The Last Stop

DETROIT -- Jerome Bettis returned for one more chance to make a run at a championship. Against long odds, he got it.\nMany stars in all sports go entire careers without playing for a ring. A few -- Bettis, Mark Grace, Oscar Robertson, Ray Bourque come to mind -- finally get a shot at one as they're heading for the exit.\nIt doesn't happen often or easily.\n"In sports, you're going to have players who are great but haven't won championships," said Robertson, a Hall of Famer who got his NBA title with Milwaukee near the end of his career. "That's true. You only get one winner a year, and the rest of the guys don't win."\nThey sure try.\nLike Bettis, who decided to play another season for the Steelers in hopes of reaching the Super Bowl, athletes will push their bodies as far as they'll go -- and sometimes hang on longer than they should -- to get the thing that sets a winner apart.\nThe ring.\n"You look at me -- I played 17 years and didn't get one," quarterback Warren Moon said. "That had a lot to do with how long I played. I was still chasing that elusive, one last goal that I had left to accomplish in my career. Unfortunately, it never happened. But I'll tell you what: I did try."\nPro Football Hall of Fame spokesman Joe Horrigan notes that it's commonplace for stars to miss out on a shot at a championship. Before free agency changed the dynamics of sports and gave players freedom to pick their teams, a player could be stuck on a struggling franchise for a long time.\nFolks around these parts know that greatness doesn't translate into glory. Running back Barry Sanders spent 10 years with the Lions, but had only one playoff victory to show for it.\n"It's a reality of the game," Sanders said. "Coming into the NFL, my assumption was that this is the NFL and, naturally, I'll get to the Super Bowl because all you have to do is win three games in the playoffs. That was a mistake I made, because I later found out how tough it was."\nIt's universal.\nRobertson was already a superstar -- the only player to average a triple-double for a season -- during his 10 seasons with the Cincinnati Royals when the struggling franchise traded him. With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- then Lew Alcindor -- as his teammate, he got an NBA championship in his first season with Milwaukee.\n"It meant that the critics who needed something negative to say about my career couldn't say something negative about it," Robertson said.\nFor each of these late-in-life success stories, there are dozens who fail.\nAgain, the Cubs provide a benchmark. Ernie Banks put together a Hall-of-Fame career during 19 years in Chicago, but never even came close to the ultimate prize.\nEven in the era of free agency, going to a winner doesn't guarantee getting a shot at becoming the ultimate winner.\nNow, it's Bettis' turn to make that one final stab at a title. He considered retiring after the Steelers lost in the AFC title game last season, but came back in part because this year's Super Bowl is in his hometown of Detroit.\nIt looked like he'd frittered the chance away when he fumbled near the Colts' goal line with 1:20 left in a second-round playoff game, and Nick Harper scooped up the ball and headed downfield.\nIf quarterback Ben Roethlisberger doesn't double back and make a lunging ankle tackle on Harper, Bettis doesn't get his chance.\nAnd if Mike Vanderjagt doesn't miss badly on a 46-yard attempt, the game might go to overtime with a different outcome. It took all of those quirky things to get the Steelers a 21-18 win and get Bettis to his Bowl.\nThat's how fine the line is between getting a shot and being shut out.\n"Jerome Bettis had 13 years to prove how great he is," said the Hall of Fame's Horrigan. "If he wouldn't have made the decision to play this year, we would be talking about 'poor Jerome."