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Thursday, November 29, 2001

By Chuck Finder, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

This column's history with Terry Bradshaw is a painful one. The last time we got together, in July 2000, this unbalanced reporter fell off a speeding golf cart. Took two months and a couple of tubes of Neosporin to recuperate from that interview. The crushed cell phone never recovered.

So here he was yesterday, Bradshaw back in tahn. After years where he hardly passed this way again -- visiting by his count seven times in a decade and a half -- the guy is becoming a regular. Yesterday marked his second Pittsburgh trip in four months.

He sat down in an office at the Steelers' Southside complex, a fairly safe setting for me. An ESPN rodeo show was on the television above his head. "You got ropin' on? Talk about making me feel at home," he drawled. A Steelers pocket schedule was in his hands. "Got the Jets here [week after this]? That'll be huge. Then at Baltimore. The next three games will be huge."

Bradshaw spent roughly three hours on the Southside yesterday on assignment for Fox, which will broadcast this Minnesota-Steelers fray Sunday from Heinz Field. The old Steelers quarterback went from Dallas to Pittsburgh to New York in a single afternoon, interviewing another Louisiana-bred Steelers quarterback -- Kordell Stewart -- in between. Then, he prepared to jet to Los Angeles for Sunday's pregame show. But first, we exchanged light banter.

Have you had a chance to meet with Dan Rooney yet?

"I sat down with him when I was on my book tour here in August. We had lunch together and yakked, and he took me around the practice facility."

Who picked up that lunch tab?

"It was right here." (Smiling and pointing a floor below to the complex's cafeteria.)

For Bradshaw, the Rooneys haven't changed.

That was the same weekend as the Hall of Fame induction you missed. Do you have any regrets? Have you talked to Lynn Swann, who spoke that week about you purposefully not throwing to him?

(Shrugging.) "Whatever. Isn't that what the kids say today? 'Whaaateeever.' "

How is the book, "It's Only A Game?"

"The book is doing well. It got to No. 13 on the New York Times best-seller list ..."

Are you turning into Stephen King, writing one a year now?

"I just finished one, like, two weeks ago."

What's this one about?

"It's a trilogy. I try to combine the psyche of an owner along with the emotional phase ... The impact intellectually upon ..." (Laughing uproariously now.)

So it's a comic book, right?

"This book, it has a lot more heart to it. Still has a lot of good stories. But it has more heart, lots more personal stuff."

Something a Steelers fan would want to read.

"Oh, yeah, they'll like it. ... When I was here for the book signings, the response was awesome. Makes you feel good. Real good. Pittsburgh fans, they're so much like the people I was raised around. It's a huge city, but they've got a real solid family foundation here. They appreciate hard-working people. They appreciate a good effort."

What do you think of these Steelers? Get a chance to watch them much?

"Not very often. I catch them on highlights. So this week I get to watch them. But they've been playing well. I hope I'm not like the cover of Sports Illustrated -- hope I'm not a jinx.

"When Kordell Stewart does well, you can see it. The offense suits him. The coaches suit him. The offensive line is playing incredible. The defense is stopping people, creating turnovers. And they just keep going out and finding defensive players. I don't know any of them.

"Plaxico Burress is starting to play a little bit better. I wish my homeboy, Troy Edwards [from the same Louisiana Tech] ... I don't know what his story is. I got to pull him aside and have a chat with him.

"When everybody does their job, and now [Kordell's] doing his, life is good."

What did you think of Heinz Field driving by?

"Can you imagine coming over the bridge on Sunday, the first six weeks of the season? That place is full. You're just sitting right there with your radio and listening to Myron Cope. And have you an Iron City Beer. Don't need to go in the stadium. You can just sit there and hear it. See all the people. It really gives it a real football feeling, you know? Oh, God, I wish I could go down there.

"I'll get down there."

Just then, who ambled into the office but Rooney. They shuffled off to his office for a spell. Then came the Stewart interview. And, like that, a blur of baldness and drawl and cackle, Bradshaw was gone as quickly as he arrived.

Without any Big bloodletting this time.

Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com.