Shoenfeld, You Missed The Bus

By The Wise Guy
If you check out the ESPN website and go to their “Page 2” section, you will see a fairly lengthy article by writer and lead editor Dave Shoenfeld entitled “The Bus isn’t one of the Best,” in which he sums up Jerome Bettis thusly:  “He’s Don Sutton or Harold Baines, a good running back who played a long time to compile some impressive career statistics.”  Harold Baines, my petooty.

Mr. Lead Editor Shoenfeld freely admits that he is writing this article because he is tired of all the Bus hype, that “all these stories about the Bus are giving me a headache.”  Here’s one cure for your achy head, Mr. Lead Editor:  Don’t read them.  Oh, and by the way, did it ever occur to you that you could have saved the world—and yourself—from another Bus story by not writing yours?

If you read beyond the smarmy introduction, you will find that to justify his contention that Jerome is merely “a good running back who played a long time to compile some impressive career statistics,” Mr. Lead Editor compiles some impressive statistics of his own.  (By the way, as “Lead Editor” you can bet that he ordered some ESPN flunky with a Masters from Harvard to find every Jerome Bettis career stat in the world, while put his feet up on the desk and sipped a double decaf mocha latte.)

He notes that The Bus has rushed over 1,500 yards just once, and that of the top 50 rushing seasons of all time, he has just one.  Yeah, so?  Is this important to anyone but a fantasy league geek, like I suspect Mr. Shoenfeld may be?

He points out that Jerome’s career rushing average is a mere 3.9 yards-per-carry. He virtually waxes poetic as he shows us that other Steeler running backs -- guys like Erric Pegram, Richard Huntley, Amos Zereoue, Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala and Willie Parker -- have rushed 1,780 times for 7,793 yards, or 4.38 yards per carry while “running behind the same offensive line.” The same offensive line?  More fantasy. 

So let’s see…by his logic, Richard Huntley is not only better than The Bus, he is also better than all-time NFL rushing leader Emmitt Smith.  Huntley’s career average is 4.7 yards per rush.  Smith’s is just 4.4.  Maybe Huntley should be in the Hall of Fame alongside, or ahead of Emmitt.

Obviously, Mr. Shoenfeld hasn’t watched Jerome play much over the course of his career.  If he had, he would have seen that statistics are only part of the story. It’s not how many yards he gained.  It’s when he gained them.  It’s not how many touchdowns he scored.  It’s when he scored them.  It’s not how he looks.  It’s how he plays.

Facts are true.  But they’re not the truth.  And that’s a fact.