The Steelers had never won a playoff game when they drafted Terry Bradshaw first overall in 1970. By January 1980, he had four Super Bowl rings and two Super Bowl MVP awards. Yet when the credit for one play went to one player, he admits he was annoyed.

“The tight end did a good job blocking. Franco missed his block. That’s why I was rushed, flushed out of the pocket. So I get out of the pocket, I’m stopped by the outside defensive end…” Terry Bradshaw went on to describe how he made the throw before going down.

“And then when I got up, and the place is going crazy, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is great. This is great.” And nobody’s telling me, “Great throw,” nothing. I’m, I’m, I’m just an afterthought. But the ball… And I’m going, “What happened? What happened?” Well, the ball went to Frenchy over the middle. Oh, that’s who I threw it to, Frenchy. All right? And the ball bounced in the air back towards the line of scrimmage, back towards the line of scrimmage, yeah, yeah. And Franco scooped it. Franco scooped it? He scooped it up. Franco, yeah, he scooped it, and then he ran into the end zone. Really. I’ve gotta tell you, I was pissed.”

It was the 1972 AFC divisional playoff game. The Steelers trailed the Oakland Raiders 7-6, with 22 seconds left and a fourth-and-10 in front of them. Bradshaw threw toward John “Frenchy” Fuqua, but Raiders safety Jack Tatum got there at the same moment, and the ball deflected away. Franco Harris grabbed it just before it hit the turf and ran it in for the winning touchdown.

Then came the argument. Back then, the NFL had a double touch rule, which was changed in 1978. If the ball hit Tatum after Fuqua, it stayed alive, and Harris’s catch counted. If Tatum never touched it, two offensive players had touched it in a row, and the catch would have been illegal. The whole play hung on that one question.

It also meant a lot for a franchise with almost no playoff history. Pittsburgh had made the postseason just once before, a 21-0 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in December 1947.

Things started to shift in 1969 when the team hired Chuck Noll. He went on to win four Super Bowls in six years, from 1975 to 1980, and that run began two years after the Immaculate Reception.

Bradshaw was the quarterback for all of it. The Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX (1974 season), then the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl X (1975 season). They beat the Cowboys again in Super Bowl XIII (1978 season) and finished by topping the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV (1979 season).

Nobody else won four as a quarterback until Joe Montana matched him years later, and only Tom Brady has more Super Bowl wins today.

He called his own plays too, so you could say he went 4-0 as a Super Bowl play caller. He told CBS Sports in 2021 how much he enjoyed that part of the job:

“I loved calling a running game,” Bradshaw told CBS Sports in 2021. “I liked to be smart at the line of scrimmage, get us out of this running play, put us in another running play. Run three in a row, run five in a row! I enjoyed that as a quarterback. For me, that was a challenge. I enjoyed studying those fronts and how to go after them.”

Patrick Mahomes has since joined that elite group, earning his third Super Bowl MVP after the Chiefs beat the 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. He, Montana, and Brady deserve all the praise they get.

Still, Bradshaw has a spot in Super Bowl history that’s all his own, and he threw one of its most famous passes.

The post “I Was Pissed”: Terry Bradshaw Doesn’t Hold Back Over Lack of Credit for Launching Steelers’ Super Bowl Dynasty appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.