The Pittsburgh Steelers have had the pleasure of having two separate legendary quarterbacks play for the organization: Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger. Both have delivered the city of Pittsburgh multiple championships, and are important factors as to why the Steelers are considered one of the best franchises in all of professional sports. The Steelers were able to land each of these quarterbacks with high picks in the first round of the NFL Draft, as Bradshaw was selected first overall in 1970 and Roethlisberger was picked 11th overall in 2004.
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Steelers franchise QB's Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger will go down as two of the best to ever play the game of football.
An organization finding a franchise quarterback through the NFL Draft can change everything. The Indianapolis Colts selected Peyton Manning in 1998, and they became contenders throughout the entire 2000s. The whole point of the draft working the way that it does is so the worst teams have the chance to pick the best players, which sometimes makes players feel the need to make demands to go elsewhere, which John Elway did in 1983. Bradshaw spoke out about Elway refusing to play for the Baltimore Colts, who selected him first overall, and eventually being traded to the Denver Broncos.
"He didn't want to go to a team that needed his services, the thing in the National Football League is the team with the worst record gets an opportunity to improve by picking the best player. And Elway going to Baltimore would have helped them a lot. By him saying, 'I don't want to do that', to me, it was a slap in the face to the draft and the National Football League. I could have come out, out of Louisiana when I was the first player picked and said, ‘Well, hold it. I don’t want to go up to Pittsburgh. It’s ugly, it’s cold, the people don’t understand a southern boy, and I want to be close to my mama.’ I could have done the same thing, but I didn’t. I went. And the thing why I went was because they were 1-13. I said, ‘Well, I’ll go up there and I’ll make them a winner.’ And we did."
The rest is history for Bradshaw, he played his way into the Hall of Fame, and won four Super Bowls during his career in a time where the Steelers dominated the 1970s. Elway was the first major prospect who refused to play for the team he was drafted by, and he had a ton of leverage because he had offers to play professional baseball instead of football. Many teams wound up contacting Baltimore trying to put a deal together for Elway, but ultimately Denver won the sweepstakes.
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Steelers Hall of Fame quarterback turned broadcaster Terry Bradshaw
Bradshaw was driven by the challenge of turning the struggling Steelers around. The year before drafting Bradshaw, Pittsburgh went 1-13. Bradshaw and the Steelers won Super Bowl IX at the end of the 1974 season, which started their streak of dominance. Bradshaw spoke more about Elway after he forced his way out of Baltimore.
"For a guy like Elway to come and say, ‘Well, I want to be on the West Coast and I want to be on the beach and I’m a California boy.’ Well, who cares what you are, you know? And he said, ‘Well, I’ll play baseball.’ Play baseball. You should play baseball, because in my opinion, he’s not the kind of guy you win championships with. He never did it when he was at Stanford. I don’t think he’ll do it Denver and personally, don’t care if he ever does it.”
Bradshaw was right about Elway for a long time, as a Super Bowl ring evaded him until his 15th season in the NFL. He brought Denver to the Super Bowl five times in his career, but couldn't win the big game until his fourth attempt in 1997. He returned for his final season in 1998 and won the Super Bowl a second time. As part of Bradshaw's broadcasting duties, he had to hand the Lombardi Trophy to Elway on the podium following the Broncos' victory.
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John Elway celebrates after beating the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII
Steelers Destroyed Elway In His First NFL Game
After Bradshaw's comments, it turned out that the Steelers and Broncos would be playing each other in Week 1 of the 1983 NFL season. The Broncos won the game 14-10, but Elway played so bad he had to be replaced. Bradshaw could not play in this game due to an elbow surgery he had over the previous offseason. Elway's final stat line in the game was 8 attempts, with just 1 completion, an interception, while being sacked 4 times.
It was surely a rough "welcome to the NFL" moment for Elway, but he eventually figured the league out as he is often considered one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
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