October 21, 2020 • 38 mins
Weird. The best way to describe the journey of the 1983 Pittsburgh Steelers, who played without their Hall of Fame Quarterback until he got healthy just in time for one last game, and one last moment of glory. Terry Bradshaw's elbow betrayed him the final few years of his career, but he had one last shining moment before hanging up his cleats. How did the Steelers navigate the daily drama while they waited for him to heal? How did they keep winning games without him - until he had to save their season? How abrupt was it that his final game was cut shockingly short? And what the hell did the Jets fans do to the field following the game that lives in infamy? It's the 1983 Pittsburgh Steelers - Terry Bradshaw's Last Game.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of my Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Mike Harbon, a podcast where we look back at special
(00:21):
teams and specific years in sports and what made them
so incredibly memorable. Our nineteen eighties run continued, and there's
so many fun things in the eighties to look back at,
especially being able to see some stuff in the video
that's available for you to see online that can kind
of supplement the podcast. We tell you about it here,
and today we're gonna look back at the nineteen eight
(00:44):
three Steelers. This is not a Steelers team that wanted
Super Bowl. That's not a Steelers team that was the
greatest in the league. But it was a Steelers team
that had to turn the page. Because it was during
this year Terry Bradshaw played his final game in the
National Football League, and his final game, even though it
was on the road, fans went crazy and toward the
(01:07):
goalpost down and took seats out of the stadium with them.
We'll get to that part coming up later on in
the podcast, but really Bradshaw's last game, because Bradshaw's become
look the industry, He's become the past few years being
the broadcast he is now he's got his own reality
show that's out now. Is everybody remembers they know Terry
Bradshaw the broadcaster, and they've seen the highlights of his
(01:29):
of his Super Bowls because they're all so famous, beating
the Cowboys winning the way they did, beating the Rams.
But his final game and what surrounded Bradshaw's final year
in the NFL was just really weird. You know. It
was one of those cases where you didn't know it
was the end when it happened, but it turned out
to be the end, kind of like Joe Montana's last
game in San Francisco. You didn't expect it to be
(01:51):
the end, but then it turned out to me, Oh,
that's that's the He played against the Lions, and the
next last week and this last week of the season,
that was it. He didn't play for the Niners anymore.
That's kind of what it was for Terry Bradshaw and
and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, yeah, I mean, I'll take
it one for further. It's stay in San Francisco. I
was at Jerry Rice's final game as a forty Niner,
(02:14):
right none not that you were sure he was retiring,
but it just didn't make sense, right. But you had
the young up and comer tarall Owens. He caught passes
that day. It was a game against the Bears. How
pissed do you think that that Jerry Rice is that
he caught twenty passes in that game? Well, that's just it, right.
The teammates are trying to carry Jerry Rice around, but
(02:36):
everybody else like blues in their minds. Dude, dude caught
twenty balls like he was playing pitch and catch all
day long. And by the way, that was a cade
McNown game that the Bears didn't get the ball past
the fifty. Uh, that's a podcast for another time. Just
my psychological state watching that game unfold in front of me.
But you know, Rice ends up going up to the
(02:58):
Raiders and then eventually, uh there are there's proof that
he was in camp with both the Broncos and Seahawks
before hanging out as well. But yeah, it's it's just
that weird thing where you're not quite sure how it's
gonna end. You know it's close, but you're hanging on. Hell.
You can bring that to any metaphor in life. Right, relationships, jobs,
(03:20):
everything else, like it's gonna end right, But how and
for Terry Bradshaw, you know, it was just one of
these odd years that just didn't come together. Uh, and
then you're you're finally able to at least make a
get a cup of coffee to close out the year. Yeah,
this was the end of the Steelers run of dominance.
(03:41):
The players that had won Super Bowls and had we're
going to the Hall of Fame. We're slowly retiring and
leaving the team. But still without Terry Bradshaw for just
about the entire season, the Steelers were still able to
go ten and six and win the a f C
Central You know what that? Does it sound familiar at all? Yes, say,
(04:01):
somehow found a way to Duck Hodges play a couple
of games on this one too. Uh. They had lost
me and Joe green to retirement l C. Greenwood. These
are some of the greatest defensive players in the history
of the NFL, Jack Hamm. So they're already coming in saying, hey,
every year, it's okay, these guys are done, and these
(04:22):
guys are done. And they played without Terry Bradshaw. He
had an elbow problem for a couple of years and
had offseason surgery in two So okay, maybe you're thinking, okay,
the elbow was gonna get better, but he was idle
for the first fourteen games of the season. No one
knew when he was going to play. And I read
a bit, uh looking back at this from one of
(04:43):
the Steelers writers that said, every day was the same.
Every time we would leave practice, the the the news
lead with the same stories. The newspaper had the same thing.
Terry Bradshaw, I didn't throw today, Terry Bradshaw, I didn't
practice today. Terry Bradshaw was not a practice today. I
mean that was every single day. That's how big a
deal it was. You knew Bradshaw was hurt, but maybe today,
(05:04):
maybe today, maybe today, No, he didn't. They had to
go into the season with Cliff Stout and Mark Malone
as their quarterbacks, So okay, let's try to make it
go with Cliff Stout, who was a long time understudy,
and Mark Malone. And in the last days of the dynasty. Still,
besides the fact that these guys are playing quarterback, they
(05:25):
started out nine and two, I mean with Cliff Stout
and Mark Malone and losing all these players. Somehow the
Steelers are nine and two, and it would look like
we're unaffected by all of these losses, including not having
Terry Bradshaw. But the thing that just blows my mind
because well you mentioned Cliff Stout. Look at his stats,
(05:46):
he's not a quarterbacking past week six in today's NFL.
He finished the year twelve touchdowns and picks. We had
got three. He had four games with at least three intersceptions. Yeah,
(06:08):
I mean that's Winston asks. It wasn't good. It was
not good. Look and Quban was sixty point six. And look,
Mark Malone played a little bit, but not much. And
it's not like he lit the world on fire either.
And somehow the Pittsburgh Stealers were still able to win
these games. I mean it was insane. Now they hit
(06:30):
a big rough patch after going nine in two and
they lost three straight. So now they're nine and five
and the division is up for grabs and they have
two games left and they are going into Shafe Stadium
to play the Jets. Here's the thing. It was the
last game in Shafe Stadium for the Jets, who were
moving to the Meadowlands the next season. The Jets season
(06:51):
was basically done. They were a five hundred type team.
But they go in and they have to win this game.
So now Stout's not playing well. Nothing they can do.
They're going into the next the last game against the Jets,
and they need to win. Now, before we get to
what happened, let's go into the relationship for a bit
between Bradshaw and head coach Chuck Noll, because for the
longest time it was they can't stand each other, they
(07:14):
hate each other. After time had gone on and Bradshaw
had retired from the league, he had done many interviews saying,
you know, listen, do we always get a long no?
But we worked well together, kind of a an early
day Brady and Belichick, because clearly you're gonna get the
stories now that Brady and Belichick are apart, that you're
gonna hear Brady stuff of what Brady said and some
(07:35):
things that Belichick did, and you're gonna find out, boy,
they really didn't like each other. They didn't get along,
but they got along well enough to win. And that's
kind of a good working relationship, that's a good personal one.
And that's what brad Shaw and Noel did. In fact,
it was it was such the point where Chuck Mill
didn't even talk about Terry Bradshaw during the season. He's
injured and not playing, not gonna talk about him. And
can't you see Belichick doing that? If you know Brady hurt,
(07:58):
We're not talking about Hi, I'm not talking about how
well just we're actually no, nope, not even gonna talk
about him. So this is how the Steelers are trying
to survive and exist every single day when the overwhelming
question is is Terry Bradshaw going to play? And not
only does Chuck Noll not want to talk about it,
he's not going to mention it, and Bradshaw is not
playing for the most part, so it had to drive
him back. Ben had it's crazy to have to go
(08:19):
through this every single day. Yeah, no, that that is
the absolute worst. I mean, you don't have to tell
anybody anything because they don't get to watch. Yeah, that's true.
What hap And you've got all these other media embargoes
against what you can actually put into your post practice reports, tweets,
Instagram stories, etcetera. So yeah, there's so many rules on that,
(08:43):
but you know, I respect that of a coach going
I'm not gonna play this game every day as to
weathering guys hurt, but you know, everybody needs a little
pad on the back right to make sure you're still
in good graces and and roll through. It's just a
general relationship advice for everybody, if you know, get a
little bit of positive reinforcement. But you know the way
(09:07):
their relationships described, and I'm sure there's plenty of books
I can go pour into about this. It's very similar
to the Brady Belichick situation because you see how gushing
with praise coming into the season Belichick has been for
Cam Newton, right, the new starter. Uh, Tom Brady didn't
(09:30):
get to see a lot of that. So part of it,
I think is the psychological bit of all right, I need.
I think Cam's a guy that needs a little of
this right, needs a little bit of a boost and
needs to know him in his corner. Whereas Belichick and Brady,
it became right, we're gonna go out and we're gonna
get our stuff done. We don't have to to, you know,
(09:51):
gush all over with praise for each other, but we
know we're going to get the job done. So I
think there's a little bit of that to it. So
here go to the Steelers into Shaye Stadium in a
must win game because they are now desperately trying to
hold off the Cleveland Browns, and Terry Bradshaw is healthy
enough to play the final game of Terry Bradshaw's career,
(10:16):
and fitting that it's against the Jets because how it
went coming up next right here on special teams, next
to last week of the regular season, the Steelers invading
(10:38):
Shaye Stadium, Jets fans saying this is the last game
they're ever gonna play here. We can't wait till the
end of the game and take a whole bunch of
stuff from this field. This is the backdrop for Terry
Bradshaw's final game in the National Football League. Now, he
wasn't healthy, but he felt he could throw and he
could play, And if you watch the highlights, Bradshaw looks fantastic.
(11:02):
He played the first two drives of the game, lad
two touchdown drives of seventy seven and seventy two yards. Okay,
he's thirty five years old, Clearly he's near the end.
Franko Harris is thirty three. Clearly he's near the end.
In fact, this turned out to be Franko' Harris's last
hundred yard game of his Hall of Fame career. All right,
(11:23):
but this is really more about Bradshaw. In the first half,
he throws a touchdown past to Greg Garritty that is
quintessential Bradshaw. Because you watched this play on the replay,
it's it's readily available. He throws a pass between two
Jet defenders who just look like they're stunty even through
the football, and Garrety makes a big leap and catches it,
(11:45):
and you think, there's no way should have completed this pass.
But that was Terry Branshaw. The way he would just
drop back in his throwing motion where it was just
and and maybe this is part of why is you
know he had elbow issues. It's like he would have
his arm back and like it would he would just
bring the foot ball forward. It was weird the way
he would. He wouldn't come all the way back with
a long line up. He had his his arm up
(12:05):
like it was at a at a ninety degree angle
and would just kind of just chuck the football and
and and it would and it would hiss downfield. And
the power and the way you could throw it. And
this was another one of those Terry Bradshaw passes. I'm there,
really short compact throwing motion, boom, and Greg Garretty comes
comes down with it after leaping up and and it's
(12:26):
the Jets players looking around each other, going, he threw
that ball. I mean, he shouldn't have completed it, but
he threw that ball and that gives us Dealers a
seven nothing lead first drive of the game. December tenth three.
It's funny we're actually having uh. Maddie, my my younger
daughter and I we were having our whole thing about
mechanics and and we went to a field and there's
(12:47):
guys pitching, other guys throwing a football, and she's like, well,
talk to me about like the difference like while here
and and this, and what you need to do with
your body and and how to be accurate as an
NFL passer. And then I eventually showed her a couple
of different uh scenarios, including you know, the picture perfect
mechanics of the short lived career of Andrew Luck versus
(13:11):
all right, watch how Philip Rivers spins this one. Uh.
And then you think about some of these guys going
back to the eighties, where you know, just a passing
game was just a totally different animal. But boy could
he wing it. And yeah, I get that elbow bothered
him forever, much like another Steeler again not to acquaint
(13:31):
it to injuries, but in Ben Roethlisberg, what do you say,
I was hurting for a decade plus and finally got
something done. Bradshaw, it seems, was kind of in that
same boat, you know, long standing, but I can get
through it, and then tried to will his way through.
Next drive, Bradshaw goes down the field. It's a wonderful
(13:53):
day at Chase Stadium. I mean it's not like one
of those late December snow on the field, swirling winds. No,
it's a beautiful sunny day and Bradshaw takes the Dealer's
back down the field and it's a ten yard touchdown pass.
He throws to Calvin Sweeney and you see him coming
off the field and it's fourteen nothing and you're thinking, Mike,
(14:13):
look at this guy. He hasn't played in so long,
and here he is two drives right down the field,
got the Seelers gonna win the Super Bowl. And he
comes off the field and you can see him a
little bit kind of shaking his elbow and at the time, look,
I watched this game. Watch all the Jets games are
going to How Terry Bradshaw is gonna beat this sow?
He hasn't played all season. I mean this in in
my in my early training as a sports talk radio host.
(14:35):
How is he doing? This week's stink? Oh my god?
The Jets suck? How is this happy? Guys have played
in fourteen weeks? But he comes off kind of shaking
his up. But okay, maybe you know he's loosening it
up a little bit. That was the last pass of
Terry Bradshaw's career, the last completion. Calvin Sweeney is the guy.
Not Lynn Swan, not John Stalworth, No, no no, no, it's
(14:56):
Calvin Sweeney. He went to the sideline and told teamm
he kind of felt to pop, and the team thought that, well, okay,
maybe it's gonna be a couple of weeks because clearly
he was done for the day because they look they
were killing the Jets. They didn't need him. At this point,
it's fourteen nothing and the Jets to go and listen,
we just want to go home. We're done with the season.
Were nothing changed? You talking about two thousand, twenty versus
(15:21):
and it was okay, except that was it for Terry Bradshaw.
He didn't play the rest of the game. He told
his teammates he was done. Pittsburgh went on to beat
the Jets thirty four seven. They clinched the a f
C Central. The game against Cleveland was meaningless, so this game,
this turned out to be the last game. Terry Bradshaw
(15:41):
played the first half against the Jets and he was phenomenal. Uh,
going into the playoffs, he couldn't play, so they had
to play the Raiders with Cliff Stout at quarterback. Close
down through a touchdown, he threw a pick, he threw
for utter and eight seven yards, not nearly enough. The
Raiders win thirty ten, ending the Pittsburgh Steelers season and
(16:06):
ending the career of Terry Bradshaw. In the offseason, the
Steelers were a little nervous about what was gonna happen.
They didn't know, so they trade for David Woodley in
February because clearly David Woodley was a guy that well,
just Dan Marino just you know, shows up and boy,
you don't need David Woodley anymore. And he was a
guy that went to the Super Bowl, and all right,
maybe we can, you know, have him play for us,
(16:28):
because Cliff Stout wasn't the guy. I mean, this is
the only real extended playing time Cliff Stout ever had
in the NFL. And yet, as you said, he had
a season where he would have lost his job by
week six. They trade for David Woodley, who may be
the most popular guy in special teams. Just for a second,
how many podcasts have we done that have David Woodley
in them. I'd have to go through the list, but
(16:54):
I think we can. We can check him off at
least four times by now. No, I think it's like
we'll have another one with Dave and Woodley. So they
trade with Woodley in February. Now they don't know what's
going on with Bradshaw, but Bradshaw couldn't play it anymore.
Officially retired in late July, and a simultaneous announcement of
his retirement on CBS with the announcement he was going
(17:17):
to CBS to be an NFL commentator. So thinking about
the Bradshaw who's now think about how long he's been
on the air since three he retired and was gonna
join CBS and retired. On CBS, they covered this in
a big way like it was, you know, something something
going on with the president, and mainly was because hey,
(17:38):
Bradshaw's retiring. Look at such a popular quarterback. He's gonna
join CBSS NFL coverage. So CBS kind of blew it
up and said, yeah, hey, Terry Bradshaw's retiring, and it
became that biggest story, huge story. But think think of
the dominoes for your life, Jason Smith. Had they not
looked at the idea of Dan Marino, you know what,
(17:59):
we can't to have him play in his backyard, that's
too much pressure. Had they pulled the trigger and take
him the pit quarterback and made him their selection in
eighty three, life for a little Jason Smith might have
been a lot easier before Tom Brady showed up. I mean,
can you imagine, because because in eighty three they knew
(18:21):
Bradshaw's elbow was bad, so we gotta get an extra,
we gotta get somebody. And the Steelers didn't want to
draft Marino. As you said, Art Rooney, you know, I
don't know that he's playing so close to home. The
pressures might be too much for him. And Art Rooney
too many people say that. Every single day from like
(18:41):
the mid eighties on, he told somebody we should have
drafted Den Marino every single day. Couldn't you just think
should have drafted down? I lay me down to sleep.
Damn it. I forgot to tell someone I should have
drafted Marino today. Just pick someone out of my rollodex
and we gotta call him. So how the Steelers have
to go on without Bradshaw? And Bradshaw said he knew
(19:04):
that at some point if he did come back, that
the elbow was just gonna betray him again. So that's
why he didn't play, and because the Steelers held out hope,
and I think he held out hope he was gonna play,
but he knew just the way it felt everything. Listen,
I'm gonna come back and the same thing is gonna happen.
I'm gonna throw a few passes and and the elbow
is gonna go and it's not worth it for me.
I have the chance to go to the broadcast booth him.
(19:26):
You talked about going right from the playing field of
the broadcast. I mean, this is Terry Bradshaw, and he
you know, he and John Madden were the first big stars, uh,
star analysts. I mean, Madden became an industry in of himself.
But people forget how popular Bradshaw was in the early
days with CBS, and then jumping to Fox is a
big coup. And he's been there for you know, almost
(19:47):
thirty years now. You know, Bradshaw and John Madden really
were were together for a while as far as what
people thought, and look, Madden was a great announcer for
a long time. But he's Terry bradch almost forty years later.
So rolling, thrilling, rolling strong, and you know it's not
like you remember brad Shaw like you remember Madden. He's
just the Madden guy. I mean, brad shows he's been
on television forever now, an amazing two part story to
(20:14):
the life, right, I mean the football career and then
what he's been in media, uh and entertainment right, a
new reality show in you can talk about the singing
career as a player, post playing career, the number of
books he's written and obviously part of you know a
team in Fox NFL Sunday that's in the Broadcasters Hall
(20:35):
of Fame. And he's still sharp as attack, funny as hell,
and a guy that is no dummy, but we'll play
one on TV, right. I mean that that's really what
it comes down to. I've only met him once a
long time ago, with a lot you know that that
whole team just it's such a well oiled machine and
(20:58):
it's a family, you know. It's on what we try
to foster in what we do at at Fox Sports Radio. Now.
It's just everybody feels like they belong and you can
see that and it comes across with what they do
on air and how they accept their roles and and
step out as they need to now and again. But yeah,
(21:18):
he he is an industry in and of himself, and
you know, he's always one of those guys that think
of Jason. You know, if if you took personal branding
the way we do it over the last decade, like
say you roll back his odometer twenty five years, that
you know, they think if some of the other things
(21:40):
you could have gotten into. I don't know that there's
much he hasn't done at this point, but just the
the level of stardom I'm cu rating, I don't I
don't know anybody that doesn't like to hear what Terry
Bradshaw is gonna say, because you're not sure if it's
going to be a biting criticism because he's blunt and
his assessment of players. And I think that's as you know,
(22:03):
guys that cover sports and do sports talk radio and
just as fans at the base of it, like that's
all you want, right, there's enough guys that just can't
criticize players, say not, it's still part of you know,
my I'm still part of the larger fraternities, like no,
your jobs to to sometimes say what isn't the kindest
(22:24):
to some of the players and their aptitude or coaches
for that matter. Uh, And that's something he's always been
willing to do. So Terry Bradshaw plays his final game
against the Jets. They win, they go to the playoffs,
they get blown out, Bradshaw goes to the broadcast booth.
Things actually didn't get really bad for the Steelers after this.
(22:45):
Plus what Jets fans did following the loss of the Steelers.
I know, I know, I know, we got that coming
up next right here on Special Teams to close the
(23:07):
book on Terry Bradshaw before we get to the Steelers
the following season and what Jets fans did after the game. Uh,
bradshaws two touchdowns against the Jets allowed him to finish
his career with two d and twelve touchdowns and two
hundred and ten interceptions. So he was Eli Manning. You
know what, I gotta I gotta keep that above five hundred.
(23:29):
He has even number of touchdowns and picks. People forget
you listen, this is you know, Bradshaw's era was winning
Super Bowls, and yes he made a lot of big plays,
but he threw a lot of picks and this allowed
him to finish with two more touchdowns than interceptions. All right,
But but it's like we were talking about before though, Jason, right,
I mean, the interception doesn't have the same same negative
(23:53):
stigma that it does now. Back then, it was all right,
we're gonna run the ball, bunch, but if we're gonna
take a shot down field, it's we either make a
player it's picked, which is as good as a punt.
That used to be the logic, right, because he was
what was his career completion percentage? It was not not
all that high when you go down into the annals, right,
(24:14):
I mean what, yeah, Well, quarterbacks weren't generally they just
weren't as accurate and you knew throwing the ball down
field was going to be sometimes could be just a
toss up play. You know, the player. The quarterbacks aren't
as disciplined as they as they are now are are
throwing into much better situations. And whereas back then it
(24:37):
was okay, we understand quarterbacks are gonna throw picks. I
mean his first year he threw six touchdowns and twenty
four picks. I mean, that was Terry Branch. That's the
end of your career. Now, six and that gets you
one way ticket to the Jets. So that was his career.
But it's funny because right we we as we got underway,
(24:57):
you had one of the early breakout perfore. This is
Joe Burrow with his sixty one passes in Week two
against the Browns, Troy Aikman quipping, Yeah, and he took
me three weeks to throw sixty passes in my day
for the for the Cowboys. I mean, just to show
you how different things are now. And and just think
about this for Terry Bradshaw, right, he went to the
(25:20):
Pro Bowl three times. That's it. Hall of Fame quarterback.
You win four Super Bowls, you go to the Hall
of Fame because that's the difference in the Hall of
Fame and Pro Football versus Major League Baseball. You win
a lot, you go to the Hall of Fame. There's
no way he would keep his job. Now even after
the first couple of seasons, his touchdown interceptions right six
(25:40):
and twenty four, his second year thirteen and twenty two.
Then he was twelve and twelve, then he was ten
and fifteen, then he was seven and eight. I mean,
that's that's not you. There's no way you make it
that long in the NFLF yet. But they had one
big year where they won eleven games, and then he
was eight and one when he played nine games in
nineteen s any three and then his his sea His
(26:02):
career started to take off once you got to the
mid to the late nineteen seventies. But this was Terry
Bradshaw's career. You remember it as boy all the Super Bowls,
but it was statistically it was kind of a mixed bag.
And and and finishing with two twelve verses to ten
is a really big deal for him because look, Eli Manning.
The debate for Eli Manning in the Hall of Fame
(26:22):
is gonna come down to look at touchdowns interceptions. But
but he won two Super Bowls, which is why Eli
Manning is going to get into the Hall of Fame.
But Terry Bradshaw, it was really similar to him. And
when he left, it's not like the Steelers missed a beat. Right,
You think, okay, all they're done. They don't have a quarterback. Well,
in ninety four they had drafted Louis Lips. Remember how
(26:43):
good he was. Louis Lips Offensive Rookie of the Year.
They beat the forty Niners in October. It was the
Niners only lost all season. Right, Pitts still won the
a f C Central At nine and seven, they had
five Pro Bowlers. John Stalworth was the NFL Comeback Player
of the Year, Mark Malone and David Woodley split time.
(27:04):
Mark Malone got most of it. You know, Pittsburgh is
still segue into who they would become next. And in
these years of players diminishing and trying to bring into
they still had two straight a f C Central titles
the past two years to celebrate and it was insane.
You think, okay, well here it is, they're coming to
the end. And in eighty four they still get to
(27:25):
the a f C Championship. Game, they somehow beat Denver
and John Elway and they lose to Miami. They lose
to Dan Marino, who makes the Super Bowl for the
only time of his career. Malone had a great game
through for three hundred and three touchdowns, but Marino went
for four hundred and four touchdowns, a little bit more,
(27:46):
a little bit better. The Steelers got to see up
close the guy they could have drafted, stopping them from
getting into another Super Bowl. And that was the the
season after for the Steelers. With Bradshaw walking away. Somehow
they still almost got to the super Bowl. And that
that shows you. Yes, you had the Steelers winning super Bowls,
but this eighty three team and eighty four again, how
(28:09):
they got to where they did, winning divisions, getting to
the playoffs, getting an FC championship games with teams that
you would say, there's no way they should got here, No,
they should have gotten there. Well, look at the point
total though from that eight four team they put up
three eight seven points. That was more than the point
totals of the prior four teams. And I mean then
(28:32):
there's a four six team mix in there, but that
total best many of those Bradshaw squads. Uh and then
i'd be remiss, right, you have several years of malone,
and then we get the Bubby Brister years. Yeah yeah,
we yeah all offensive coordinator, sure yeah yeah yeah, eight, eight, five,
(28:54):
and eleven and nine. But two winning years from Bobby Brister,
that's fine. Then it goes to Neil O'Donnell. We started
drifting into the cow our age, and we we know
the legacy between color and town like what they've been
able to keep going. But yeah, for Terry Bradshaw, you know,
if you look at them, the career, the numbers, the titles,
(29:18):
and and the talent that surrounded him, just an amazing
uh continuity. And then look that that organization speaks to
what y'all hope to achieve in your domestic life and
in your professional life of some level of consistency, continuity,
uh and resolve. All right, So that's the how you
(29:39):
see how special the Steelers were in eighty three and
eighty four looked surrounded and sandwiched in Terry Bradshaw's final
game of the NFL. Alright, so now what happened to
the Jets? Okay, so the Jets play like they were
they were going to to the meadow lands. And after
the game was over, you know, the Jets lose, they
get killed. You know Bradshaw, We still don't know what's
going on with him. Sets fans come running out of
(30:01):
the stands to tear the goal post down, all right.
They picked up sod to keep it and ran away
with it, and they also picked up some of the
sod and threw it at the police who were on
the field trying to keep order. Fifteen people got arrested
as Jets fans tore the goal post down. And then
there were people because I remember watching the news that night,
(30:23):
there was video of people on the subway with seats
from Shasta. They ripped the seats out so they could
take them with them because it was a souvenir, because
the Jets were going to play in the medal Lands,
and there were people on the subway with seats because
I'm trying to get these on. I mean, who steals
the seat when people's skull seats and they were bringing
them home. And that was what it was, and that
(30:43):
was Jets football. I mean, all the things that was
taken from that stadium as souvenirs that day, I mean
I didn't see it coming. I mean, I was like, Wow,
I didn't think Jets fans really we really cared all
that much. Hey, we're going to the Metal Lands. It's
gonna be great. We're leaving Chase Stadium, okay. And just
watching the scene at the end of the game with
fans coming on the field and trying to tear the
goalpost down and everything, I'm like, these are my people,
(31:05):
these are these are Jets fans. But boy, when I
saw in the news people with the with the seats
on the subway, that was next level. That really was
I can say this, I um, I'm looking right now.
You can get a pair of seats from Sha Stadium
green six hundred bucks from person holding onto him for
the last three sell him. Now. Look, I I don't
(31:28):
know what the providence is, but they've been uh sitting
in a warehouse in Indiana. According to this they were
removed in two thousand eight, so not stolen during that
Fateful Day, or at least that's the semi legal story
of it. Was getting these you know what can't can't
(31:51):
fall to good yarn? All right, So let's finish this yard.
What about somewhere are they now? From? From this podcast? Here?
What do we got all right. Other them being a
Hall of Famer, let's give a little love to John Stalworth.
UH founded with an engineer friend of his something called
Madison Research so services and Parts and software for government
(32:14):
use UH, computer maintenance for space and Missile Defense Commands
Center UH in Huntsville, Alabama. They sold the company in
two thousand six for sixty nine million dollars. UH. They
later created something called Genesis to to start business business development,
but also helping with a number of charities. UH. And
(32:37):
the foundation gives out giant chunks of money to scholarships.
So good for them. Mbout and wait real before we
got just to talk about him for a second winning
comeback Player of the Year, just for because an eighty three.
You know, Bradshaw's last year he got hurt. He only
played in four games and it's the majority of the season.
So he's thirty one years old. He comes back at
(32:57):
thirty two, and not only did he win, I'm back
Player of the Year, he had his best year in
the National Football League. He caught eighty passes, that's the
most he ever caught in his career, yards, receiving most
in his career, eleven touchdowns, most touchdowns in his career.
So he comes back from that big injury and I'm
(33:18):
sure Bradshaw saying, great, where the hell were you when
I was? But you know, he comes back and as
that kind of year after coming off an injury that
cost him the majority of the season. That's some kind
of comeback play. Well it's crazy, right, It's all about
spreading the ball around and trying to figure out who
gets fed in that process. My buddy's Craig Wolfley and
(33:39):
Touch Hilkin alignment on this squad. Uh. They've been on
the radio broadcast forever. Good friends helping me as I
was getting started in the business with a lot of
advice and well, showing me around the greater parts of Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
So you go to the Rolling Rock, uh, and and
have a beer with him. Well, we didn't go to
the Rolling Rock, but we found, you know, some other
(34:01):
places to hang out, and they ate with me in
the in the lunch room. You know, I got to
go eat with the players. So we learned what Ben
Roethlisberger at the time had on his iPod. Okay, and
there was some mocking going on, and you know, you
get like that's one thing about the Steelers right for
training camp tours like I used to do, going around
doing write ups and you know when they let you
(34:23):
watch practice and take notes and and all of that.
Uh is the Steelers would let you if you were
going to hold up for a couple of days, they
had a dorm you could stay at and then you
get to go into the uh the jowl line. You know,
don't get the players way. I mean that their food
is there's but you know you got to eat there,
(34:44):
and you know, occasionally the players would invite you over
to come and hang uh and talk it out a
little bit and you know, figure you out. How did
you not get on the Steeler broadcast that how's it not? Da?
It's Ron Wolfley with Don Chilkin and Mike Harmon. Yeah,
Craig in Tounch you're doing their thing. Uh. Well, Ron's
his brother in Arizona, buddy getting it done. Uh those
(35:09):
are my guys. Yeah, Ron, Ron's we should have Ron
on with the Arizona doing what they're doing now. Uh.
In the season, Uh, as as Kyler Murray becomes a superstar, Uh,
maybe we'll be doing a special teams on Kyler Murray
next year. Making fun of Uh well, the fact that
he has showed the a's offer, but that's for another time.
(35:32):
We got Ted Peterson. He was an offensive lineman out
of Eastern Illinois. UM. He once was quoted talking about
Chuck Noll. He seethed intensity. That's a pretty good line.
How would you remember him? People? I will, I'll put
that on your tombstone years from What do you mean
(35:53):
you got more than you about twenty five years? Hey man?
That what's wrong with you? I'll give you another ten listen,
medicine that gets you gonna be Montgomery Burns and Treehouse
of Horror. Whereas your head with a robot body? How
old do you think I am, Mr Simpson? I am
(36:15):
only eight one? All right? So Ted Peterson retired athletic
director from Kanka Kankakee Community College and now he is
a community liaison, which means, you know, going in in
misogyny the community there to to work for Van drunning
(36:38):
farms in Moments, Illinois. How about that kind of a
good thing. Uh? And then you got Dwayne Woodruff cornerback
out of Louisville, judge in the Court of common Please. Yeah,
he's a judge. He just got re elected to another
term here in so he is just doing doing the
(37:05):
job and getting it done. He went to uh Duqueesne University, law,
does a lot of charitable work, uh Louisville Hall of Fame,
all these other things. But yeah, just uh has become
kind of a big deal there and and rolling up
his jersey Hanks and well, I don't know if it's
(37:26):
Papa John's Cardinal stadium anymore, that might be need need
to be changed. But he was a candidate for the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania unsuccessful, but he's got another Decker
in decade behind the bench. So there you go. There
it is. Where are they now? That Steelers team of
ninety three Terry Bradshaw's final game in the NFL? You
(37:50):
want to hit us up on Twitter at how about
a fresco Mike is at Swollen Domia the future idea
for a special teams episode? Let us know you never
know when it could wind up hitting the airwaves. Speaking
of airwaves, our radio show is heard on Fox Sports
Radio Monday through Friday, ten pm to two am on
the East coast, seven to eleven on the West coast.
We'll talk to you next week with another episode of
(38:12):
Special Teams. Special Teams is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of my Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Mike Harbon, a podcast where we look back at special
(00:21):
teams and specific years in sports and what made them
so incredibly memorable. Our nineteen eighties run continued, and there's
so many fun things in the eighties to look back at,
especially being able to see some stuff in the video
that's available for you to see online that can kind
of supplement the podcast. We tell you about it here,
and today we're gonna look back at the nineteen eight
(00:44):
three Steelers. This is not a Steelers team that wanted
Super Bowl. That's not a Steelers team that was the
greatest in the league. But it was a Steelers team
that had to turn the page. Because it was during
this year Terry Bradshaw played his final game in the
National Football League, and his final game, even though it
was on the road, fans went crazy and toward the
(01:07):
goalpost down and took seats out of the stadium with them.
We'll get to that part coming up later on in
the podcast, but really Bradshaw's last game, because Bradshaw's become
look the industry, He's become the past few years being
the broadcast he is now he's got his own reality
show that's out now. Is everybody remembers they know Terry
Bradshaw the broadcaster, and they've seen the highlights of his
(01:29):
of his Super Bowls because they're all so famous, beating
the Cowboys winning the way they did, beating the Rams.
But his final game and what surrounded Bradshaw's final year
in the NFL was just really weird. You know. It
was one of those cases where you didn't know it
was the end when it happened, but it turned out
to be the end, kind of like Joe Montana's last
game in San Francisco. You didn't expect it to be
(01:51):
the end, but then it turned out to me, Oh,
that's that's the He played against the Lions, and the
next last week and this last week of the season,
that was it. He didn't play for the Niners anymore.
That's kind of what it was for Terry Bradshaw and
and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, yeah, I mean, I'll take
it one for further. It's stay in San Francisco. I
was at Jerry Rice's final game as a forty Niner,
(02:14):
right none not that you were sure he was retiring,
but it just didn't make sense, right. But you had
the young up and comer tarall Owens. He caught passes
that day. It was a game against the Bears. How
pissed do you think that that Jerry Rice is that
he caught twenty passes in that game? Well, that's just it, right.
The teammates are trying to carry Jerry Rice around, but
(02:36):
everybody else like blues in their minds. Dude, dude caught
twenty balls like he was playing pitch and catch all
day long. And by the way, that was a cade
McNown game that the Bears didn't get the ball past
the fifty. Uh, that's a podcast for another time. Just
my psychological state watching that game unfold in front of me.
But you know, Rice ends up going up to the
(02:58):
Raiders and then eventually, uh there are there's proof that
he was in camp with both the Broncos and Seahawks
before hanging out as well. But yeah, it's it's just
that weird thing where you're not quite sure how it's
gonna end. You know it's close, but you're hanging on. Hell.
You can bring that to any metaphor in life. Right, relationships, jobs,
(03:20):
everything else, like it's gonna end right, But how and
for Terry Bradshaw, you know, it was just one of
these odd years that just didn't come together. Uh, and
then you're you're finally able to at least make a
get a cup of coffee to close out the year. Yeah,
this was the end of the Steelers run of dominance.
(03:41):
The players that had won Super Bowls and had we're
going to the Hall of Fame. We're slowly retiring and
leaving the team. But still without Terry Bradshaw for just
about the entire season, the Steelers were still able to
go ten and six and win the a f C
Central You know what that? Does it sound familiar at all? Yes, say,
(04:01):
somehow found a way to Duck Hodges play a couple
of games on this one too. Uh. They had lost
me and Joe green to retirement l C. Greenwood. These
are some of the greatest defensive players in the history
of the NFL, Jack Hamm. So they're already coming in saying, hey,
every year, it's okay, these guys are done, and these
(04:22):
guys are done. And they played without Terry Bradshaw. He
had an elbow problem for a couple of years and
had offseason surgery in two So okay, maybe you're thinking, okay,
the elbow was gonna get better, but he was idle
for the first fourteen games of the season. No one
knew when he was going to play. And I read
a bit, uh looking back at this from one of
(04:43):
the Steelers writers that said, every day was the same.
Every time we would leave practice, the the the news
lead with the same stories. The newspaper had the same thing.
Terry Bradshaw, I didn't throw today, Terry Bradshaw, I didn't
practice today. Terry Bradshaw was not a practice today. I
mean that was every single day. That's how big a
deal it was. You knew Bradshaw was hurt, but maybe today,
(05:04):
maybe today, maybe today, No, he didn't. They had to
go into the season with Cliff Stout and Mark Malone
as their quarterbacks, So okay, let's try to make it
go with Cliff Stout, who was a long time understudy,
and Mark Malone. And in the last days of the dynasty. Still,
besides the fact that these guys are playing quarterback, they
(05:25):
started out nine and two, I mean with Cliff Stout
and Mark Malone and losing all these players. Somehow the
Steelers are nine and two, and it would look like
we're unaffected by all of these losses, including not having
Terry Bradshaw. But the thing that just blows my mind
because well you mentioned Cliff Stout. Look at his stats,
(05:46):
he's not a quarterbacking past week six in today's NFL.
He finished the year twelve touchdowns and picks. We had
got three. He had four games with at least three intersceptions. Yeah,
(06:08):
I mean that's Winston asks. It wasn't good. It was
not good. Look and Quban was sixty point six. And look,
Mark Malone played a little bit, but not much. And
it's not like he lit the world on fire either.
And somehow the Pittsburgh Stealers were still able to win
these games. I mean it was insane. Now they hit
(06:30):
a big rough patch after going nine in two and
they lost three straight. So now they're nine and five
and the division is up for grabs and they have
two games left and they are going into Shafe Stadium
to play the Jets. Here's the thing. It was the
last game in Shafe Stadium for the Jets, who were
moving to the Meadowlands the next season. The Jets season
(06:51):
was basically done. They were a five hundred type team.
But they go in and they have to win this game.
So now Stout's not playing well. Nothing they can do.
They're going into the next the last game against the Jets,
and they need to win. Now, before we get to
what happened, let's go into the relationship for a bit
between Bradshaw and head coach Chuck Noll, because for the
longest time it was they can't stand each other, they
(07:14):
hate each other. After time had gone on and Bradshaw
had retired from the league, he had done many interviews saying,
you know, listen, do we always get a long no?
But we worked well together, kind of a an early
day Brady and Belichick, because clearly you're gonna get the
stories now that Brady and Belichick are apart, that you're
gonna hear Brady stuff of what Brady said and some
(07:35):
things that Belichick did, and you're gonna find out, boy,
they really didn't like each other. They didn't get along,
but they got along well enough to win. And that's
kind of a good working relationship, that's a good personal one.
And that's what brad Shaw and Noel did. In fact,
it was it was such the point where Chuck Mill
didn't even talk about Terry Bradshaw during the season. He's
injured and not playing, not gonna talk about him. And
can't you see Belichick doing that? If you know Brady hurt,
(07:58):
We're not talking about Hi, I'm not talking about how
well just we're actually no, nope, not even gonna talk
about him. So this is how the Steelers are trying
to survive and exist every single day when the overwhelming
question is is Terry Bradshaw going to play? And not
only does Chuck Noll not want to talk about it,
he's not going to mention it, and Bradshaw is not
playing for the most part, so it had to drive
him back. Ben had it's crazy to have to go
(08:19):
through this every single day. Yeah, no, that that is
the absolute worst. I mean, you don't have to tell
anybody anything because they don't get to watch. Yeah, that's true.
What hap And you've got all these other media embargoes
against what you can actually put into your post practice reports, tweets,
Instagram stories, etcetera. So yeah, there's so many rules on that,
(08:43):
but you know, I respect that of a coach going
I'm not gonna play this game every day as to
weathering guys hurt, but you know, everybody needs a little
pad on the back right to make sure you're still
in good graces and and roll through. It's just a
general relationship advice for everybody, if you know, get a
little bit of positive reinforcement. But you know the way
(09:07):
their relationships described, and I'm sure there's plenty of books
I can go pour into about this. It's very similar
to the Brady Belichick situation because you see how gushing
with praise coming into the season Belichick has been for
Cam Newton, right, the new starter. Uh, Tom Brady didn't
(09:30):
get to see a lot of that. So part of it,
I think is the psychological bit of all right, I need.
I think Cam's a guy that needs a little of
this right, needs a little bit of a boost and
needs to know him in his corner. Whereas Belichick and Brady,
it became right, we're gonna go out and we're gonna
get our stuff done. We don't have to to, you know,
(09:51):
gush all over with praise for each other, but we
know we're going to get the job done. So I
think there's a little bit of that to it. So
here go to the Steelers into Shaye Stadium in a
must win game because they are now desperately trying to
hold off the Cleveland Browns, and Terry Bradshaw is healthy
enough to play the final game of Terry Bradshaw's career,
(10:16):
and fitting that it's against the Jets because how it
went coming up next right here on special teams, next
to last week of the regular season, the Steelers invading
(10:38):
Shaye Stadium, Jets fans saying this is the last game
they're ever gonna play here. We can't wait till the
end of the game and take a whole bunch of
stuff from this field. This is the backdrop for Terry
Bradshaw's final game in the National Football League. Now, he
wasn't healthy, but he felt he could throw and he
could play, And if you watch the highlights, Bradshaw looks fantastic.
(11:02):
He played the first two drives of the game, lad
two touchdown drives of seventy seven and seventy two yards. Okay,
he's thirty five years old, Clearly he's near the end.
Franko Harris is thirty three. Clearly he's near the end.
In fact, this turned out to be Franko' Harris's last
hundred yard game of his Hall of Fame career. All right,
(11:23):
but this is really more about Bradshaw. In the first half,
he throws a touchdown past to Greg Garritty that is
quintessential Bradshaw. Because you watched this play on the replay,
it's it's readily available. He throws a pass between two
Jet defenders who just look like they're stunty even through
the football, and Garrety makes a big leap and catches it,
(11:45):
and you think, there's no way should have completed this pass.
But that was Terry Branshaw. The way he would just
drop back in his throwing motion where it was just
and and maybe this is part of why is you
know he had elbow issues. It's like he would have
his arm back and like it would he would just
bring the foot ball forward. It was weird the way
he would. He wouldn't come all the way back with
a long line up. He had his his arm up
(12:05):
like it was at a at a ninety degree angle
and would just kind of just chuck the football and
and and it would and it would hiss downfield. And
the power and the way you could throw it. And
this was another one of those Terry Bradshaw passes. I'm there,
really short compact throwing motion, boom, and Greg Garretty comes
comes down with it after leaping up and and it's
(12:26):
the Jets players looking around each other, going, he threw
that ball. I mean, he shouldn't have completed it, but
he threw that ball and that gives us Dealers a
seven nothing lead first drive of the game. December tenth three.
It's funny we're actually having uh. Maddie, my my younger
daughter and I we were having our whole thing about
mechanics and and we went to a field and there's
(12:47):
guys pitching, other guys throwing a football, and she's like, well,
talk to me about like the difference like while here
and and this, and what you need to do with
your body and and how to be accurate as an
NFL passer. And then I eventually showed her a couple
of different uh scenarios, including you know, the picture perfect
mechanics of the short lived career of Andrew Luck versus
(13:11):
all right, watch how Philip Rivers spins this one. Uh.
And then you think about some of these guys going
back to the eighties, where you know, just a passing
game was just a totally different animal. But boy could
he wing it. And yeah, I get that elbow bothered
him forever, much like another Steeler again not to acquaint
(13:31):
it to injuries, but in Ben Roethlisberg, what do you say,
I was hurting for a decade plus and finally got
something done. Bradshaw, it seems, was kind of in that
same boat, you know, long standing, but I can get
through it, and then tried to will his way through.
Next drive, Bradshaw goes down the field. It's a wonderful
(13:53):
day at Chase Stadium. I mean it's not like one
of those late December snow on the field, swirling winds. No,
it's a beautiful sunny day and Bradshaw takes the Dealer's
back down the field and it's a ten yard touchdown pass.
He throws to Calvin Sweeney and you see him coming
off the field and it's fourteen nothing and you're thinking, Mike,
(14:13):
look at this guy. He hasn't played in so long,
and here he is two drives right down the field,
got the Seelers gonna win the Super Bowl. And he
comes off the field and you can see him a
little bit kind of shaking his elbow and at the time, look,
I watched this game. Watch all the Jets games are
going to How Terry Bradshaw is gonna beat this sow?
He hasn't played all season. I mean this in in
my in my early training as a sports talk radio host.
(14:35):
How is he doing? This week's stink? Oh my god?
The Jets suck? How is this happy? Guys have played
in fourteen weeks? But he comes off kind of shaking
his up. But okay, maybe you know he's loosening it
up a little bit. That was the last pass of
Terry Bradshaw's career, the last completion. Calvin Sweeney is the guy.
Not Lynn Swan, not John Stalworth, No, no no, no, it's
(14:56):
Calvin Sweeney. He went to the sideline and told teamm
he kind of felt to pop, and the team thought that, well, okay,
maybe it's gonna be a couple of weeks because clearly
he was done for the day because they look they
were killing the Jets. They didn't need him. At this point,
it's fourteen nothing and the Jets to go and listen,
we just want to go home. We're done with the season.
Were nothing changed? You talking about two thousand, twenty versus
(15:21):
and it was okay, except that was it for Terry Bradshaw.
He didn't play the rest of the game. He told
his teammates he was done. Pittsburgh went on to beat
the Jets thirty four seven. They clinched the a f
C Central. The game against Cleveland was meaningless, so this game,
this turned out to be the last game. Terry Bradshaw
(15:41):
played the first half against the Jets and he was phenomenal. Uh,
going into the playoffs, he couldn't play, so they had
to play the Raiders with Cliff Stout at quarterback. Close
down through a touchdown, he threw a pick, he threw
for utter and eight seven yards, not nearly enough. The
Raiders win thirty ten, ending the Pittsburgh Steelers season and
(16:06):
ending the career of Terry Bradshaw. In the offseason, the
Steelers were a little nervous about what was gonna happen.
They didn't know, so they trade for David Woodley in
February because clearly David Woodley was a guy that well,
just Dan Marino just you know, shows up and boy,
you don't need David Woodley anymore. And he was a
guy that went to the Super Bowl, and all right,
maybe we can, you know, have him play for us,
(16:28):
because Cliff Stout wasn't the guy. I mean, this is
the only real extended playing time Cliff Stout ever had
in the NFL. And yet, as you said, he had
a season where he would have lost his job by
week six. They trade for David Woodley, who may be
the most popular guy in special teams. Just for a second,
how many podcasts have we done that have David Woodley
in them. I'd have to go through the list, but
(16:54):
I think we can. We can check him off at
least four times by now. No, I think it's like
we'll have another one with Dave and Woodley. So they
trade with Woodley in February. Now they don't know what's
going on with Bradshaw, but Bradshaw couldn't play it anymore.
Officially retired in late July, and a simultaneous announcement of
his retirement on CBS with the announcement he was going
(17:17):
to CBS to be an NFL commentator. So thinking about
the Bradshaw who's now think about how long he's been
on the air since three he retired and was gonna
join CBS and retired. On CBS, they covered this in
a big way like it was, you know, something something
going on with the president, and mainly was because hey,
(17:38):
Bradshaw's retiring. Look at such a popular quarterback. He's gonna
join CBSS NFL coverage. So CBS kind of blew it
up and said, yeah, hey, Terry Bradshaw's retiring, and it
became that biggest story, huge story. But think think of
the dominoes for your life, Jason Smith. Had they not
looked at the idea of Dan Marino, you know what,
(17:59):
we can't to have him play in his backyard, that's
too much pressure. Had they pulled the trigger and take
him the pit quarterback and made him their selection in
eighty three, life for a little Jason Smith might have
been a lot easier before Tom Brady showed up. I mean,
can you imagine, because because in eighty three they knew
(18:21):
Bradshaw's elbow was bad, so we gotta get an extra,
we gotta get somebody. And the Steelers didn't want to
draft Marino. As you said, Art Rooney, you know, I
don't know that he's playing so close to home. The
pressures might be too much for him. And Art Rooney
too many people say that. Every single day from like
(18:41):
the mid eighties on, he told somebody we should have
drafted Den Marino every single day. Couldn't you just think
should have drafted down? I lay me down to sleep.
Damn it. I forgot to tell someone I should have
drafted Marino today. Just pick someone out of my rollodex
and we gotta call him. So how the Steelers have
to go on without Bradshaw? And Bradshaw said he knew
(19:04):
that at some point if he did come back, that
the elbow was just gonna betray him again. So that's
why he didn't play, and because the Steelers held out hope,
and I think he held out hope he was gonna play,
but he knew just the way it felt everything. Listen,
I'm gonna come back and the same thing is gonna happen.
I'm gonna throw a few passes and and the elbow
is gonna go and it's not worth it for me.
I have the chance to go to the broadcast booth him.
(19:26):
You talked about going right from the playing field of
the broadcast. I mean, this is Terry Bradshaw, and he
you know, he and John Madden were the first big stars, uh,
star analysts. I mean, Madden became an industry in of himself.
But people forget how popular Bradshaw was in the early
days with CBS, and then jumping to Fox is a
big coup. And he's been there for you know, almost
(19:47):
thirty years now. You know, Bradshaw and John Madden really
were were together for a while as far as what
people thought, and look, Madden was a great announcer for
a long time. But he's Terry bradch almost forty years later.
So rolling, thrilling, rolling strong, and you know it's not
like you remember brad Shaw like you remember Madden. He's
just the Madden guy. I mean, brad shows he's been
on television forever now, an amazing two part story to
(20:14):
the life, right, I mean the football career and then
what he's been in media, uh and entertainment right, a
new reality show in you can talk about the singing
career as a player, post playing career, the number of
books he's written and obviously part of you know a
team in Fox NFL Sunday that's in the Broadcasters Hall
(20:35):
of Fame. And he's still sharp as attack, funny as hell,
and a guy that is no dummy, but we'll play
one on TV, right. I mean that that's really what
it comes down to. I've only met him once a
long time ago, with a lot you know that that
whole team just it's such a well oiled machine and
(20:58):
it's a family, you know. It's on what we try
to foster in what we do at at Fox Sports Radio. Now.
It's just everybody feels like they belong and you can
see that and it comes across with what they do
on air and how they accept their roles and and
step out as they need to now and again. But yeah,
(21:18):
he he is an industry in and of himself, and
you know, he's always one of those guys that think
of Jason. You know, if if you took personal branding
the way we do it over the last decade, like
say you roll back his odometer twenty five years, that
you know, they think if some of the other things
(21:40):
you could have gotten into. I don't know that there's
much he hasn't done at this point, but just the
the level of stardom I'm cu rating, I don't I
don't know anybody that doesn't like to hear what Terry
Bradshaw is gonna say, because you're not sure if it's
going to be a biting criticism because he's blunt and
his assessment of players. And I think that's as you know,
(22:03):
guys that cover sports and do sports talk radio and
just as fans at the base of it, like that's
all you want, right, there's enough guys that just can't
criticize players, say not, it's still part of you know,
my I'm still part of the larger fraternities, like no,
your jobs to to sometimes say what isn't the kindest
(22:24):
to some of the players and their aptitude or coaches
for that matter. Uh, And that's something he's always been
willing to do. So Terry Bradshaw plays his final game
against the Jets. They win, they go to the playoffs,
they get blown out, Bradshaw goes to the broadcast booth.
Things actually didn't get really bad for the Steelers after this.
(22:45):
Plus what Jets fans did following the loss of the Steelers.
I know, I know, I know, we got that coming
up next right here on Special Teams to close the
(23:07):
book on Terry Bradshaw before we get to the Steelers
the following season and what Jets fans did after the game. Uh,
bradshaws two touchdowns against the Jets allowed him to finish
his career with two d and twelve touchdowns and two
hundred and ten interceptions. So he was Eli Manning. You
know what, I gotta I gotta keep that above five hundred.
(23:29):
He has even number of touchdowns and picks. People forget
you listen, this is you know, Bradshaw's era was winning
Super Bowls, and yes he made a lot of big plays,
but he threw a lot of picks and this allowed
him to finish with two more touchdowns than interceptions. All right,
But but it's like we were talking about before though, Jason, right,
I mean, the interception doesn't have the same same negative
(23:53):
stigma that it does now. Back then, it was all right,
we're gonna run the ball, bunch, but if we're gonna
take a shot down field, it's we either make a
player it's picked, which is as good as a punt.
That used to be the logic, right, because he was
what was his career completion percentage? It was not not
all that high when you go down into the annals, right,
(24:14):
I mean what, yeah, Well, quarterbacks weren't generally they just
weren't as accurate and you knew throwing the ball down
field was going to be sometimes could be just a
toss up play. You know, the player. The quarterbacks aren't
as disciplined as they as they are now are are
throwing into much better situations. And whereas back then it
(24:37):
was okay, we understand quarterbacks are gonna throw picks. I
mean his first year he threw six touchdowns and twenty
four picks. I mean, that was Terry Branch. That's the
end of your career. Now, six and that gets you
one way ticket to the Jets. So that was his career.
But it's funny because right we we as we got underway,
(24:57):
you had one of the early breakout perfore. This is
Joe Burrow with his sixty one passes in Week two
against the Browns, Troy Aikman quipping, Yeah, and he took
me three weeks to throw sixty passes in my day
for the for the Cowboys. I mean, just to show
you how different things are now. And and just think
about this for Terry Bradshaw, right, he went to the
(25:20):
Pro Bowl three times. That's it. Hall of Fame quarterback.
You win four Super Bowls, you go to the Hall
of Fame because that's the difference in the Hall of
Fame and Pro Football versus Major League Baseball. You win
a lot, you go to the Hall of Fame. There's
no way he would keep his job. Now even after
the first couple of seasons, his touchdown interceptions right six
(25:40):
and twenty four, his second year thirteen and twenty two.
Then he was twelve and twelve, then he was ten
and fifteen, then he was seven and eight. I mean,
that's that's not you. There's no way you make it
that long in the NFLF yet. But they had one
big year where they won eleven games, and then he
was eight and one when he played nine games in
nineteen s any three and then his his sea His
(26:02):
career started to take off once you got to the
mid to the late nineteen seventies. But this was Terry
Bradshaw's career. You remember it as boy all the Super Bowls,
but it was statistically it was kind of a mixed bag.
And and and finishing with two twelve verses to ten
is a really big deal for him because look, Eli Manning.
The debate for Eli Manning in the Hall of Fame
(26:22):
is gonna come down to look at touchdowns interceptions. But
but he won two Super Bowls, which is why Eli
Manning is going to get into the Hall of Fame.
But Terry Bradshaw, it was really similar to him. And
when he left, it's not like the Steelers missed a beat. Right,
You think, okay, all they're done. They don't have a quarterback. Well,
in ninety four they had drafted Louis Lips. Remember how
(26:43):
good he was. Louis Lips Offensive Rookie of the Year.
They beat the forty Niners in October. It was the
Niners only lost all season. Right, Pitts still won the
a f C Central At nine and seven, they had
five Pro Bowlers. John Stalworth was the NFL Comeback Player
of the Year, Mark Malone and David Woodley split time.
(27:04):
Mark Malone got most of it. You know, Pittsburgh is
still segue into who they would become next. And in
these years of players diminishing and trying to bring into
they still had two straight a f C Central titles
the past two years to celebrate and it was insane.
You think, okay, well here it is, they're coming to
the end. And in eighty four they still get to
(27:25):
the a f C Championship. Game, they somehow beat Denver
and John Elway and they lose to Miami. They lose
to Dan Marino, who makes the Super Bowl for the
only time of his career. Malone had a great game
through for three hundred and three touchdowns, but Marino went
for four hundred and four touchdowns, a little bit more,
(27:46):
a little bit better. The Steelers got to see up
close the guy they could have drafted, stopping them from
getting into another Super Bowl. And that was the the
season after for the Steelers. With Bradshaw walking away. Somehow
they still almost got to the super Bowl. And that
that shows you. Yes, you had the Steelers winning super Bowls,
but this eighty three team and eighty four again, how
(28:09):
they got to where they did, winning divisions, getting to
the playoffs, getting an FC championship games with teams that
you would say, there's no way they should got here, No,
they should have gotten there. Well, look at the point
total though from that eight four team they put up
three eight seven points. That was more than the point
totals of the prior four teams. And I mean then
(28:32):
there's a four six team mix in there, but that
total best many of those Bradshaw squads. Uh and then
i'd be remiss, right, you have several years of malone,
and then we get the Bubby Brister years. Yeah yeah,
we yeah all offensive coordinator, sure yeah yeah yeah, eight, eight, five,
(28:54):
and eleven and nine. But two winning years from Bobby Brister,
that's fine. Then it goes to Neil O'Donnell. We started
drifting into the cow our age, and we we know
the legacy between color and town like what they've been
able to keep going. But yeah, for Terry Bradshaw, you know,
if you look at them, the career, the numbers, the titles,
(29:18):
and and the talent that surrounded him, just an amazing
uh continuity. And then look that that organization speaks to
what y'all hope to achieve in your domestic life and
in your professional life of some level of consistency, continuity,
uh and resolve. All right, So that's the how you
(29:39):
see how special the Steelers were in eighty three and
eighty four looked surrounded and sandwiched in Terry Bradshaw's final
game of the NFL. Alright, so now what happened to
the Jets? Okay, so the Jets play like they were
they were going to to the meadow lands. And after
the game was over, you know, the Jets lose, they
get killed. You know Bradshaw, We still don't know what's
going on with him. Sets fans come running out of
(30:01):
the stands to tear the goal post down, all right.
They picked up sod to keep it and ran away
with it, and they also picked up some of the
sod and threw it at the police who were on
the field trying to keep order. Fifteen people got arrested
as Jets fans tore the goal post down. And then
there were people because I remember watching the news that night,
(30:23):
there was video of people on the subway with seats
from Shasta. They ripped the seats out so they could
take them with them because it was a souvenir, because
the Jets were going to play in the medal Lands,
and there were people on the subway with seats because
I'm trying to get these on. I mean, who steals
the seat when people's skull seats and they were bringing
them home. And that was what it was, and that
(30:43):
was Jets football. I mean, all the things that was
taken from that stadium as souvenirs that day, I mean
I didn't see it coming. I mean, I was like, Wow,
I didn't think Jets fans really we really cared all
that much. Hey, we're going to the Metal Lands. It's
gonna be great. We're leaving Chase Stadium, okay. And just
watching the scene at the end of the game with
fans coming on the field and trying to tear the
goalpost down and everything, I'm like, these are my people,
(31:05):
these are these are Jets fans. But boy, when I
saw in the news people with the with the seats
on the subway, that was next level. That really was
I can say this, I um, I'm looking right now.
You can get a pair of seats from Sha Stadium
green six hundred bucks from person holding onto him for
the last three sell him. Now. Look, I I don't
(31:28):
know what the providence is, but they've been uh sitting
in a warehouse in Indiana. According to this they were
removed in two thousand eight, so not stolen during that
Fateful Day, or at least that's the semi legal story
of it. Was getting these you know what can't can't
(31:51):
fall to good yarn? All right, So let's finish this yard.
What about somewhere are they now? From? From this podcast? Here?
What do we got all right. Other them being a
Hall of Famer, let's give a little love to John Stalworth.
UH founded with an engineer friend of his something called
Madison Research so services and Parts and software for government
(32:14):
use UH, computer maintenance for space and Missile Defense Commands
Center UH in Huntsville, Alabama. They sold the company in
two thousand six for sixty nine million dollars. UH. They
later created something called Genesis to to start business business development,
but also helping with a number of charities. UH. And
(32:37):
the foundation gives out giant chunks of money to scholarships.
So good for them. Mbout and wait real before we
got just to talk about him for a second winning
comeback Player of the Year, just for because an eighty three.
You know, Bradshaw's last year he got hurt. He only
played in four games and it's the majority of the season.
So he's thirty one years old. He comes back at
(32:57):
thirty two, and not only did he win, I'm back
Player of the Year, he had his best year in
the National Football League. He caught eighty passes, that's the
most he ever caught in his career, yards, receiving most
in his career, eleven touchdowns, most touchdowns in his career.
So he comes back from that big injury and I'm
(33:18):
sure Bradshaw saying, great, where the hell were you when
I was? But you know, he comes back and as
that kind of year after coming off an injury that
cost him the majority of the season. That's some kind
of comeback play. Well it's crazy, right, It's all about
spreading the ball around and trying to figure out who
gets fed in that process. My buddy's Craig Wolfley and
(33:39):
Touch Hilkin alignment on this squad. Uh. They've been on
the radio broadcast forever. Good friends helping me as I
was getting started in the business with a lot of
advice and well, showing me around the greater parts of Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
So you go to the Rolling Rock, uh, and and
have a beer with him. Well, we didn't go to
the Rolling Rock, but we found, you know, some other
(34:01):
places to hang out, and they ate with me in
the in the lunch room. You know, I got to
go eat with the players. So we learned what Ben
Roethlisberger at the time had on his iPod. Okay, and
there was some mocking going on, and you know, you
get like that's one thing about the Steelers right for
training camp tours like I used to do, going around
doing write ups and you know when they let you
(34:23):
watch practice and take notes and and all of that.
Uh is the Steelers would let you if you were
going to hold up for a couple of days, they
had a dorm you could stay at and then you
get to go into the uh the jowl line. You know,
don't get the players way. I mean that their food
is there's but you know you got to eat there,
(34:44):
and you know, occasionally the players would invite you over
to come and hang uh and talk it out a
little bit and you know, figure you out. How did
you not get on the Steeler broadcast that how's it not? Da?
It's Ron Wolfley with Don Chilkin and Mike Harmon. Yeah,
Craig in Tounch you're doing their thing. Uh. Well, Ron's
his brother in Arizona, buddy getting it done. Uh those
(35:09):
are my guys. Yeah, Ron, Ron's we should have Ron
on with the Arizona doing what they're doing now. Uh.
In the season, Uh, as as Kyler Murray becomes a superstar, Uh,
maybe we'll be doing a special teams on Kyler Murray
next year. Making fun of Uh well, the fact that
he has showed the a's offer, but that's for another time.
(35:32):
We got Ted Peterson. He was an offensive lineman out
of Eastern Illinois. UM. He once was quoted talking about
Chuck Noll. He seethed intensity. That's a pretty good line.
How would you remember him? People? I will, I'll put
that on your tombstone years from What do you mean
(35:53):
you got more than you about twenty five years? Hey man?
That what's wrong with you? I'll give you another ten listen,
medicine that gets you gonna be Montgomery Burns and Treehouse
of Horror. Whereas your head with a robot body? How
old do you think I am, Mr Simpson? I am
(36:15):
only eight one? All right? So Ted Peterson retired athletic
director from Kanka Kankakee Community College and now he is
a community liaison, which means, you know, going in in
misogyny the community there to to work for Van drunning
(36:38):
farms in Moments, Illinois. How about that kind of a
good thing. Uh? And then you got Dwayne Woodruff cornerback
out of Louisville, judge in the Court of common Please. Yeah,
he's a judge. He just got re elected to another
term here in so he is just doing doing the
(37:05):
job and getting it done. He went to uh Duqueesne University, law,
does a lot of charitable work, uh Louisville Hall of Fame,
all these other things. But yeah, just uh has become
kind of a big deal there and and rolling up
his jersey Hanks and well, I don't know if it's
(37:26):
Papa John's Cardinal stadium anymore, that might be need need
to be changed. But he was a candidate for the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania unsuccessful, but he's got another Decker
in decade behind the bench. So there you go. There
it is. Where are they now? That Steelers team of
ninety three Terry Bradshaw's final game in the NFL? You
(37:50):
want to hit us up on Twitter at how about
a fresco Mike is at Swollen Domia the future idea
for a special teams episode? Let us know you never
know when it could wind up hitting the airwaves. Speaking
of airwaves, our radio show is heard on Fox Sports
Radio Monday through Friday, ten pm to two am on
the East coast, seven to eleven on the West coast.
We'll talk to you next week with another episode of
(38:12):
Special Teams. Special Teams is a production of I heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
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