Jerome Bettis always has been a big man and a big dreamer. You seldom get close to 10,000 yards rushing in the NFL any other way.

Here are the top 15 rushers in NFL history 1 Walter Payton 16,726 2 Emmitt Smith15,349 3 Barry Sanders15,269 4 Eric Dickerson13,259 5 Tony Dorsett12,739 6 Jim Brown12,312 7 Marcus Allen12,243 8 Franco Harris12,120 9 Thurman Thomas12,074 10 John Riggins11,352 11 O.J. Simpson11,236 12 Ricky Watters10,516 13 Ottis Anderson10,273 14 Jerome Bettis 9,946 15 Earl Campbell 9,407

When he was a kid playing football on the streets of Detroit, Bettis wanted to be Tony Dorsett. ‘But I didn’t have the speed,’ Bettis said. ‘I had to look to a different guy.’ He had to settle for Walter Payton. ‘He was so physical, so I said, ‘I can do that,’ ‘ Bettis said. Can he ever. Today, in the real world, Bettis, a 5-foot-11, 255-pound ram who never made it as a Ram, hopes to takes his place among Payton, Dorsett and every great running back ever to play the game. He enters the Steelers’ game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals only 54 yards short of the 10,000 mark. ‘Hopefully, we can get the yards that we need,’ he said. ‘That’s a tough Cincinnati team, though.’ In the long history of the NFL, dating to 1920, only 13 runners have reached that milestone. If Bettis gets there today, he will join only two who are active, the Dallas Cowboys’ Emmitt Smith and the Seattle Seahawks’ Ricky Watters, his former Notre Dame teammate. To Bettis, the number means less than the means to get there. ‘It’s something I don’t even worry about right now,’ he said. ‘It just means you are doing something right. It means you’re durable, you’re dependable, you’re reliable in terms of when the coach gives you the football, you get it done.’ If the Steelers can’t count on Bettis these days, who can they count on• While Bettis rolls, with 142 yards in two games, the team’s passing game continues to sputter, with only 261.

In five previous seasons in Pittsburgh, Bettis never has gained less than 1,091 yards, including a career-high 1,665 in 1997, the second-best season by a running back in team history (behind only Barry Foster in 1992). Meanwhile, the Steelers have ranked 27th, 23rd, 29th, 26th and 29th throwing the ball. Asked about the possibility of the Steelers leaning heavily on the running game Sunday and beyond, Bettis just smiled. ‘When hasn’t that happened• Is that new?’ he said. ‘That’s been the case ever since I stepped into the league, so I’m used to it.’ After three seasons with a Rams team that traded him after three seasons, Bettis has accepted handoffs from Steelers quarterbacks 1,699 times – only Franco Harris has more attempts in team history – and Bettis has responded with an average of slightly more than 4 yards per carry. The Steelers need him. And Bettis likes being needed. ‘I enjoy that part of the 10,000 yards more than the 10,000 yards itself,’ he said. It’s been a grueling, demanding existence for Bettis with the Steelers, getting yards in consistent, but painful, 3-, 4- and 5-yard chunks. His longest run with the Steelers is a 50-yard touchdown against the Rams in 1996. He’s a big target for defenders and he is not blessed with breakaway speed, so his body is marked with bruises and welts. Still, he has missed three games in 10 seasons, an amazing streak of durability for a player who endures a weekly pounding. ‘I had to learn to be a running back,’ said Bettis, who was a fullback at Notre Dame. ‘Most of the other guys were physically gifted and were able to make people miss. I had to run over people. ‘When you look at me and you look at the numbers, you don’t see a lot of 80-yard runs. All you see is a guy who came to play and did it the hard way, but he got it done.’ The Steelers’ passing game scares no one, so Bettis needs his offensive line as much as any back in the league. He is often running against defenses that stack seven and eight men near the line of scrimmage, and he said he expects it to be that way until he retires. But he doesn’t believe that it will slow him down. He needs only a slim crack in the defense, and he is tough to tackle. ‘The way that I run, if you don’t hit me 4 yards down the field, I’m going to get at least another 3 or 4 before you can bring me down,’ he said. That’s how he was able to average more than 5 yards against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. ‘Our offensive line really dominated those guys,’ Bettis said. ‘It really made a big difference because I wasn’t getting hit until 3 or 4 yards down the field.’ How long can he endure• His $30 million contract calls for five more seasons after this one, but he is a realist. ‘I still have two, three years left, four maybe,’ said Bettis, who is 29 and in his ninth season. With some luck and good health, Bettis has a chance to retire as the fourth- or fifth-most productive running back in NFL history, finally catching up to Dorsett, who is fifth with 12,379 yards. Eric Dickerson is fourth with 13,259. ‘I’m not concerned about what the actual numbers are,’ Bettis said. ‘My body is in great shape. That’s why I feel really good about what I’m doing and how this year is going to be.’

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