Terry Bradshaw once played football extremely well. You can cite his four Super Bowl rings, his multiple Pro Bowls, or his NFL MVP award from 1978. Now, as a 68-year-old, Bradshaw has redefined his image as a professional blowhard, speaking his mind almost to a fault.
Bradshaw, who was a career-Steelers guy, took aim at current Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin on a Fox Sports 1 show with vitriol in his voice for no reason whatsoever.
“He’s a nice coach. To me, I’ve said this, he’s really a great cheerleader guy,” Bradshaw said. “I don’t know what he does. I don’t think he is a great coach at all. His name never even pops up in my mind when we think about great coaches in the NFL.”
Bradshaw’s comments reportedly irked Steelers players, with guard David DeCastro telling ESPN that “hopefully it will fire us up the rest of the way” and teammates “weren’t happy about it.”
Tomlin, however, took the high road and articulated his response to make Bradshaw look like a spiteful turkey.
“Terms like ‘cheerleader guy,’ to me, maybe fall outside of bounds of critique or criticism,” Tomlin said during a news conference Tuesday. “They probably fall more toward the area of disrespect and unprofessional. But what do I know? I grew up a Dallas fan. Particularly a [Thomas] ‘Hollywood’ Henderson fan.”
In 1979, Henderson famously said about Bradshaw at the height of the Steelers-Cowboys rivalry: “He couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the C and the A.”
“I appreciate the support. But criticism and critique are very much a part of our business,” Tomlin said. “It’s an element of our business that as a competitor I embrace. The term ‘great,’ that’s something I have a great deal of respect for. I certainly don’t think that my résumé to this point reads as great. But very few coaches’ résumés read as that at this point. Guys like Bill [Belichick] in New England probably can say that, Pop [Gregg Popovich] down in San Antonio. I think the rest of us are just working stiffs, to be quite honest with you.” [ESPN]
Sure, Tomlin isn’t a Belichick or a Don Shula, but keep in mind, in 2009 Tomlin became the youngest head coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl championship. It also should be noted that he is just one of three Steelers coaches in franchise history to reach 90 wins. It took Tomlin just 141 games to reach 90 wins, while Bill Cowher managed it in 149 games and Chuck Noll in 193. Lay the fuck off, Bradshaw.