The Super Bowl's unsung hero's

One more Super Bowl thought and I will try to make this the last entry concerning football until training camp opens in August. Bathing in the glow of victory many of the Steelers are in demand for personal appearances at all manner of local events and on several national entertainment television shows.

For obvious reasons, chief among those in demand is Jerome Bettis who has been making the late night talk show circuit. SEE LINK It just so happens that due to circumstances beyond my control I am currently not working and seeing a lot more of late night shows than I normally would. So I watched Jerome's appearances on the Jay Leno show this past Wednesday and I think he represented himself, the city and Western Pennsylvania well in his interview.

During the show Bettis spoke about two of the unsung hero's of this past Steeler season and Super Bowl victory. Those being his mother and father. Not only did they provide a home and loving family environment for Jerome and his siblings they placed a strong emphasis on education. Apparently all of the Bettis children were expected not only to graduate high school but to go on to collage. Jerome spoke of growing up in a home with lots of books where reading was encouraged.

This impressed me a great deal because of my dealings with some people from the Detroit area that I worked with for a period of time in the late 1970's. Westinghouse had a division near Detroit that produced a line of small programmable controllers and associated input / output modules used in industrial control applications. This division was closed and moved to the Pittsburgh area and while not the main reason one of the justifications was a lack of talent in the work force trained in electronics. As one of the engineers I worked with explained to me “If it doesn't roll on four rubber tires, they are not interested”.

I could identify with this attitude since it was very similar to that of Pittsburgh. For generations youngsters here, mostly men, knew that with only a high school education and some times not even that you could go into the steel mills and earn a pretty decent living. Many simply because that is what their fathers and grandfathers had done. With the strong union environment it often took only a word the right person to ensure a job in the mills when you were ready. Much the same story existed in Detroit with the automobile industry. Education was never stressed since it wasn't considered necessary by some and no one ever contemplated that someday the steel mills or the automobile assembly lines would no longer be here.

There was also an indication that Jerome's parents placed a strong emphasis on faith in God and religion being active in their church. I'm sure this had a lot to do with the strong family environment provided by the household. Part of this could be seen by the fact that after signing a contract with the National Football League Jerome showed his love and respect for his parents buying them a new home and continuing to be part of their lives. There have been many who have come from humble beginnings that forget about the core family and move on when fame and fortune was visited upon them.

So along with the owners, coaches, team and all those who work in support functions at the Steeler organization I would like to take moment to offer congratulations to not only the parents of Jerome Bettis but all of those who raised the fine young men who represented our city and area so well in the public arena.