I Was a Champion on the Field and Broken at Home | Terry Bradshaw

Lewis Howes (0:02)

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There's nothing more powerful than hope. That's Terry Bradshaw, a man who won four Super Bowls and still had to fight his way back from three divorces, cancer twice in the same year, and a depression he didn't even fully understand until his 40s. And if you've ever felt like the world only sees your highlight reel, the wins, the title, the trophies, while you're quietly falling apart behind it, then this episode is for you. Because Terry's proof that success doesn't protect you from pain, and that getting hit isn't the story, getting back up is. In this episode, you're going to hear Terry get honest about therapy, faith, learning to say no without guilt, and why hope was the only thing that pulled him through when nothing else could. Terry Bradshaw is a Pro Football Hall of Famer, four-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers, longtime host of NFL Fox Sunday, and author of the new memoir, Looking for Terry. My name is Lewis Howes. This is The School of Greatness, and let's welcome Terry Bradshaw.

When was the season of your life, and maybe it's now, but when was the season of your life you were the most competent in yourself, and when was the season of life where you were the least competent? Just as our human being, whether it be in all areas of life.

Terry Bradshaw (2:05)

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the player. I never was supremely confident as a quarterback in the NFL. Really? I always had fear. I was always scared of losing. I hate that feeling. I mean, I watched these guys today. I watched Peyton Mannings and John Elwes and the Stalbacks that are just, you can just see it. You can see Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. You can see Allen in Buffalo, Matthew Stafford at the Ram. You can see, you just watch them.

They're just filled with confidence. I was always afraid of losing. I just say to myself, don't think I haven't had this conversation hundreds of times over myself. I lost my throw in motion because of my confidence.

And I went home and I tried to pick up and figure out how to rotate the football. I mean, I lost all of that.

Lewis Howes (3:09)

Really?

Terry Bradshaw (3:10)

I basically started over.

Lewis Howes (3:11)

Interesting. Yeah.

Terry Bradshaw (3:13)

And it was such a struggle.

I worked on it my entire career.

It was just in college. I just throw the pros, I guess, for all the negative and afraid to make mistakes. You internalize everything. I can't make a mistake. I'm calling a pass. Oh, you got to complete this pass. If you don't complete this pass, then you might not be able to throw another, you know. It was crazy, man. I hate telling. You know what? I hate saying that because it's like, oh, come on, Dan, you did all these Super Bowls. Yeah. I'm proud of the fact that I had all these struggles and I've yet to play, you know, but God, I just...

Lewis Howes (4:00)

What do you think you would have been had you had more confidence in yourself, even though you excelled so well, you won four Super Bowls being afraid. But what do you think you would be if you were fearless and had all the confidence in the world like these guys today that you're talking about?

Terry Bradshaw (4:14)

Well, I will say this, confidence as a player or the guy that can handle the situation, I did get that, but I still struggled. I threw with a finger on the tip of the ball, which is wrong. I tried everything in the world to get my hand off the tip, because the more skin you have on a football, the better you'll throw it, the better you'll control it, and the more accurate it will be. I knew that, but I practiced, and I just, it would not, it didn't, if we'd have had quarterback clinics and quarterback gurus back in my day, I would have gone to them to change it, and they could have helped me, and I would have been so much more accurate, you know, and so much more control. And my whole process wasn't getting hit or even coverages. Mine was when, is the timing going to be right? Because I've thrown a ball in the Super Bowl XIV, I threw a pass to a guy wide open, that ball came out of my hand, whack, whack, whack, whack, whack.