Steelers Legend, Jerome Bettis, screwed the Steelers

Funny eh?

Yep, after the Pittsburgh Steelers gave Jerome Bettis all those carries despite having a hot running back in Willie Parker, after they gave him the chance to retire on top despite looking like he should've retired three years ago and after they gave him the Super Bowl ring he desperately wanted despite playing like an aging overweight snail, Jerome Bettis now tells us he just screwed the Pittsburgh Steelers.

For all ya'll who don't know it yet, Jerome Bettis, one of the best NFL tailbacks to ever play the game, now has a book. (Yep, like most retired sports athletes these days...) And in his book which will be out in September entitled, ''The bus. My Life in and out of a Helmet,'' he says he screwed his own team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, by faking an injury to avoid getting cut by the team back in 2000.

It turns out that Jerome Bettis came to training camp then with a knee that had been surgically repaired the previous summer and fearing that he might lose his job when the Steelers see him as the overweight overpaid sonuvabitch that he really is, took it upon himself to fake the injury while in ''training.''

During a short-yardage drill at an early camp practice, Jerome Bettis fell down, grabbed his knee and made his best ''Dwyane Wade grimacing in pain'' impression.

''Man, did I do a nice job of acting,'' Jerome Bettis wrote in the book, co-authored by ESPN.com national columnist Gene Wojciechowski. ''The thing is, I wasn't faking that I had an injury. I was just faking that the injury happened on that short-yardage play. I had to fool the coaches and the team's medical department into thinking the injury had occurred on that play. Otherwise, the Steelers would have had their reason to cut me and my salary.''

''I effectively negated any funny business they were trying to pull on me,'' Bettis wrote. ''I took the pressure off a head coach who was probably trying to get rid of me. In my mind, what I did was justifiable because the original injury occurred while I was playing for the Steelers.''

Dennis Rodman tells different, claiming that Jerome Bettis injured his knee while the NFL star was giving him an ''afternoon delight.'' He he... Kidding.

Who will be the favorites to win Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona? Here are the odds from Bodog:

Pittsburgh Steelers 25/1

New England Patriots 10/1

Chicago Bears 8/1

Indianapolis Colts 7/1

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Jerome Bettis Pittsburgh Steelers