Pro football surpassed pro baseball as America’s No. 1 pastime in the 1970s, and Terry Bradshaw was a big reason why. Bradshaw’s role in the Pittsburgh Steelers winning four Super Bowls helped make the NFL and the Super Bowl the immense successes they are today.
Super Bowls were mostly duds until Super Bowl X, when Bradshaw’s bombs to Lynn Swann propelled Pittsburgh to a thrilling four-point win over the Cowboys. It was the first Super Bowl that lived up to the hype, which led to the following year’s Super Bowl surpassing Game 7 of the 1975 World Series as the most-watched sporting event in American history at that time.
Bradshaw’s Steelers didn’t play in that Super Bowl, but they did play in two more Super Bowls that further added to the Super Bowl’s booming popularity.
The lead-up to Super Bowl XIII was Cowboys linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson proclaiming that Bradshaw couldn’t spell “cat” if he spotted him the “C” and the “T.” Bradshaw responded by throwing for then-Super Bowl records 318 yards and four touchdowns in leading the Steelers to a 35-31 win over the defending champions.
That game surpassed the first Steelers-Cowboys showdown as the unofficial greatest Super Bowl ever for one year. Super Bowl XIV was given that title after the Rams gave Bradshaw and Co. everything they could handle in front of the largest crowd (103,985) to ever attend a Super Bowl.
Trailing 19-17 in the fourth quarter and facing a third-and-long, Bradshaw went deep and hit John Stallworth for one of the most dramatic touchdowns in Super Bowl history. The duo’s 45-yard completion moments later put the game on ice while putting a bow on the Steelers’ dynasty.
Bradshaw was named Super Bowl MVP in both games while becoming the second player to win the award twice. He was the only four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback until Joe Montana matched him a decade later. To this day, only Tom Brady has more Super Bowl wins than Bradshaw, whose 4-0 record in Super Bowls is mirrored only by Montana.
While most of his records have been broken, Bradshaw still has two Super Bowl records that have yet to be duplicated. He’s the only quarterback to win back-to-back Super Bowls twice. He’s also the only quarterback to throw the game-clinching touchdown pass in the fourth quarter of four different Super Bowls.
Bradshaw also called in his own plays, so you could say that he was 4-0 as a Super Bowl play-caller. One of his best Super Bowl play calls was his decision to give the ball to a fuming Franco Harris late in Super Bowl XIII. Harris, who was fired up after Henderson threw Bradshaw down after the whistle on the previous play, took off like a rocket after Bradshaw gave him the ball and didn’t stop until he was in the back of the end zone.
“I loved calling a running game,” Bradshaw told CBS Sports in 2021. “I liked to be smart at the line of scrimmage, get us out of this running play, put us in another running play. Run three in a row, run five in a row! I enjoyed that as a quarterback. For me, that was a challenge. I enjoyed studying those fronts and how to go after them.”
Montana and Brady’s Super Bowl exploits earned them a seat at the table along with Bradshaw as the Super Bowl’s all-time great quarterbacks. Patrick Mahomes recently joined that select group of QBs after winning his third Super Bowl MVP (a feat matched by only Brady and Montana) following the Chiefs’ win over the 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII.
Mahomes, Montana and Brady are deserving of whatever praise is thrown their way regarding their performance in Super Bowls. But don’t forget about Bradshaw and his unique place in Super Bowl history.
