Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw never had the smoothest relationship with Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll.
Noll, who drafted Bradshaw in the first round of the 1970 NFL Draft out of Louisiana Tech, was tough on the quarterback, even benching him a few times in his career.
By the end of Bradshaw’s career, he would be a four-time Super Bowl Champion in the 1970s, but the wounds between him and Noll never healed.
In a podcast appearance on the To The Point Home Service Podcast, Bradshaw talked about his relationship with Noll, which he still considers sour to this day.
“I did not like my head coach at all, Chuck Noll. He was not a nice person. And he was mean to me,” Bradshaw said. “In all my 14 years of playing for him, he never shook my hand one time, ‘Nice job, Terry.’ I was walking out, going onto the field to play the Cleveland Browns. And he stopped me and he said, ‘You mess up out there today, and I’ll bench your ass in the first half.’ I’m glad I played for him, cause I couldn’t stand him, and I learned, I learned through the hurt and the pain of someone taking something from me that I absolutely love, which was quarterbacking the Steelers.”
Bradshaw notably did not show up to Noll’s viewing or funeral in 2014 when he died. That ruffled lots of feathers in Pittsburgh, but Bradshaw has made no qualms about his relationship with Noll.
Bradshaw hosted a show at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh a day after Noll’s passing, where he expressed gratitude for Noll.
“Before I go forward with the show, I wanted to let you know that I am well aware of the passing of Chuck Noll,” Bradshaw said. “I find it kind of odd I’m here on the day it was announced that he had passed. It’s a strange evening. I want to show respect to one of the greatest coaches in the National Football League. I had my moments with him. God knows I did. He took me from a spoiled kid. He slapped me around a little bit. I hated him for it. The bottom line was we won Super Bowl championships. I don’t have a coach anymore. I don’t have my high school coach. I don’t have my college coach. And now I don’t have my NFL coach. It’s kind of an empty feeling tonight. God bless Marianne, Chris and the Noll family. I am going to pay homage to my coach.”
Bradshaw, 76, has worked as a studio analyst for CBS and FOX Sports since the 1980s, following his retirement from the NFL.
Bradshaw joined FOX in 1994 when NFL Today launched, but he says that he will likely retire when FOX gets another Super Bowl after Super LIX.
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