When he was 14, Jerome Bettis — known as "The Bus" to National Football League fans — was told he had asthma.

He carried a rescue inhaler around with him and had to use it a few times. During high school, college at Notre Dame and his 13-year NFL career, he "came out of games pretty frequently" because of problems breathing.

But the disease never really got his attention until he was playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1997. It was a hot, humid night in Florida he remembers now, and he thought he'd been hit pretty hard, had the breath knocked out of him. Problem was, lying there on the ground, he couldn't seem to get the breath back into him.

It occurred to him that asthma can kill.

"I was lying on the ground in the middle of an asthma attack and realized I didn't know enough about asthma," he says. "I was not controlling it. I was not dealing with it."

It was a pivotal moment for the running back.

Bettis set out to learn more about asthma and promised himself he'd get a handle on it from the preventive side, rather than relying on "rescue" inhalers as his only treatment. He also promised himself he'd use the "celebrity spotlight" his famed career had brought him to help others educate themselves about asthma as well.

He's one of the best known pro football players of the era, considered one of the "best big backs." On the NFL's all-time rushing list, he's got spot No. 5. During his last game, the 2006 Superbowl against the Seattle Seahawks, the Steelers drove to victory in part on his 43 yards on 14 attempts. His career stats: a rushing tally of 13,662 yards and 91 touchdowns, as well as 200 passes for 1,449 yards and three touchdowns.

When he called it a career, Bettis, 34, moved seamlessly into the studio, where he's a sports analyst for NBC.

As he educated himself about asthma, he would learn that hot humid nights like the one in which he played Jacksonville are among his "triggers" for an asthma attack, along with smoke and cats and perfumes. With that came awareness of the importance of paying attention to his surroundings and not being around his triggers. He figured out that assuming he wheezed a bit as a natural part of having asthma is wrong. Controlling the disease means you needn't wheeze.

He would also learn that an absence of serious attacks was "not the same as having asthma under control," he told the Deseret Morning News. "You can fake control while you don't have symptoms. You need medication daily to be preventive. By the time you get to the rescue inhaler, it's almost too late."