DENVER (AP) – Jerome Bettis doesn’t ask much of his Steelers teammates. Normally, it’s the other way around – they seek his advice, guidance and, when they first arrive in Pittsburgh, his respect.

But each game could be the last now for the NFL’s fifth-leading career rusher, so this time the senior Steeler asked for a favor during an impassioned pep talk after they arrived in Denver on Saturday night for the AFC championship game.

“Just get me to Detroit,” said Bettis, who came back this season mostly for the chance to end his career by playing in the Super Bowl in his hometown. “Just get me to Detroit.”

The Steelers did exactly that Sunday, shaking off a dozen years’ worth of bad karma, bad luck and badly played AFC championship games to advance to only their second Super Bowl in 26 years.

And what a Bus ride it’s been after the Steelers lost four AFC title games at home since January 1995, an unequaled stretch of futility. Exiled to the playoff road by a three-game midseason losing streak that sent the AFC Central title to Cincinnati, the Steelers are the first team to beat the No. 1-, 2- and 3-seeded teams in consecutive weeks to reach a Super Bowl.

The Steelers’ sixth AFC championship, gained by Sunday’s 34-17 win in Denver following road wins at Cincinnati and Indianapolis, was the first they’ve won away from home since they upset Oakland in January 1975 – starting them on a run of four Super Bowls in six years.

What this title does is set up Bettis for the best possible end to the career of one of the biggest running backs in NFL history, and one of the best.

Bettis’ pre-game plea was reminiscent of that another by an aging Pittsburgh superstar whose career was winding down but, in his mind, remained unfulfilled. In 1971, with the Pirates driving for their first NL pennant in 11 years, 37-year-old Roberto Clemente promised his teammates, “Just get me to the World Series and I’ll win it for you.”

The Pirates kept up their end and so did Clemente, putting on a one-man show rarely rivaled in baseball’s showcase event in leading them to a seven-game upset of the Baltimore Orioles.

Just as Clemente then, Bettis isn’t the best player on this team or even close. Each was bypassed by a Willie – Willie Stargell got the 71 Pirates into the World Series by hitting 48 homers; Willie Parker bypassed the Bus this season by rushing for more than 1,200 yards.

But it is Bettis’ stature, not his role, that matters in a town that embraces its sports stars like few cities do, treating them as friends or like family members. Go to a Steelers home game, and it seems as if half are wearing a No. 36 Bettis jersey.

Like Bettis himself, these fans were wearying of AFC title game loss after AFC title game loss, but never gave up hope. And just when it seemed their Steelers were in a hopeless situation, with not a single home playoff game, the Bus and the Steelers delivered.

Here’s what Pittsburghers think of Bettis: Hundreds of fans lined up on a weekday morning last week at Heinz Field, not to buy playoff tickets, but for the chance to attend the taping of Bettis’ weekly TV show – seven hours later.

Here’s what his teammates think of Bettis: Hines Ward broke down in tears after last year’s AFC title game loss to New England, saying the Steelers had let Bettis down and he couldn’t bear to think he would retire without going to a Super Bowl.

Go back to last weekend, and the feeling was the same. Bettis’ fumble at the Colts’ 2-yard line in the final two minutes gave Indianapolis the chance to stage an impossible comeback, and the disbelieving look on Bettis’ face said: “I can’t possibly end my career this way. This can’t happen.”

He won’t, and it didn’t. Because the Steelers did on the road what they couldn’t do in Pittsburgh, Jerome Bettis is going home. To the Super Bowl. Finally.

“We’re going home,” he said on the sideline Sunday as the clock wound down, before he hugged team chairman Dan Rooney. “We’re going home.”

AP-ES-01-22-06 1820EST