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WATCH: Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis gives passionate speech to Notre Dame football team

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh02/23/22griffin_mcveigh
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Former Notre Dame running back Jerome Betis at the 2018 Cotton Bowl. (Matthew Visinsky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Newly hired head coach Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are just a few weeks away from spring practice. To prepare, the team has been participating in winter workouts to get ready for a vital 2022 season ahead of them.

To motivate the team, legendary running back and Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis was brought back on campus in South Bend to give a speech. He talked about putting in work during the offseason and how winter workouts will determine how many games are won or lost in the fall.

“You got to want it,” Bettis said. “And you got to want the guy next to you to want it. If you don’t, you got to push him because that’s who we are. That’s why it’s called a teammate. Yeah, that’s your teammate. So you want the best for him like you want the best for yourself. So you got to push him and this is when it happens, guys. This is when you come together when nobody is watching. When nobody sees the effort that you’re putting in. When you decide to do it here, that’s when it shows up on the scoreboard.”

You can watch the full speech below:

Bettis spent three seasons in South Bend under head coach Lou Holtz. He rushed for a career 1,912 yards and 27 touchdowns on just 337 carries. A weapon out of the backfield as well, Bettis caught 32 passes for 429 yards and six touchdowns. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish went 29-7-1 while Bettis was in school, winning the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl when he featured as a running back.

Leaving Notre Dame after just three seasons, Bettis was the No. 10 overall pick of the 1993 NFL Draft and was selected by the St. Louis Rams. He won Rookie of the Year before having a falling out with the franchise and joining the Pittsburgh Steelers before the 1996 season.

From there, he won a Super Bowl championship, was named into the Steelers’ Hall of Honor, and won the Walter Peyton Man of the Year Award in 2001.