It turns out Terry Bradshaw knew something about Tom Brady before anybody else did — at least inadvertently.
On Wednesday, an old newspaper headline from 1983 went viral on social media. The headline described how Bradshaw, then the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, underwent elbow surgery at a Louisiana hospital. As a major star, Bradshaw checked into the hospital under an assumed name — which just happened to be Tom Brady.
On this date in 1983, the winningest quarterback in Super Bowl history checked into a Louisiana hospital using an assumed name. pic.twitter.com/Yr3ujc0fHC
— Quirky Research (@QuirkyResearch) March 3, 2021
Bradshaw confirmed that the story was real, and that he had forgotten about it completely until Wednesday’s reminder.
“Tom Brady! How lucky am I?” Bradshaw told Ed Bouchette of The Athletic. “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?” Bradshaw joked. “Think about it. Every record he owns he had to go through me. Get used to that, Tom Brady.”
The irony is that Bradshaw hasn’t always ranked Brady atop his personal quarterback list. Maybe with this reminder, the current Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback will get a bit of a boost there.
Photo: Elizabeth Fraser/United States Army/Arlington National Cemetery via Wikimedia
