Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Steeler Jerome Bettis tells ESPN that he's going home to Detroit for the Super Bowl during a locker room interview after the Steelers win at Invesco Field at Mile High yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

This magic Bus ride makes its apparent last stop in his Detroit hometown, the passengers being a coach who shed his recent AFC Championship Game blight, a young quarterback who returns close to his Ohio home thanks to a playoff passing flourish, and a franchise vying for its first Super Bowl victory since the 1979 season.

Yes, Pittsburgh is going to the Super Bowl for the first time in a decade, after the Steelers defeated the Denver Broncos, 34-17 yesterday in a convincing conference final at Invesco Field. It's only fitting that the Steelers did it on the road, with the Bus in mind.

"I can't imagine anything better," Bettis said of his homecoming, when the Steelers (14-5) will prepare in his hometown to confront Seattle (16-2 ) -- which defeated Carolina (13-6), 34-14, in the NFC Championship Game -- in Super Bowl XL on Feb. 5 at Detroit's Ford Field.

"We did something historic ... ," Bettis said of the victories by the sixth-seeded Steelers over No. 1 seed Indianapolis, No. 2 seed Denver and No. 3 seed Cincinnati.

The only other NFL team to win three consecutive playoff games on the road was the 1986 New England Patriots, but they never had to endure such a mountainous climb. The Steelers became the first to topple the top three seeds since the league went to six playoff entrants in 1990, and they did it with a final rush of five victories away from Heinz Field amid their seven-game winning streak.

Bettis, the No. 5 all-time rusher who gave a stirring Saturday-night speech to the team along with veteran defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen, has been inviting his teammates to enjoy his hometown on him, if they would help get him there.

"He said all the meals will be on him when we get there," said linebacker Larry Foote, a fellow Detroit native. "After the game, he was so happy, he just said 'Yes, yes' to everything, and he didn't realize what everybody was asking."

Gladys Bettis, his mother, isn't so sure about that. She had the entire team over for Thanksgiving dinner when the Steelers played in Detroit on that holiday in 1998. One is enough for the Bettis household, she said, dropping her head in disbelief at the mere mention of the upcoming Steelers invasion in her home.

"Oh, we got to do this one more time," she said while standing and waving her Terrible Towel on the loud exit ramp at Invesco Field. A few feet in front of her, her son was receiving an Elvis-like welcome when he walked up to meet the friends, family and Steelers fans numbering roughly 1,500. "It took the whole family that Thanksgiving. We took all the furniture out and put up tables and chairs."

The cheering Steelers throng, part of perhaps 8,000 black-and-gold fans who made their way to the Mile High City, then broke into chants of "Miss-us Bett-is."

"It's fantastic; I love it," added the mother, who couldn't watch the week before in Indianapolis when her son fumbled at the 1-yard line in the final, frantic seconds. This time, Gladys Bettis added, she didn't pray, but she did cry with about five minutes remaining.

It was about then that the Steelers sealed their triumph.

After the defense halted one final effort by Denver (14-4) on four downs at its own 20-yard line, Bettis ran four consecutive times for 13 yards on a day when he topped all rushers with 39 yards on 15 carries, including a 3-yard touchdown before halftime. Yet, appropriately for the young quarterback's performance these playoffs, Ben Roethlisberger finished off the drive by scoring on a 4-yard bootleg with 2:59 left.

It was Roethlisberger's third score of the day, having already thrown touchdown passes of 12 yards to Cedrick Wilson and 17 to Hines Ward. And he heads to Detroit, scarcely 100 miles north of his home in Findlay, Ohio, having passed for seven touchdowns in the three playoff road victories. Throw in his 21 completions in 29 attempts -- he started out an impressive 10-for-12 passing on critical third down alone -- plus his 275 yards yesterday, and the second-year pro has combined to go 49 of 72 for a completion percentage of a whopping 68 and 680 yards. Yet, in the end, Roethlisberger threw it back to Bettis, saying that was a "driving force all year" for the team.

"I'm glad I didn't have to cry and apologize to him that I didn't get him there," Roethlisberger said.

As for coach Bill Cowher and the perception of him being unable to win the "big one," well, there will remain doubters and detractors. After all, he coached the Steelers to Super Bowl XXX in Tempe, Ariz., where they lost by 27-17 to the Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 28, 1996. But that perception took a hit from three successive losses in AFC Championship Games on home turf, the Steelers losing to Denver at Three Rivers Stadium after the 1997 season, and New England at Heinz Field after the 2001 season and the 16-1 season a year ago.

"I think Coach Cowher did a great job getting us locked in, focused, and not worrying about being on the road," guard Alan Faneca said. "Pitting us against everybody."

"I don't want other people to be stuck to me," Cowher said afterward of that conference-final stigma. "You can say anything you want about me and the failures I have had. That's fine. ... We need to go and win one more game. No one ever remembers who lost the Super Bowl."

For now, after a 10-year hiatus, they got to pass around the Lamar Hunt Trophy in the locker room and wear AFC-champion black caps.

Oddly, they weren't quite sure how to act.

"Man, I don't know what to do," said linebacker Larry Foote, who uttered "Whoa, baby" at the trophy, then posed for a photo with the bauble before passing it to James Farrior, who replied, "Oh, that's heavy." Foote added, "I don't know whether I'm going to jump, scream, dance, break dance, go up the wall. .... I'm still not used to it."

"I feel happy at least one time in my life I get to go to the Super Bowl," added former Detroit offensive lineman Jeff Hartings, a nine-year veteran. "The low is a lot lower than the high is right now."

"Getting there was good," continued Steelers owner Dan Rooney, speaking in a jubilant locker room "But we're going there to win. It's just another step."

Or, in this case, Bus stop.