Trameka, and to the academics she and Jerome stressed, represents only part of the equation. Another key hook is his sister, Jada, 20, a rising junior at Notre Dame majoring in strategic management.
Perhaps Jada doesn’t wind up at Notre Dame, though, if her father didn’t return for a semester in 2022 to complete the coursework needed to earn a business degree – only 28 years after he left for the NFL.
Bettis commuted to South Bend – he’d fly back for weekends – and became the full-time student whose adjustment included the heavy reliance on technology that didn’t exist three decades earlier.
“There was a huge learning curve for me,” he said.
Jada was a high school junior at the time. Bettis cleared it with his professors to allow her to accompany him to classes for a day and get a glimpse of college life.
“She got a chance to see the campus from a different perspective,” Bettis said. “She had always gone to games with me, but she saw it from a student’s perspective, which led to her to take a class in the summer. She was there for two weeks and fell in love with the campus.
“And she was a huge influence on his decision on where go to school. So, very bog domino effect. If I hadn’t gone back to school, I don’t know if he’d be there now.”
Bettis’ father used to tell him, “I gave you your good name. Don’t screw it up.”
Now Bettis, rolling with the same classic humor, tells Rome the same.
So far, so good. Bettis expects that he will get a hold of practice video and serve up feedback, but he has no plans of attending training camp or practice sessions. Never mind that he’s a Fighting Irish legend. He’s also a dad.
At the spring game, Bettis was invited to watch from the sideline or from a private suite. He politely declined. He wanted no VIP status.
“All I wanted to do was sit in the family section and see him come out of that tunnel with that gold helmet on,” Bettis said. “I wanted to cherish that. I got a chance to do it as a dad. That was super-important to do.”
Of course, Bettis videotaped that special occasion. After all, it’s a habit.
As Bettis figures, “Why stop now?”
Follow Jarrett Bell on social media: @JarrettBell