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Regarding the disclosure by former Steelers running back Jerome Bettis that he faked a knee injury in order to avoid getting cut, an industry source had made an interesting point.

Specifically, Bettis says in a coming book that, during training camp in the 2000 season, he concealed a lingering left knee injury until he could pretend that he hurt it in practice, because he feared that the team was planning to cut him. This put the team potentially on the hook for his full salary that year.

"Man, did I do a nice job of acting,'' Bettis writes in a new book. "The thing is, I wasn't faking that I had an injury. was just faking that the injury happened on that short-yardage play. I had to fool the coaches and the team's medical department into thinking the injury had occurred on that play. Otherwise, the Steelers would have had their reason to cut me and my salary."

But, as the source points out, if Bettis had a pre-existing knee injury, how in the hell did he pass a preseason physical?

The only possible explanations are that Bettis is lying about being a liar in order to sell books, or that the team physicians flat-out missed the injury when they cleared him fit to practice and play.

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