Books: "Looking for Terry: A Memoir" By Terry Bradshaw

 

Looking for Terry: A Memoir

By Terry Bradshaw, with David Fisher

Harper Select; hardcover, 272 pages; $29.99

Terry Bradshaw is one of the most beloved sports figures of the past half century. The Blond Bomber, as he was known in his playing days, led the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl championships. He has been a fixture on NFL coverage, first with CBS, and then since 1994, on the pregame show FOX NFL Sunday. In addition to that, he also has been a movie and television actor and an entrepreneur. His larger-than-life personality, marked by his humor and self-deprecation, made him a household name beyond the gridiron. The exploits of Terry and his family were showcased on The Bradshaw Bunch on E! Entertainment from 2020-22. "Pappy" Bradshaw and his wife Tammy live in Texas near their daughters Rachel, Lacey, and Erin, and their families.

Looking for Terry: A Memoir is his first memoir in over twenty years, and it was named an instant bestseller on the New York Times Bestseller List last Wednesday, October 21. In this revealing, heartfelt memoir, Bradshaw pulls back the curtain on the persona the public thinks it knows.

"We all carry our history inside us no matter how much we change on the outside," Bradshaw writes. "Somewhere, I'm still getting up the courage to kiss that young woman behind the billboard - but don't tell Tammy, please. Those memories can be warm and wonderful, but they also can trigger feelings that carry hurt with them...

"Now at seventy-seven I'm looking back more than I'm looking forward, and I've found there's a different kind of satisfaction in that. This book isn't about where I'm headed. It's about where I've been, what I've learned, and who I've become along the way.

"Honesty is what I'm after here. I've survived two bouts of cancer. I've built a life I love with my wife Tammy. I've watched my kids grow up and had the joy of becoming a grandfather. I've spent  thirty-two years at Fox, and I won't pretend the thought of that ending someday doesn't scare me a little. But I've also come to see the freedom on the other side of it. I still run a horse and cattle operation. I still take the stage when someone asked me to speak. I'm not done yet."

Terry Bradshaw. Provided by Harper Select.

Originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, Bradshaw was a football fanatic from a very young age, with dreams of being a quarterback. He played in college at Louisiana State, and then embarked on his NFL career

It's hard to believe, but the Steelers were a 1-13 the year before they drafted Bradshaw, so there was a lot put on him to make them a winner. He writes about how the veterans treated him, the kind of tests they put on him, which he expected because he was paid similarly. He reveals how tough his relationship with Head Coach Chuck Noll was, and that goes into his analysis of coaches in general, and how he always admired how Jimmy Johnson, who he co-hosted Fox NFL Sunday with for years, handled his Dallas Cowboys teams who he led to two Super Bowl victories.

This really is a history of sport in the way Bradshaw analyzes it, starting with how the league on TV grew in the 1970s, with an emphasis on rivalries, that they would generate the most interest. That was especially true of the Steelers rivalry with the Oakland Raiders. Fans of the silver and black hated his Steelers after the "Immaculate Reception" in 1972. "Hated us. And hating makes ratings!" Bradshaw writes. By the time Bradshaw retired, in 1982, the NFL signed a five-year, $1.8 billion deal with the TV networks.

Bradshaw does not shy from how his reputation for being "not too smart" followed him throughout his career, but instead of resenting it, he came to embrace it. Bradshaw leaned into the humor of it, and discovered it could be both a shield and a superpower. What came of it is the always-game-for-a-laugh Bradshaw, but behind the punchlines was a more complicated man, one who felt trapped by the character he created. It is a story of vulnerability, as much as it is a reflection on fame and perception.

In addition to that, by the end of his football career, one in which he routinely played through injuries, Bradshaw developed a reputation for being tough. That led to him doing a pilot episode for NBC in which he would play a stock car driver. The network didn't pick it up, so he returned for the 1982 season, and he played the season through with a right elbow injury, one he says would shut quarterbacks down today, but he took pride in playing hurt.

Bradshaw is candid about his struggle with depression, his deeply personal battle with cancer, and the role his faith played in carrying him through those very dark moments. 

It is a story about resilience, reinvention, and the courage it takes to tell the truth about yourself, even in a world where everyone thinks they know who you are. This memoir will make you appreciate, as he puts it, "the guy who plays Terry Bradshaw on TV."