Terry Bradshaw

Terry Paxton Bradshaw is a retired professional football player who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League (NFL).

For 14 seasons, Bradshaw played Quarterback and led the Steelers to eight AFC Central championships. In a six-year period, he won an unparalleled four Super Bowl victories for the Steelers, in 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979.  Bradshaw's on-the-field leadership played a major role in the Steelers' success.

Since Bradshaw's retirement, the #12 hasn't been issued to any Steeler, even though the Pittsburgh Steelers don't formally retire uniform numbers.

In his first year of eligibility in 1989, Bradshaw was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In 1999, Bradshaw was #44 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.

Bradshaw was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the second of three sons of Bill and Novis Bradshaw. Terry's younger brother, Craig Bradshaw, played with the Houston Oilers in 1980. He attended Woodlawn High School and led the Knights to the AAA High School Championship game where they lost to the Sulphur Tors 12-9. While at Woodlawn, he set a national record for throwing the javelin 245 feet. His exploits earned him a spot in the Sports Illustrated feature Faces In The Crowd.

Bradshaw decided to attend Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. He failed the entrance exam to Louisiana State University so he was forced to choose another college. He has much affinity for his alma mater. He was member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Bradshaw was quoted as saying his days at Tech were the best of his life, better than his days with the Steelers where he won four Super Bowls.

In 1969, he was considered by most pro scouts to be the most outstanding college football player. As a junior, he amassed 2,890 total yards, ranking #1 in the NCAA, and led his team to a 9-2 record and a 33-13 win over Akron in the Rice Bowl. In his senior season, he gained 2,314 yards, ranking third in the NCAA, and led his team to an 8-2 record. His decrease in production was mainly because his team played only ten games that year, and he was taken out of several games in the second half because his team had built up a huge lead. As quarterback, Bradshaw threw his passes principally to teammates Larry C. Brewer (1948-2003) of Minden, the offensive end, and Thomas Allen "Tommy" Spinks (1948-2007), the split end who had also been Bradshaw's Woodlawn High School teammate. As a result, Brewer and Spinks were recorded among the top pass receivers in Louisiana Tech history. In 1996, Bradshaw was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

NFL Career

Bradshaw was the first player selected in the 1970 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers; the Steelers drew the first pick in the draft after winning a coin flip tiebreaker with the Chicago Bears due to both teams having equivalent 1-13 records in 1969. (It should be noted though that by modern NFL tiebreaking rules, the Steelers would've automatically been awarded the pick anyways since the Bears one win came against the Steelers in Week 8. The coin toss is now the last of seven tiebreaking options to determining draft position, which has yet to be used on the number one pick.) In either case, Bradshaw was hailed at the time as the consensus number one pick, regardless of which team drafted him.

Bradshaw became a starter one year after he was drafted in 1970. During his first several seasons, the 6'3", 215 lb. quarterback was erratic, threw many interceptions (he threw 210 interceptions over the course of his career) and was widely ridiculed by the media for his rural roots and perceived lack of intelligence.

It took Bradshaw a few seasons to adjust to the pro game but once he did, he eventually became the premier quarterback in the NFL, leading the Pittsburgh Steelers to eight AFC Central championships and an unprecedented collection of Super Bowl rings. The Pittsburgh Steelers featured the "Steel Curtain" defense and a powerful running attack led by Franco Harris, but Bradshaw's strong arm gave them the threat of the deep pass, helping to loosen opposing defenses. In 1972, he threw the pass leading to the "Immaculate Reception", among the most famous plays in NFL history.

Bradshaw temporarily lost the starting job to Joe Gilliam in 1974, but Bradshaw took over again during the regular season and in the 1974 AFC Championship Game against the Oakland Raiders, his fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Lynn Swann proved to be the winning score in a 24-13 victory. In the Steelers' 16-6 Super Bowl IX victory over the Minnesota Vikings that followed, Bradshaw completed 9 of 14 passes and his fourth-quarter touchdown pass put the game out of reach and helped take the Steelers to their first Super Bowl victory.

As he acknowledged in his first autobiography, Man of Steel, by 1974 Bradshaw felt like he was bottoming out. His first marriage to Melissa Babich had failed, his shoulder had been injured, and he was often sullen and depressed. The turnaround came when, according to his memoir, Bradshaw, already a born-again Christian, had a revelation: "I had separated myself from God. I lived only for Terry Bradshaw, not for God. I tried to be one of the boys and went to every honky-tonk I could find and chased women and behaved in a way that was totally alien to anything I had ever known before ... my whole life was out of control ... I was trying to be someone else and was doing a rotten job of it."

What happened to Bradshaw amounted to a second "conversion" experience. "I just put my head in my hands and began to cry and tremble all over and finally I blurted out, 'Here I am, God. I've tried to handle it all by myself and I just can't get the job done. So I'm placing my life in Your hands. I need some peace of mind and I know You can give it to me.'" The quarterback recalls feeling suddenly "stronger mentally and physically.... Being a starting quarterback didn't matter.... What mattered was that I was myself again and I was determined to stay that way."

In Super Bowl X following the 1975 season, Bradshaw threw for 209 yards, most of them to Lynn Swann, as the Steelers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 21-17. His 64-yard touchdown pass to Swann (that travelled roughly 70 yards in the air)-- which was released a split-second before defensive tackle Larry Cole flattened him causing a serious concussion-late in the fourth quarter is considered one of the greatest passes in NFL history.

Neck and wrist injuries in 1976 forced Bradshaw to miss four games. He was sharp in a 40-14 victory over the Baltimore Colts, completing 14-of-18 passes for 264 yards and three touchdowns, but the Steelers' hopes of a three-peat ended with a 24-7 loss to Oakland in the AFC Championship game.

Bradshaw had his finest season in 1978 when he was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player by the Associated Press after a season in which he completed 207 of 368 passes for 2,915 yards and a league-leading 28 touchdown passes. He was also named All-Pro and All-AFC that year.

Before Super Bowl XIII, a Steelers-Cowboys rematch, Cowboys linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson famously ridiculed Bradshaw by saying, "He couldn't spell 'Cat' if you spotted him the 'c' and the 'a'." Bradshaw got his revenge by winning the Most Valuable Player award, completing 17 of 30 passes for a then-record 318 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-31 win. Years later, Henderson, who struggled for years to conquer drug addiction, admitted he was high on cocaine at the time of the interview. Bradshaw has in later years made light of the ridicule with quips such as "it's football, not rocket science."

Bradshaw won his second straight Super Bowl MVP in 1979 in Super Bowl XIV. He passed for 309 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 31-19 win over the Los Angeles Rams. Bradshaw also shared the Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsmen of the Year" award with Willie Stargell that season.

After two seasons of missing the playoffs, Bradshaw played through pain - he needed a cortisone shot before every game because of an elbow injury sustained during training camp - in a strike-shortened 1982 NFL season. He still managed to tie for the most touchdown passes in the league with 17. In a 31-28 playoff loss to the San Diego Chargers, Bradshaw's last postseason game, he completed 28-of-39 passes for 325 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

After undergoing offseason elbow surgery, Bradshaw was idle for the first 14 games of the 1983 NFL season. Then on December 10 against the New York Jets, he felt a pop in his elbow while throwing his final pass, a ten yard touchdown to Calvin Sweeney in the second quarter of the Steelers' 34-7 win. Bradshaw later left the game and never played again. The two touchdowns Bradshaw threw in what would be the final NFL game played at Shea Stadium (and the last NFL game in New York City to date) allowed him to finish his career with two more touchdowns (212) than interceptions (210) for his career.

In his 14-season career, Bradshaw completed 2,025 of 3,901 passes for 27,989 yards and 212 touchdowns. He also rushed 444 times for 2,257 yards and 32 touchdowns. He was 107-51 as the starting quarterback and the Steelers reached the playoffs 10 times. His career postseason record as a starter was 14-5. He was also selected to play in three Pro Bowl games.

While the Steelers no longer officially retire uniform numbers (with the exception of Ernie Stautner's #70), they have not reissued Bradshaw's #12 since he retired, and it is generally understood that no Steeler will wear that number again.

In 1999, he was ranked number 44 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.

Terry Bradshaw #12
Quarterback

Bradshaw has been married three times. He was married to Melissa Babish (former Miss Teen Age America of 1969) from 1972-73; to ice skater JoJo Starbuck from 1976-83; and from 1983-99, to Charlotte Hopkins, who is the mother of his two daughters, Rachel and Erin. His daughter Erin shows horses. His daughter Rachel currently attends college in Nashville, Tennessee and had appeared on Nashville, a reality show about musicians trying to make it in Nashville. All three of Bradshaw's marriages have ended in divorce, a subject he ridicules frequently on his pre-game show. For example, on October 2, 2005, he began a Ten Yards with TB piece on the Eagles' Jeremiah Trotter by discussing Trotter's ejection from a game prior to the kickoff and joking, "Nobody's been thrown out of a house that quickly since my last divorce." Also, on October 5, 2008, he compared the relationship between new Washington Redskins head coach Jim Zorn and starting quarterback Jason Campbell to a good marriage. Jimmy Johnson immediately joked, "What would you know about a good marriage?"

After his NFL career ended, Bradshaw disclosed that he had frequently experienced anxiety attacks after games. The problem worsened in the late 1990s after his third divorce, when he said he "could not bounce back" as he had after the previous divorces or after a bad game. In addition to anxiety attacks, his symptoms included weight loss, frequent crying, and sleeplessness. He was diagnosed with clinical depression. Since then he has taken Paxil regularly. He chose to speak out about his depression to overcome the stigma associated with it and to urge others to seek help.

Bradshaw's anxieties about appearing in public, away from the controlled environment of a television studio, led to an unintentional estrangement from the Steelers. When team founder and owner Art Rooney died in 1988, Bradshaw did not attend his funeral. A year later, during his Hall of Fame induction speech, Bradshaw made a point of saluting his late boss and friend, pointing to the sky and saying, "Art Rooney... boy, I tell you, I loved that man."

Still, Bradshaw never returned to Three Rivers Stadium for a Steelers game. When the last regular-season game was played there on December 16, 2000, Bradshaw was with the FOX NFL Sunday crew, doing their pregame show aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, while FOX covered the game live. Bradshaw expressed regret that he couldn't be there, but would later say privately that he didn't feel he could face the crowds. It wouldn't be until September 2002 when fellow Hall of Fame teammate & longtime friend Mike Webster died that Bradshaw finally returned to Pittsburgh to attend his friend's funeral.

In November 2002, Bradshaw returned to the Steelers sideline for the first time in 20 years for a Monday night game between the Steelers and the Indianapolis Colts. In 2003, when the Steelers played the 1,000th game in franchise history, FOX covered the game at Heinz Field, and Bradshaw returned to cover the game. In addition to appearing to take his position on the Steelers All-Time Team in 2007 as part of the team's 75th anniversary festivities, he also was on the sideline for the 2007 home opener, where the Steelers earned their 500th regular season win.

Bradshaw has said he is interested in performing on Dancing with the Stars, on the condition that Paula Deen also appear.

Broadcasting Career

Bradshaw retired from football in 1983, and quickly signed a television contract with CBS to become an NFL game analyst in 1984, where he and play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist had the top rated programs. Prior to his full-time work for them, he served as a guest commentator for CBS Sports' NFC postseason broadcasts from 1980-82.

Bradshaw was promoted into television studio analyst for The NFL Today in 1990 (which he hosted with Greg Gumbel through the 1993 season), and FOX NFL Sunday, where he normally acts as a comic foil to his co-hosts. On FOX NFL Sunday he hosts two semi-regular features, Ten Yards with TB, where he fires random questions at an NFL pro, and The Terry Awards, an annual comedic award show about the NFL season.

On June 19, 2008, Terry Bradshaw revealed on The Dan Patrick Show that he took therapeutical corticosteroid steroid injections, per his doctors' orders, during the 1970s to "speed healing." Corticosteroids, which are different from anabolic steroids and are used to reduce inflammation, are not banned from the NFL.