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Three years ago, the Steelers’ Super Bowl championship was fueled by the Bus, their beloved Jerome Bettis. This time, their inspiration is a guy who almost became a bus driver.

James Harrison is this season’s NFL Defensive Player of the Year, a quarterback-stalking, ball-stripping outside linebacker with a perma-scowl on his face. But four years ago, he was 26 and out of football after being cut once … twice … three times by the Steelers and once by the Ravens.

He accumulated more pink slips than Victoria’s Secret. Harrison was on the verge of calling it a career and switching to his backup plan – driving a city bus in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.

“If I didn’t get in (to the NFL),” he said this week at Super Bowl XLIII, “I was going to get a regular job like everyone else.”

Harrison’s luck changed on July 26, 2004, when he received another call from the Steelers. They needed a body to replace Clark Haggans, who had broken his hand while lifting weights. It was his now-or-never shot, Harrison declared at the time.

Now turned into wow.

This season, Harrison set a team record with 16 sacks, led the NFL with seven forced fumbles and triggered the league’s top-rated defense, a unit that is drawing favorable comparisons to its legendary ancestors – the Steel Curtain.

“He epitomizes what the Steelers organization is all about – a hard, tough-nosed guy,” teammate James Farrior said. “I definitely think he’s the most intimidating player when he’s out there on the field.”

Harrison, 30, plays angry. Heck, he looks angry, rarely letting a smile take over his face. There’s an inner rage, born of rejection, that fuels his motivational furnace.

At high school games in predominantly white communities near Akron, Harrison was victimized by racial slurs. He responded once by grabbing his crotch, and that landed him in a bunch of trouble.

No colleges wanted him, in part, because he was deemed a troublemaker. Recruiters might have been scared away by a BB gun-shooting incident in which two high-school teammates were hit with pellets, so Harrison went to Kent State as a walk-on.

No NFL team drafted him. He was only 6 feet, undersized for an outside linebacker, with a reputation for being surly. So he signed as a free agent with the Steelers in 2002, but they kept sending him away, releasing him three times in a span of 13 months.

Finally, Harrison was sent to the last-chance haven for castoffs, the now-defunct NFL Europe, where he played for the Rhein Fire.

After each setback, his anger grew hotter and hotter.

“He plays with a chip on his shoulder,” Farrior said. “He’s always been told that he’s too small, he can’t run, he can’t rush the passer. All those things combined over the years to build up such a level of discomfort for him, and he makes it uncomfortable for other people because of that.”

According to Farrior, the Steelers’ defensive players were so impressed with Harrison in 2004 that they implored then-coach Bill Cowher not to cut him again. Cowher kept him as a special teamer, and by 2007 – hardly a meteoric rise – he became a full-time starter. He made the Pro Bowl that season, and again in 2008, highlighting his remarkable “Rudy” story.

“If there’s something you tell me I can’t do, then I damn sure want to prove you wrong,” said Harrison, admitting that stubbornness is part of who he is.

He doesn’t forget.

Until this season, Harrison carried his old duffel bag from the Rhein Fire to every Steelers game, reminding him of the lean years. He kept the bag until it fell apart.

“The difference is maturity,” said Harrison, explaining why he finally succeeded after so much failure. “I handle situations a lot different now than I did when I got here in my rookie year. The way I took coaching, the way I talked to coaches … it’s all different. I had to change all that because, basically, it was the last hurrah.”

Not everything has changed. Harrison underwent anger-management counseling last spring after being accused of assault by his girlfriend, the mother of his daughter. The charges were dropped.

On Sunday, Harrison will be after one of the most famous walk-ons in league history, Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, who worked in a supermarket before receiving his big break. Some story line: The former grocery clerk versus the almost-bus driver.

It will be a huge challenge for the Cards’ offensive line, which also has to deal with fellow outside rusher LaMarr Woodley (four postseason sacks). If the Steelers can pressure Warner with a four-man rush, not having to blitz, it could turn into a long day for the Cards.

“They’re both good rushers. That’s always been Pittsburgh football, even back in the days when I was growing up,” said Cards line coach Russ Grimm, who previously held the same position with the Steelers. “It was (Jack) Lambert and Jack Ham. Then you move on to (Greg) Lloyd and (Kevin) Greene, to (Joey) Porter and Clark, Now it’s on to Harrison and Woodley.”

None of those players traveled Harrison’s route to the Super Bowl, which sure beats the route of a bus driver.