PITTSBURGH -- Jerome Bettis might have delayed retirement for one more season if his goal-line fumble near the end of the Steelers-Colts playoff game Sunday had been his final carry of the season.
"Yeah, who knows?" Bettis said Wednesday. "It would have been hard to walk away from a last carry like that."
The Steelers appeared to wrap up their 21-18 upset of the top-seeded Colts by sacking Peyton Manning at the Colts' 2-yard line with 1:20 remaining. Needing only to run out the clock, they handed off to Bettis, who hadn't fumbled on his previous 136 carries.
But as Bettis plowed into the line, the Colts' Gary Brackett slammed his helmet into the ball and caused it to fly into the air. The Colts' Nick Harper scooped it up and took off running and momentarily looked like he might score until quarterback Ben Roethlisberger tripped him up with an ankle tackle.
The Colts, who would have taken the lead if Harper scored, settled for a potential game-tying 46-yard Mike Vanderjagt field-goal attempt that sailed wide right by about 20 yards.
Bettis looked on nervously from the sideline during that failed Colts drive, no doubt fearing his first fumble of the season had ended not only his career but also the Steelers' season.
"It was a devastating feeling," Bettis said Monday in an interview with radio station WDFN in his hometown of Detroit. "I was helpless on the sidelines. I was hoping our defense would stop that Peyton Manning offense.
"It was a terrible feeling, because I had never been in game like that and made a mistake of magnitude like that," he said.
Asked his reaction when the Colts didn't score, Bettis said, "I was so thankful."
Bettis no longer wants to talk about one of the few fumbles of his career, saying, "We've moved on and I've moved on to Denver."
But that hug Bettis and coach Bill Cowher shared at the end of the game no doubt resulted as much from relief as joy.
"It would have been hard to end my career on a play like that, live with that the rest of my life," he said. "It probably was a situation where I definitely would have had to come back."
Bettis, the fifth-leading rusher in NFL history, has all but said this will be his final season. He came back this season not only because he wanted to end his career by playing in a Super Bowl in Detroit but also to atone for last season's 41-27 loss to New England in the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh.
"I've been on the losing side of quite a few of these," Bettis said of the Steelers' three AFC title game losses since January 1998. "That's what's driving me more than anything, not that the Super Bowl is in Detroit. It's an opportunity for us to do something we haven't done. We've been in this situation before and we lost."
Bettis said he won't be any more motivated than usual Sunday in Denver, even though every game has the possibility of being his last.
"It's emotional, not because it might be my last game, but because it's the AFC Championship Game," the 33-year-old Bettis said. "I'm not worried about my career or anything else, that will work itself out. My main concern is the Denver Broncos."