Terry Bradshaw Still Feels Noll Humiliation, Doubts He'd Last In Today's NFL, Doesn't Think Brady Best Ever

The current generation knows Terry Bradshaw because he's on the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, but he was a superstar in his days as the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, winning four Super Bowls. He was an all-timer who to this day carries the scars of his relationship with his coach Chuck Noll.

"I got drafted by Pittsburgh by a coach [Noll] that didn't want me," Bradshaw says on the latest Nothing Left Unsaid podcast released Wednesday morning. "I know that for a fact. He did not want to draft me and the Rooneys made him draft me. 

"So I went to an organization, a great organization, but a coach that wanted a Johnny Unitas. He wanted a guy that poured himself into the film room. He wanted a guy that was a vocal leader, and I was none of that. I’m just a player. I played by the seat of my pants. I was a 'feel' quarterback."

Fox Sports host and former NFL quarterback Terry Bradshaw. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Noll Made Bradshaw Stand On Chair

Noll didn't quite feel Bradshaw's personality or approach, so he tried to change it in his own 1960s authoritarian way. 

"One day, nobody, knows this, the only person is Joe Greene, maybe Mel Blount," Bradshaw says. "But, one day he made me stand up there in a chair and he just tore into me because I had missed a film session because of a snowstorm that I couldn't get to Pittsburgh.

"I called him and said, 'Hey, you know, here's the situation.' The next day, boy, it was so humiliating, and I actually ended up hating him. I can say that. I hated him. He wasn't nice to me. Always condescending, I never could figure out why he even drafted me.

"Stuff that's still to this day scarred me. I'm not going to lie to you, I'm bitter about it. Very bitter. I don't like being called dumb."

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw (12) talks to head coach Chuck Noll on the sidelines. Photo: Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Bradshaw Different After Praying To God

It seems as if Noll on some level broke Bradshaw. The quarterback started, then was benched, then brought off the bench, then benched again.

"So I just thought I was really going to be a failure," Bradshaw says. "Seriously, I was a failure. I'm five years in the league and I remember sitting in my apartment, and I was crying. I couldn't understand why I was crying. I'm a teddy bear anyway. 

"I'm a real emotional guy, and I was just, just praying to God, you know, help me, help me, help me handle this. I can't handle this. Help me handle this situation. It's devastating to me because I'd always, I'd always been good. And now I wasn't. 

"And I got through praying that night and I went to bed and I got up and the next morning when I went to practice, I was a different person. Nothing bothered me. I was totally at peace when I got to play. Played well and never lost a job again."

CANTON, Ohio - Pittsburgh Steelers former center Mike Webster (left) and quarterback Terry Bradshaw pose with Webster's bust after his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on July 26, 1997. Photo: USA TODAY Sports

Today's NFL Might Cut Bradshaw

Bradshaw led the Steelers to four Super Bowl championships after that. He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But he doesn't believe that career could happen in today's NFL.

"I was nowhere emotionally ready for the NFL, intellectually ready for the NFL. I had way too much to learn, way too much growing up to do that," Bradshaw says.

"If Terry Bradshaw that you know today went into the NFL, or if you take me from the ’70s and put that Terry Bradshaw in the NFL today, I would not have made it. I’d have been cut. I’d have been out of the league by my third year. That’s how bad I was playing. That’s how up and down my career went.

"And as quickly as these coaches have to win today …"

Point made. Bradshaw doesn't think any team today would be able to wait five years before their quarterback finds himself.

Tom Brady, Getty Images

Tom Brady Not The Best, Terry?

Now Bradshaw is paid to give his analysis on Fox NFL Sunday. 

And here's one for you: He doesn't think former Patriots and Buccaneers quarterback and current Fox colleague Tom Brady was the greatest quarterback of all time.

"People always say, 'Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback to ever play," Bradshaw begins. "OK. Is he really? Otto Graham might be the greatest quarterback to ever play. How many titles did Otto win? Ten? Look it up. 

"And Tom lost three. I was 4–0. [Joe] Montana was 4–0. Brady was 7–3. Seven minus three is four. Four, four, four — that’s how I look at it."

Well, if that's the way Bradshaw looks at it, he probably needs to stop mentioning Graham. I looked it up. Graham won four All-American Football Conference titles. That league, a competitor to the NFL, folded in 1949.

In the NFL, Graham played in six championship games, but the Browns lost three of those games. So, by Bradshaw's thinking, six minus three equals three.