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Notre Dame

What Jerome Bettis said about his son playing football at Notre Dame

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•07/04/25•

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Notre Dame wide receiver Jerome Bettis Jr. (Photo by Mike Miller)

It’s been over three decades since Jerome Bettis played at Notre Dame, but his son is finally of age to take the torch and run with it — right on through the same historic tunnel and onto the same famed field in South Bend that his father called home in the early 1990s.

When Jerome Bettis Jr. comes out for his first home game as a Notre Dame football player in the second weekend of September, the elder Jerome Bettis won’t take one second of it for granted.

“It’s pretty cool, I will say that,” Bettis told Zach Gelb of “The Zach Gelb Show,” “because, obviously, my history there and really wanting him to experience that on two different levels. One, from an academic standpoint. But also, athletically, I want him to go out and be the best player he can possibly be and let the chips fall where they may.

“As a dad, I’m excited to see him come out of the tunnel with that helmet on so that he’ll know what it feels like because in the back of my head I’m thinking, ‘Man. This is a great moment.'”

Not all fun and games, however. Bettis, a Super Bowl champion and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, has very much switched over to dad mode when it comes to his consumption of the game he grew up on, the one he properly propped himself up with to set he and his family up for life. He’s watching his son try to do the same now, and, knowing everything it takes to get to the top, that isn’t easy.

Not in the slightest.

“When I played, I thought I was invincible, right? No problem,” Bettis said. “But watching your son play, every time he gets tackled, it’s, ‘Get up. Get up. All right. No problem.’ You see him limping, ‘Ah, what’s wrong? Is it his ankle?’ You go through so many emotions every single play. That’s to my detriment because, having played, I’m so in-tune to it. I’m looking at the smallest things and trying to get a read off of that. Maybe, as a dad, I need to take a step back. But it’s just so hard.”

Bettis Jr. doesn’t figure to immediately factor into the Notre Dame offense as a true freshman wide receiver. The Fighting Irish took in two veteran wideouts from the transfer portal, Malachi Fields from Virginia and Will Pauling from Wisconsin. The Irish also return key contributors at the position, most notably Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison.

The idea is, after Bettis’ second season in South Bend we’ll be saying the same thing about him we’re saying now about Greathouse and Faison — that he’s an important, productive piece coming back for the Notre Dame offense. A lot to be done between now and then, but the wheels of the baby bus are most definitely in motion.

“To be able to watch him do it, it’s going to be so fun,” Bettis said.

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