40yearfan said:
Wally, did you ever see him play? He didn't have a great arm, was only a little mobile and would probably be considered an average QB by many. All he knew how to do was win games and win them he did. That's not a dumb QB. With all his handicaps, he was still able to figure out how to win. That's a smart QB.
I saw him play his whole career. He had a great arm. Extremely mobile. Dumb as a rock.
" He was the middle child of three sons born to a welder and his wife in Shreveport, LA.His athletic prowess wasn’t recognized until his senior year at Woodlawn High School where he finally earned a starting quarterback position and guided his team to the state semi-finals. A few months later his powerful arm was seen again when he set a national record throwing the javelin. Although 200 colleges offered him track scholarships, the young man dreamed of playing pro football. He accepted a football scholarship to LA Tech University.
Four years later Terry Bradshaw arrived in Pittsburgh as a two time Division II All-American, the MVP of the Senior Bowl and the number No.1 draftee of the National Football League. He couldn’t have predicted the struggle that came with his rookie years.
The celebrated athlete with the magic arm was suddenly booed and ridiculed on and off the field, mocked for his southern drawl, labeled a dumb quarterback and given a degrading new moniker, “Li’l Abner.” Terry Bradshaw not only rose to the challenge he demolished it, leading the Pittsburg Steelers to four Super Bowl victories in six years. And he did it all calling his own plays during the heat of the battle.
And once he hung up his cleats, Terry embraced the good ol’ boy image and parlayed it into a successful broadcasting career, becoming an Emmy award winning TV commentator.
Some people would say the Blond Bomber from Louisiana Tech got the last laugh. Terry Bradshaw once said,
“I might be dumb, but I ain’t stupid.” -- Terry Bradshaw
" Even his coach, Chuck Noll, doubted Bradshaw on occasion, benching him at various times for Terry Hanratty and Joe Gilliam, though that ended in 1974, Pittsburgh's first Super Bowl season. Bradshaw's teammates wondered about their quarterback as well. When he once called a power sweep on third-and-30, two offensive linemen threatened to punch him unless he changed the play. At least partly because of his down-home speech patterns, Bradshaw was referred to as "Li'l Abner," a backwoods cartoon character, even as he led the Steelers to their first NFL championship in 1974."
" Dallas linebacker Thomas (Hollywood) Henderson told reporters: "He [Bradshaw] is so dumb, he couldn't spell cat if you spotted him a C and an A."