Steelers' Legend Terry Bradshaw Celebrates Remarkable 40th Anniversary That He Shares With Tom Brady

The Pittsburgh Steelers franchise quarterback and former league MVP Terry Bradshaw needed elbow surgery this time 40 years ago. The surgery was a last-ditch attempt to save his Hall of Fame career and ultimately, he would only play one more game for the Steelers before he hung up his cleats for good. Long-time Steelers fans know that he ended his career the next season after playing a half against the New York Jets.

When Bradshaw arrived at a Louisiana hospital to have a doctor attempt to resurrect his career by repairing his shoulder, he was trying to avoid publicity. He asked the hospital to check him under another name so that the press and well-wishers would not bother him during his convalescence. The alias chosen for the Hall of Fame quarterback was Tom Brady.

Steelers Legend Terry Bradshaw Endures Clueless Chris Wallace Interview During Super Bowl Week

If you get a tingle in your spine when you read about the coincidences surrounding John F Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, prepare for the football version. It is possible that Bradshaw got hold of a report card from a California kindergartner and surmised he would supplant him as the winningest quarterback in Super Bowl history, but it is unlikely. In truth, the famous NFL on Fox broadcaster didn’t choose the alias.

Friday morning on The Dan Patrick Show, the venerable host reminded his national audience that Friday was the anniversary of Bradshaw’s hospital stay as Brady. Dan Patrick and the Danettes posed the question of what made him choose the name and if it held any significance for him personally.

It would be a great story and add some spice if it was a family friend or a key figure in his life, but before we break out the tin foil hats the answer is much simpler. Bradshaw confessed the truth to Tampa Tribune reporter Tom Ford in 2021.

“I walked into the hospital exhausted,” Bradshaw said. “The doctors wouldn’t let me eat or drink for 24 hours. They took me to the emergency room, pulled down my pants, and gave me a pre-op shot — boom! That was it.”

“When I woke up after the operation, a doctor came into the room and told me they had used an alias so I’d be able to rest without being bothered. He said, ‘Your name is ‘Thomas Brady.’ That’s how it happened.”

The hospital administrator at the time, Charles Boyd, confirmed to the UPI (United Press International) that they had admitted Bradshaw under an alias, and the hospital chose the name arbitrarily. 

“Many times, we have to admit people under an assumed name,” Boyd was quoted. “Or under no name to keep the press and the fans away,” 

Bradshaw had some fun with a long-time Steelers insider about the story in March of 2021, Steelers beat writer Ed Bouchette. In a story that appeared in the Athletic, he joked about the link that bound him and Brady together. 

“Tom Brady! How lucky am I," Bradshaw told Bouchette. “There’s no question he and I are linked at the hip same initials, same number. I had hair back then. I was a sex symbol. I had it all going then. Everything Tom Brady has today is because of me, do you know that? Think about it. Every record he owns he had to go through me. Get used to that, Tom Brady.”

TB12 is more than a brand, it is the stuff that football legends are made of. These two icons of the Super Bowl are forever linked by the choice of a hospital employee who wrote down an alias for Bradshaw 40 years ago. No one at the hospital has ever taken credit for the specific alias.  

It is an amazingly fun coincidence that is inexplicable. The whereabouts of the Zoltar machine that gave us the plot of the movie Big are unaccounted for during this time. Coincidence? Probably but it sure is fun to envision a six-year-old Brady making a wish to be TB12. 

What do you think Steeler Nation? Was Brady stealing Bradshaw’s Magic as a young boy or is it just a quirky fact that makes you smile? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.  

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