Jerome Bettis: “Lord, If This Is How You Want My Career to End.”

Matt Barnes (0:00)

Welcome back to All The Smoke. We have two good episodes today. Today, I'm excited about this one.

Stephen Jackson (0:04)

D-Bus.

Matt Barnes (0:05)

Yeah, man, I'm one of the greatest running backs ever to play. To me, made Notre Dame football cool. I mean, Joe Montana was cool, but when Bust got there, it was a little different for me. I was a little younger, so more watching you. But man, six-time pro bowler, Super Bowl champ. Welcome to the show. Oh, Avid Golfer.

Jerome Bettis (0:23)

Avid Golfer, Avid Golfer. Welcome to the show, Jerome Bettis. Thank you. Appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_4 (0:27)

Thank you, sir.

Stephen Jackson (0:28)

Are you team Jordan?

Jerome Bettis (0:30)

No.

Stephen Jackson (0:31)

I always see you with Jordan.

SPEAKER_4 (0:32)

Yeah, I stay with him.

Jerome Bettis (0:34)

He just got money. He got money. Yeah, that's all it is. I stay with my team, please. Well, I was in that era where MJ was the guy.

Matt Barnes (0:45)

Yeah.

Jerome Bettis (0:46)

Period. And then when the first ones came out, it was like a big thing.

So like this is the second time around.

Matt Barnes (0:56)

You already had all this shit right now.

Jerome Bettis (0:57)

I already had them all back in the day. And then they bring them back. And we bomb again. You get a chance to enjoy them a second time. So that's why.

Matt Barnes (1:04)

You got any stories of MJ? You know him at all?

Jerome Bettis (1:06)

I do. I do. I really got a good story. So, and it's talking about, it's pretending to golf. So some years ago, it was a long time ago, Mary LeMue in Pittsburgh used to have a golf tournament, right? And so MJ used to come play the tournament. And so I'm just getting involved and just getting into it. And I'm really excited because I've been working on my game. So I'm going to go play in Mary LeMue. He invited me to play this tournament. So I'm playing in a tournament. Well, you know, they keep score, like official score. If you go out of bounds, you got to drop. And there ain't no ghetto golf? No, no ghetto golf. You're not just going to drop one all-man, it's over there. No, you're playing in the cup. The rules. Right. No gimmies. And so after the round, I have a tough day, right?

All the golf course. I think, so I'm in the dinner and I'm going by, MJ, he say, that's what you shoot.

I said, and I was excited, right? I shot a 102

He said, oh man, you can't play with me.

And I was like, what? So I was hot, right? So I'm like, oh, it's killing me. So I literally, I took that as the fuel, right? So I'll never forget. And at the time, I was still living in LA. So I had a flight from Pittsburgh back to LA. And so on that flight, all I could think about was golf and how can I get better, right? So I got this plan. So I just start working, working, working.

So fast forward a couple of years, I get a call from John Miller from NBC. And he says, hey, we going out to Tahoe, we're going to play with MJ. If you come out a day early or two day too early, come out and play, right? So in the back of my mind, I'm like, yeah, this is okay, this is my opportunity, right? So then we get out there, we all set up, and they say, okay, well, y'all two going to be on teams. And I was like, cool, cool, cool. In the back of my head, I'm like, I wanted to get him, right? But we still, we're teammates. And so we get after it. And after the second day, I mean, we played two days, he shoots like 77, I shoot like 79

And so the next day he shoots 75, I shoot 77, something like that. And I'll never forget after the second day, he was like, he said, man, you playing, man. You can hit your golf ball, right? And it was just from that moment to the acknowledgement that you know what? Your game has gotten real. You can play. And it gets stamped by him too. Right, right.

SPEAKER_4 (4:06)

He's the biggest shit talker.

Jerome Bettis (4:07)

That's what I'm saying. And so to be on his team and we win, and it was a big moment because in terms of golf, you say to yourself, you always want to get better, but when you have someone who you revere, right? And you look at, and you see how good of a player he is at golf and what he puts into it, then to be acknowledged like that, it was a big moment.