The Steelers gave Jerome Bettis a $6 million signing bonus as part of a $30 million six-year deal in March. Now he says that's not enough.
He wants more. Much more. A championship ring and his own lofty individual place in football history, that's all.
Now that he has what he called his final NFL contract, Bettis has two goals: To win a Super Bowl with the Steelers and to climb among the top five rushers in NFL history.
Impossible? Then, you haven't paid attention, Bettis said.
For one thing, he ranks 14th in NFL history with 9,804 yards rushing as he prepares to shatter the 10,000 mark in September. He could reach as high as No. 10 this season.
To reach No. 5, he must catch Tony Dorsett, whom he trails by 2,935 yards.
Bettis believes he has three or four years left in his 250-pound body.
"This past off-season I really looked at it and kind of realized the gravity of what can happen," said Bettis, 29. "I can leave the game as one of the top five or 10 running backs who ever played the game. That's special to me."
Bettis has already surpassed Hall of Famer Earl Campbell on the all-time list in the same number of seasons, eight. To overcome Dorsett and move into the fifth spot, Bettis needs to average only 979 yards rushing the next three seasons. He has only been under 1,000 once in his career. He could move into the No. 4 spot by averaging 1,152 yards over the next three seasons to overcome another Hall of Famer, Eric Dickerson.
Bettis already has established himself as the best big back in NFL history. No one his size has gained as many yards. Now he's striving to become among the best running backs, period.
There's no sense he's anywhere near slowing down, not by his recent deeds, and certainly not after his first two weeks of training camp.
Over the past four years, Eddie George is the only back with more rushing yards than Bettis, 5,506 to 5,282 -- and Bettis was running on a team with one of the poorest passing games in the league, a team that did not make the playoffs the past three seasons.
Under those circumstances, Bettis ranks his 1,341 yards last season as one of his best performances.
"To be as consistent as I was through the injuries and through the lack of offensive help, I felt really, really good about my season. I don't think there was a running back that had as good a season as I had based on the situation."
It was the fourth-best total in Steelers history, but Bettis believes he and the team can do better. That wasn't a salary drive he was on last year and he's out to prove it now.
"My desire is to be one of the best. I've always been the underdog, the underrated this and that. They never considered me one of the better backs. That always inspired me, because I've been as consistent as anybody in the NFL.
"I have a drive inside of me that says the job is not complete. I still have a long way to go. I want to win a championship as bad as the next guy. That's my drive now. My focus is pretty much all set on winning."
The Steelers haven't done much of that the past three years. They were 7-9 and 6-10 before they turned up the nose slightly at 9-7 last season. Las Vegas picks them no better than 8-8, but Bettis has plans of grandeur.
"I think this year we have as good a chance as anybody," he said of winning a Super Bowl. "The teams to beat in our division are obviously Tennessee and Baltimore.
"Look at our makeup last year and this year. Maybe we were a little stronger last year, in some areas, but I think overall we're a stronger team. We were really a poor offense last year. We didn't help our defense at all. Now I think we're gong to really, really do some good things offensively and put some points on the board. That's going to give us an opportunity to be a lot better football team."
Bettis has never gone through a season injury-free, but he also has missed only three games in his eight-year career, none over the past two seasons. He fought through various injuries that might have kept others out last season, injuries to his ribs, his hand, his ankle and his knee. Surgeons cleaned behind his kneecap after the season, and the pain that caused him to take shots before every game last season is gone.
He feels renewed, and it has shown on the practice field at Latrobe. Bettis has been running and bouncing around at St. Vincent College like he's a rookie out of Notre Dame.
"You have to go back three or four years that I felt this good at this stage of training camp," he said. "It's been a lot different, it's been good. At a time when this team needs leadership, I'm just glad to be here. In years past, when we had leadership offensively, I wasn't missed as much. I think now if I wasn't out there, there'd be a significant difference the way our offense performed.
"My body feels good. I've been jumping around, flying around. The guys are asking me what's going on, what are you doing? This part of camp is a drag, but I feel pretty good. The trainers have been taking care of me, making sure my knee doesn't swell up."
For the record, the last time Bettis signed a contract with the Steelers, in 1997, he followed it with the best season of his career -- 1,665 yards. If nothing else, he wants to prove the Steelers made a wise move signing him again.
"You still want to show them why they paid you the money they did, that it was a good decision for them."
Bettis running for ring, ranking 
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