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…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/why-steelers-legend-terry-bradshaw-cant-be-forgotten-among-super-bowls-all-time-great-quarterbacks/
Author : Bryan DeArdo
Publish date : 2024-02-17 17:59:18
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