In 2005, the Pittsburgh Steelers were among the top five favorites to win Super Bowl XL and for good reason. They were coming off a franchise record 15-1 season that featured the #1 running game in the NFL. However, due to preseason injuries to 2004 Pro Bowler, Jerome Bettis and Duce Staley, the Steelers offense entered Week 1 loaded with uncertainty in starting an undrafted second year running back with only one career start named “Fast” Willie Parker.
Steelers’ Willie Parker prepares for Week 1 game vs. Tennessee Titans in 2005. | NFL Films
The Steelers offensive performance in the 2005 preseason raised a log of concerns as it was awful. The starting unit failed to score a point the entire preseason and there were rumblings of “sophomore slump” surrounding Ben Roethlisberger as the 2004 Offensive Rookie of the Year was only 16 of 36 for 145 yards, 0 TD’s and 2 INT’s with a 32.75 QB rating in four games. The passing offense was impacted by the absence of Hines Ward (holdout) and the departure of Plaxico Burress in free agency, but the concerns were rising when Bettis was injured vs. the Washington Redskins with an injury that Bettis himself initially thought was the end for him.
Jerome Bettis injured in a 2005 preseason game vs. Washington. | Fox Sports
Jerome Bettis, per The Bus: My Life in and Out of a Helmet
“In our next-to-last preseason game, I took a counter step to fake a run and that’s when I felt a pop. At first it felt like somebody had hit me in the leg or like the referee had thrown the penalty flag at my right calf. But then the pain arrived, and I fell to the ground.As I lay on the turf, a single thought entered my mind: ‘Oh, my goodness, I just tore my Achilles.’ If so, I was done.”
Bettis’ fears were alleviated when the training staff looked him over and informed him that it was not an Achilles injury, but his calf. Bettis was able to limp to the sidelines and the next day received the news that he could be out for as long as six weeks. With Staley having underwent knee surgery that would sideline him indefinitely, the Steelers only option was Willie Parker.
Discovered by Dan Rooney Jr., who had just begun scouting for the Steelers at the time, Parker was a no-name, will-never-make-it-on-the-roster longshot when the Steelers signed him as a free agent in 2004. Parker had been a third-string running back at the University of North Carolina because the coaching staff felt he wasn’t big enough to be the featured back in their ground-and-pound offense. He never got the chance to play and it was something that Bill Cowher and Dick Hoak questioned why.
Bill Cowher, per Heart and Steel:
“He’s fast,” Dan Rooney Jr. reported. “There’s nobody who can catch him when he gets out to the corner. I was surprised that Parker wasn’t on anybody’s radar. It’s hard for good football players to stay hidden. I asked Dick Hoak, ‘What’s the hole in this kid? How come he didn’t play at North Carolina?’Dick shook his head and said he didn’t know.”
Cowher and the Steelers looked into Parker and determined he had exceptional natural ability, which needed to be refined for him to significantly contribute. He struggled holding onto the ball at first as he fumbled three times in his first preseason, but they saw enough in him that they liked him and saw his promise.
Bill Cowher, per Heart and Steel:
“He was a great kid, full of energy with a willingness to learn, and we decided to keep him. Dick Hoak worked with him and refined his abilities. Every time he got the ball, his instinct was to head for the outside, turn the corner, and take off downfield. But he began to learn that sometimes you just have to hit a hole.”
With Week 1 approaching fast against the Tennessee Titans, there was a lot of pressure on Parker and a lot of frustration from Bettis due to his injury. He couldn’t change his recovery time, but he could tutor Parker and give him a veteran player’s insight that would help him understand the Steelers offense, opposing defenses and the nuances of playing running back. It was feedback that Parker was only too happy to receive.
Willie Parker, per The Bus: My Life in and Out of a Helmet
“During practices I could tell he was kind of studying me. He started to point out my weaknesses and my strengths. He threw darts at me. He threw darts at me for the longest time. He didn’t want to give me praise at first.”“We’d be at practice, and he’d tell me I was running the ball too fast, that I wasn’t reading my Three Technique. A Three Technique is basically the running back reading what the defensive tackle is doing. He would ask me, ‘What made you do what you just did?’
I didn’t know. I was just free-balling out there.
“He said, ‘Young buck, that’s not how it’s supposed to be. You’re making plays. It’s not bad, mind you. But that 10-yard run can be a 30-yard run. You and me, we’re going to watch some tape after practice.’ So, he would take me in and get some cut-ups, and we’d watch tape together, just him and me.”
While watching Parker’s film, even Bettis couldn’t figure out why he didn’t get more opportunities at UNC, where he had only 48 carries as a senior. But whatever they didn’t see at UNC, Bettis saw in Parker and was vested in seeing him succeed. After all, Bettis returned in 2005 to make a run at Super Bowl XL, and if Fast Willie Parker performed well, those odds increased.
When the Steelers opened the season vs. the Titans at Heinz Field, Bettis tried a different approach. For the first time, he didn’t watch the opening kickoff from the sidelines, but decided to give himself a different vantage point. He went to the stadium suite that he leased each season for his family and tried to watch the game with them. It was something that fortunately for Steeler Nation, he quickly realized wasn’t a good idea.
Jerome Bettis, per The Bus: My Life in and Out of a Helmet:
“I couldn’t do it. I tried, I really did. I thought going up there would be a good way of coming to terms with my inevitable retirement. I knew eventually I was going to have to become comfortable with watching a game from somewhere other than on the field. But I wasn’t ready for the future yet. It felt so weird to be up there, to be so far away from my teammates. So, I watched the first few series of the game and then I took off. I had to go back to the sidelines. Call it separation anxiety, whatever, but I needed to be near the action and near my teammates.”
No one was happier about that decision than Parker, who entered the game with high anxiety, but finished it with one of the best performances by a Steelers running back in team history.
Steelers’ Willie Parker is mentored by teammate Jerome Bettis in Week 1 of 2005. | NFL Films
Jerome Bettis, per NFL Films:
“Right before the game, he pulled me to the side and told me, ‘Hey, keep an eye on me. Stay with me.’ That was the only part where I was like, ‘Relax. I got you.’”
“Fast” Willie Parker tore up the Titans defense that day, breaking ankles and rushing for 161 yards and a TD. He also caught one screen pass, which he turned up field for a 48-yard gain. His impact was felt all over the offense as Roethlisberger finished 9/11 for 218 yards and 2 TDs – attaining a perfect 158.3 passer rating in the Steelers 34-7 victory. Parker’s success continued all season long and right through into Super Bowl XL when Parker broke a Super Bowl record with a 75-yard TD run, all the while being coached and critiqued by the veteran future Hall of Fame running back.
Ben Roethlisberger benefited from Willie Parker's performance in Week 1 of 2005, finishing with a perfect passer rating. | NFL Films
Jerome Bettis, per The Bus: My Life in and Out of a Helmet:
“Earlier in the game, he tried to force a run to the outside, instead of just being patient and cutting it up inside where the open crease was. I got some Polaroid photos of the Seahawks’ alignment and showed them to Willie. ‘I can see their game plan,’ I said. ‘They’re waiting for you on the edges. See how the safeties are coming down?’ Willie nodded. ‘OK, then no more east-west running,’ I said. ‘C’mon, north south, north south. You’re reverting back to your rookie year. You’re gonna break a big one.’ Sure enough, the safeties inched down, Willie made the adjustment, scored on the play, and gave us a 14–3 lead. When he came back to the sideline after the touchdown, I was whooping it up. I just looked at him and winked. You know, one of those, ‘I told you so’ winks.”
Steelers’ Willie Parker runs for a record 75-yard TD run in Super Bowl XL. | NFL Films
In 2005, he gained more yards with the Steelers—1,202—than he did during his entire four-year career at UNC, making him only the second undrafted running back to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. In 2006, he set the Steelers single season record for TD’s with 16 and in 2007, he was leading the NFL in rushing heading into the final two games, only missing out on the rushing title due to broken leg in in the penultimate game. Several years earlier, as he sat on the bench for his Senior Day game, Parker had written on his wristband, “I’m gonna make it.”
He did. With a little assist from Bettis.
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