Terry Bradshaw either waited 19 years for this or avoided it for 19 years, but he broke out singing a gospel tune when he talked about "coming home" as Pittsburgh's Prodigal Son tomorrow night.
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Terry Bradshaw: "It's great to be home." (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette) |
"Hey, I'm back. It's great to be home," Bradshaw said from his residence in Dallas. "We've been through a lot, me and the fans. They've loved me, they've hated me, and I've driven them crazy. Through it all -- what's that old song? -- I've learned."
Bradshaw will step on a football field here for the first time since he retired after the 1983 season when he serves as the Steelers' honorary co-captain for the game tomorrow night against the Indianapolis Colts at Heinz Field. He will do so, he said, a much more mature man than the one who left Pittsburgh 19 years ago bitter over some things he now says were big mistakes on his part.
"I am so excited about coming back," said Bradshaw, a Hall of Fame quarterback, one of only two with four Super Bowl rings. "I'm so excited to go out on that field. It's the highlight of my post-playing career. It's a chance for me to get back and talk to the fans and tell them how much I appreciated them helping me to grow up -- what little I have grown up -- and how much I love them.
"It's good to be home. When I say it's good to be home, that's pretty powerful. It makes everything good."
Bradshaw has spent time making things good recently.
He was widely criticized for skipping the funeral of Art Rooney Sr. in 1988, a mistake he called huge. But he returned for Mike Webster's funeral last month, gave a eulogy and hugged Marianne and Chuck Noll. He had criticized his coach through the years, but Bradshaw says he now appreciates Noll for what he did for him.
"For all I tried to make out a bad situation for Chuck, it wasn't a bad situation," Bradshaw said. "He did the best he could do to test me to see if I was a guy who could get it done. I learned something from football most quarterbacks don't -- I know more about defenses than I did about offenses. He made us study defenses so much. He was a great teacher.
"Maybe he didn't quite understand me. I do know this: I was babied, not in high school but certainly in college, and I responded to a hug a lot more than I did a stern voice, and I say to myself had Chuck handled me a little easier, it would have been easier on me. But that's a maturity thing. I was child-like. I learned how to play and how to play right, with our running game and studying defenses the way Chuck did it. It was just an immature, knee-jerk reaction on my part."
Bradshaw said it hurt him when he came here as the No. 1 draft choice in 1970 from small-school Louisiana Tech and people called him stupid. He said he had an inability to focus or study -- for which he now takes medication -- and Noll picked up on it quickly.
"I think Chuck had me figured out. He says I have a childlike attitude. I can't study. It's hard for me to focus. He knew it long before I did. I'm sure that's why our offense was as simple as it was. I just had this God-given talent.
"If I had been mature and exposed to the media and TV, I wouldn't have reacted the way I did. I wouldn't have gotten down on myself. We didn't have the talent when I first came there, that's why I was a No. 1 draft choice.
"But Chuck and I are fine. Absolutely fine. He is a far bigger person than I was in all of this. And he probably would say, 'All of what?' "
Bradshaw retired after he threw two touchdown passes in the last NFL game played in Shea Stadium in New York. It was the only game he played in 1983 because of an elbow injury that ended his career. He started that day because the Steelers had lost three in a row and needed a victory to make the playoffs. He came off the field clutching his ailing elbow after his second touchdown pass, to Calvin Sweeney, never to return. The Steelers beat the Jets, 34-7, but lost their first playoff game to the Raiders, 38-10.
Bradshaw had surgery on his elbow, but it did not return to form and he retired before the 1984 season.
"I knew I couldn't play anymore," Bradshaw said. "I was finished. Maybe underneath all that was the hidden disappointment that I couldn't finish the way I wanted."
For some reason, he felt unappreciated, cast off by the organization and by Noll, and he became bitter. He felt he wasn't given enough credit as a quarterback of those great teams, that people felt what made him a Hall of Fame quarterback was having players such as John Stallworth, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris and a great defense.
"I'm very much ashamed of that now," Bradshaw said. "I'm 54 years old now, who cares who or how we did it? We won four Super Bowls! ... It just shows how immature I was. I'm not proud to say that.
"I'm not an athlete to say I'm the greatest. I had some stuff going on. I wanted to be talked about in the same terms as John Elway and Joe Montana. I wanted to be appreciated and I wanted, instead of people saying if it weren't for Swann and Stall and Franco -- I wanted people to recognize the fact that I was good. That's just selfish, ego talking; a bitter, angry guy who wanted desperately to be appreciated. It all stems from the fact people said I was stupid. It just ticked me off.
"But after awhile, man, let it go. Who cares? We were pretty dog-gone good."
His early bitterness is why he did not return for Rooney's funeral in 1988.
"The thought of coming to Pittsburgh for Art's funeral, it sent cold chills down my back then, the thought I had to go face those people. I was bitter, mad that I left and felt unappreciated.
"I hate the fact I did that. I can't believe I did it, but I did. It was so typical me. I say this is part of me I can't stand. It was a big mistake, huge. It was so selfish of me, so immature.
"But now I'm coming home, and it's all good."
He tried to right the wrongs by writing about them in his book last year, "Keep It Simple". It reached No. 13 on the New York Times' best-seller list before Sept. 11, when sales dropped off sharply. He has another book out now, "It's Only a Game," which opened at No. 21 on the Times' list.
Bradshaw will autograph his latest book at Heinz Field tonight. He's been here many times since his retirement, attending card shows, making inspirational talks, doing things for the Steelers, interviewing players for Fox as he did last year with Kordell Stewart.
But he has never returned to be honored as he will tomorrow night. He will participate in the pre-game coin toss and be feted in a ceremony at halftime. His teenage daughters, Rachel, 15, and Erin, 13, will come here with him for their first visit to the city.
"I wanted them to go and see Pittsburgh, show them the city," said Bradshaw. "Of course, the stadium where I played is gone."
He also wanted a little help from his girls because he has some anxiety about his return. The last time he played in a football game here, he threw an interception that cost the Steelers a playoff game against San Diego on Jan, 9, 1983.
"I wanted them to be a buffer for me," Bradshaw said of his girls, laughing. "If I get introduced at halftime, they won't boo the kids. I'm a little concerned. It would be the most horrific thing to happen to me. I don't know why I'm like that. I know it's been so many years now. But the last time I left the stadium, I was booed out of the stadium after I threw that interception."
This is a chance, not to remember Bradshaw's last interception, but for fans and the Steelers finally to thank the quarterback for all the great times, and Bradshaw gushed when he thought about it.
"In 14 years, I never was captain and I get to be a captain for a night, and my kids get to see what it's like in Pittsburgh when their daddy comes home. And for them, I have cameras and pictures for my buddies who are going to be with us.
"If God takes me home, how good does it get? It doesn't get better than that."
Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.
Bradshaw: 'It's great to be home' 
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