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With six Super Bowl titles (as of the end of the 2018 season), the Pittsburgh Steelers are tied with the New England Patriots for the most Super Bowl wins in NFL history. From the four-time champions of the 1970s to the more recent championship teams, the Steelers have been characterized by strong quarterback play (Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger), a ferocious defense (the Steel Curtain of the 1970s and the Troy Polamalu-led 21st century defense), and a powerful rushing game. The key catalysts for Pittsburgh’s vaunted rushing attack throughout the years have been Hall of Fame running backs Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis, who rank #1 and #2, respectively, on the team’s all-time rushing list. As such, it is only natural to debate who is the greatest running back in Steelers history by asking:
Who was better – Jerome Bettis or Franco Harris?
The Beginning
Following stellar collegiate careers, Bettis and Harris were both thrust into the starting lineup as rookies (Bettis was originally a Ram) and responded by (no pun intended) running away with Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, providing a sign of things to come.
Bettis grew up in Detroit with bowling as his first passion and only started playing football in high school despite being diagnosed with asthma at age 14. Nevertheless, he quickly became a star running back and linebacker, and by his senior year, was the top-rated high school football player in Michigan and was named the Gatorade Circle of Champions Player of the Year. At Notre Dame, Bettis continued to excel, setting a school record as a sophomore with 20 touchdowns (16 rushing, 4 receiving) before adding three more touchdowns in the 1992 Sugar Bowl. After leading the Fighting Irish to a Cotton Bowl victory over Texas A&M in 1993, he declared early for the NFL and was selected 10th overall in the 1993 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams. Despite not becoming a full-time starter until six games into the season, Bettis rushed for 1,429 yards and 7 touchdowns and added 26 receptions for 244 yards en route to Offensive Rookie of the Year, Pro Bowl, and First Team All-Pro honors.
As for Harris, the New Jersey native attended Penn State from 1969 to 1971 where he shared the backfield with All-American and fellow future NFL star Lydell Mitchell – in his three years with the Nittany Lions, he was extremely consistent, rushing for at least 600 yards and 6 touchdowns each year. Upon declaring for the draft, Harris was selected 13th overall in 1972 by the Pittsburgh Steelers. There, he joined quarterback Terry Bradshaw and running back Rocky Bleier in the Pittsburgh backfield and as a rookie, rushed for 1,055 yards and 10 touchdowns (on a career-best 5.6 yards per carry) while adding 21 catches for 180 yards and a touchdown, thus earning Offensive Rookie of the Year honors and the first of nine straight Pro Bowl nods.
Career Comparison
Over the course of their careers, both Bettis and Harris were consistent 1,000-yard rushers who would ensure that year after year, the Steelers would have one of the top rushing offenses in the NFL.
As an encore to his magnificent rookie season, Bettis rushed for 1,025 yards in his second year and was once again a Pro Bowl selection. However, after the Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995, their offense also became more pass-oriented and as a result, Bettis’ numbers declined to only 637 rushing yards that season. With this shift in offensive philosophy, he was traded to the Steelers in 1996 along with a 1996 third-round pick in exchange for second and fourth-round picks in the 1997 NFL Draft.
Given new life in Pittsburgh, Bettis rebounded in his first season with the Steelers, rushing for 1,431 yards and 11 touchdowns along with 22 receptions for 122 yards to earn his third Pro Bowl selection, his second First Team All-Pro nod, and Comeback Player of the Year honors. The next season was even better – he led the NFL with 375 carries and amassed a career-high 1,665 rushing yards with 7 touchdowns, plus 15 receptions for 110 yards and 2 touchdowns, resulting in another Pro Bowl selection and a Second Team All-Pro nod; moreover, Bettis was only 26 yards shy of the team’s single-season rushing record (which is held by Barry Foster), but sat out the team’s regular season finale ahead of the playoffs.
Over the next few seasons, Bettis continued to be a consistent backfield presence in Pittsburgh, rushing for 1,000+ yards each year from 1998 to 2000. In 2001, through the first 11 games of the season, he was leading the NFL with 1,072 rushing yards, but suffered hip and groin injuries that forced him to miss the remainder of the regular season, though he nevertheless was once again a Pro Bowler. While he would return healthy, the Steelers backfield would become more crowded and Bettis would never reach 1,000 rushing yards again; his best season thereafter came in 2004 when he took over for an injured Duce Staley midway through the year and ended up rushing for 941 yards and a career-high 13 touchdowns for his final Pro Bowl selection. As primarily a short-yardage back in 2005, Bettis managed to score another 9 touchdowns on the ground before retiring at age 33.
As for Harris a couple of decades earlier, while he did dip below 700 rushing yards in his second season (though was still a Pro Bowler), he then proceeded to reel off six consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. Of particular note were the 1975 to 1977 seasons, which marked his prime:
- 1975: career-high 1,246 yards with 10 touchdowns (one of 5x scoring double-digit touchdowns) and 28 receptions for 214 yards and a touchdown
- 1976: 1,128 rushing yards and a career-best 14 touchdowns; also, 23 catches for 151 yards
- 1977: Harris’ lone First Team All-Pro selection on the back of 1,162 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, plus 11 catches for 62 yards
In 1979, Harris rushed for 1,186 yards (the last of his aforementioned six consecutive 1,000-yard seasons) and scored 11 touchdowns, marking the last time he would cross the goal line 10+ times in a season. With the retirement of the now infamous O.J. Simpson that year (yes, at one time in history, his claim to fame was being a Hall of Fame running back), Harris became the leader in career rushing yards among active players. Following three straight seasons below 1,000 rushing yards (789, 987, and 604, respectively), he would have his final 1,000-yard season (barely) in 1983: 1,007 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns with 34 catches for 278 yards and 2 more scores.
At this point in his career, Harris was nearing Jim Brown’s then-career rushing record and threatened a holdout in order to get a pay raise; in response, the Steelers released him in training camp in 1984. Subsequently, Harris signed with the Seattle Seahawks, but only had 170 rushing yards in eight games before retiring at age 34, just 192 rushing yards short of the legendary Brown.
Though they both played 13 NFL seasons, in part due to the transition from 14 to 16-game seasons in 1978, Bettis played 19 more career regular season games than Harris and thus, has the career edge in rushing attempts and yards – as of the end of the 2018 season, Bettis is seventh overall on the career rushing list at 13,662 yards (just 18 yards behind #6 LaDainian Tomlinson) and Harris sits at #15. Both players had eight 1,00-yard rushing seasons and 91 career rushing touchdowns, though Harris has a sizeable lead in double-digit touchdown seasons (5 vs. 2) and a better career yards per attempt. In addition to both being Offensive Rookie of the Year, Harris had more Pro Bowl selections (9 vs. 6), but Bettis leads in All-Pro nods (2 vs. 1). On a per game basis, the numbers are also relatively comparable – Bettis averaged 79 total yards (71 rushing yards, 1.0 catch for 8 receiving yards) and 0.49 touchdowns per game, while Harris averaged 83 total yards (70 rushing yards, 1.8 catches for 13 receiving yards) and 0.58 touchdowns per game. Given their illustrious playing careers, both running backs are Hall of Famers – Harris in 1990 and Bettis more recently in 2015.
Regular Season Statistics
| Jerome Bettis | Player | Franco Harris |
| 13 (1993-2005) | Seasons | 13 (1972-1984) |
| 192 | Games Played | 173 |
| 3,479 | Rushing Attempts | 2,949 |
| 13,662 | Rushing Yards | 12,120 |
| 3.9 | Yards Per Attempt | 4.1 |
| 91 | Rushing Touchdowns | 91 |
| 200 | Receptions | 307 |
| 1,449 | Receiving Yards | 2,287 |
| 3 | Receiving Touchdowns | 9 |
| 6x | Pro Bowls | 9x |
| 2x | All-Pro | 1x |
| – | MVP | – |
| 1x | Super Bowls | 4x |
| Offensive ROY, Comeback Player | Other Awards | Offensive ROY |
| 2015 | Hall of Fame Induction | 1990 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Since the 1970s, the Steelers have been a playoff stalwart, coming away with six Super Bowl titles as of 2018 – Harris played a pivotal role in the four 1970s championships, while Bettis was a key figure in leading Pittsburgh to their fifth title.
Though he never made the playoffs in three seasons with the Rams, Bettis would become accustomed to postseason play in Pittsburgh with six appearances. However, after losing in his second career AFC Championship in 2004, he publicly contemplated retirement, but decided to come back for one more season. What an incredible decision that turned out to be – the next season, the Steelers clinched a Wildcard berth in Week 17 on the strength of three Bettis rushing touchdowns and then proceeded to knock out the Cincinnati Bengals in the Wildcard game. In the Divisional round, Pittsburgh beat the Indianapolis Colts 21-18 despite a costly fumble by Bettis on the Colts’ 2-yard line with just over a minute left, as Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger prevented a fumble recovery touchdown and Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt missed a game-tying field goal. Then, in the AFC Championship Game, Bettis would score another touchdown (he scored in all three AFC playoff games) and the Steelers would advance to the Super Bowl by beating the Denver Broncos 34-17. With Super Bowl XL being played in his native Detroit, Bettis contributed 14 carries for 43 yards in a 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in the final game of his career.
Meanwhile, Harris played in the postseason 10x (including in eight consecutive seasons from 1972 to 1979) and was part of all four Steelers Super Bowl wins in the 1970s. However, his most famous postseason moment may be the controversial Immaculate Reception in a 1972 AFC Divisional game vs. the Oakland Raiders, which resulted in Pittsburgh’s first-ever playoff win and sparked their championship decade. Nevertheless, he was the MVP of the Steelers’ first championship in a 16-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX – by rushing for 158 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries, Harris became both the first African-American and first Italian-American to be named Super Bowl MVP. In each of his four Super Bowl appearances, he had at least 20 carries and scored three more touchdowns (one in Super Bowl XIII and two in Super Bowl XIV), though never again surpassed the century mark for yards; nevertheless, Harris’ 101 total carries for 354 yards is still a Super Bowl record and his fourth touchdowns are tied for second.
Playoff Statistics
| Jerome Bettis | Player | Franco Harris |
| 14 | Games Played | 19 |
| 199 | Rushing Attempts | 400 |
| 674 | Rushing Yards | 1,556 |
| 3.4 | Yards Per Attempt | 3.9 |
| 9 | Rushing Touchdowns | 16 |
| 8 | Receptions | 51 |
| 57 | Receiving Yards | 504 |
| – | Receiving Touchdowns | 1 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; from Bettis’ timeshare in the Steelers backfield to Harris’ forgettable last year as a Seahawk, both running backs slowed down into their 30s. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams, which Harris is part of for the 1970s), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years. However, given the shorter careers most running backs have due to the physical toll of the position (very few running backs are effective after age 30), I have modified it in this comparison to a “(half)-decade of dominance”.
(Half)-Decade of Dominance
| Jerome Bettis | Player | Franco Harris |
| 1993, 1996-1997, 2000-2001 | (Half)-Decade of Dominance | 1975-1979 |
| 74 | Games Played | 73 |
| 1,569 | Rushing Attempts | 1,428 |
| 6,938 | Rushing Yards | 5,804 |
| 4.4 | Yards Per Attempt | 4.1 |
| 37 | Rushing Touchdowns | 54 |
| 84 | Receptions | 120 |
| 621 | Receiving Yards | 862 |
| 2 | Receiving Touchdowns | 2 |
Source: Pro-Football-Reference.com
Interestingly, across their (half)-decades of dominance, Bettis has the upper hand in most rushing numbers (attempts, yards, yards per attempt), but Harris has a significant edge in touchdowns scored – to me, this highlights Harris’ greater career consistency, as well as Bettis’ ability to contribute as a goal-line back even when he was no longer the featured runner later in his career.
My Thoughts
With most running backs, there are two dimensions to greatness in peak dominance and longevity/consistency – some running backs have peak dominance (Gale Sayers, Terrell Davis, etc.), some running backs have longevity/consistency (Frank Gore, Curtis Martin, etc.), and the rare running back has both (Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, etc.). When I think about Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris along these two dimensions, my belief is that Bettis definitely had longevity/consistency and was one of the top running backs of the late 1990s/early 2000s, but very rarely was considered an elite back, a la Marshall Faulk. In contrast, Harris was not only one of the most consistent running backs of the 1970s, but arguably one of the very best, as evidenced by his All-Decade team inclusion, and a key catalyst for the Steelers’ four Super Bowl titles of the decade.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Franco Harris
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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