The Blonde Bomber had spent decades taking hits, winning Super Bowls, and talking football every Sunday on FOX NFL Sunday, but cancer became an opponent Terry Bradshaw never saw coming. During a routine checkup in late 2021, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and just five months later, he was hit with a second diagnosis.
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“No, death did not frighten me,” Terry Bradshaw said on the No Time But Now Official podcast. “It did not in any way frighten me. Now, that’s easy to say because I haven’t been told, ‘You’re dying. Well, you’re going to die.’ I know I’m going to die. And when that time comes, how will I handle that with grace and strength and an understanding that God loves me?”
Bradshaw beat cancer twice, and it did not scare him. It sharpened his priorities, bringing him closer to faith, family, and the reality that time is never guaranteed.
“I’m going to go to heaven. I’m going to see my family again. Yes, that’s going to be my strength. And I’ve asked so many crazy questions here lately, kind of death things, like, ‘I’m not going to be here long.’ And I’m just talking all this, and I’m wondering, ‘Where’s that coming from?'”
He was diagnosed with bladder cancer in November 2021 after a routine checkup and underwent surgery at Yale University Medical Center. From late 2021 into early 2022, Bradshaw then went through six weekly BCG treatments.
Even after finishing that first round, he still had to return to Yale every three months for follow-up maintenance BCG treatments.
Around the end of that treatment, Bradshaw began suffering severe neck spasms. But just when he thought he was out of the woods, another serious health problem came knocking.
In March 2022, doctors found a mass in the left side of his neck, around the parotid area, during an MRI prompted by his recurring neck pain. A biopsy confirmed Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive type of skin cancer.
To treat it, Bradshaw underwent major neck surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where doctors removed 27 lymph nodes. After healing from the operation, he began six weeks of radiation treatment, five days a week, including proton beam therapy.
But the battle was not that easy.
Merkel cell carcinoma is extremely rare compared with melanoma. The Skin Cancer Foundation says it is about 40 times less common, with only around 3,000 new cases reported in the U.S. each year.
“Merkel cell carcinoma unfortunately is considered one of the most aggressive and deadly skin cancers, and stage for stage is even more serious than melanoma,” Andrew Brohl, a medical oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center, said in 2022. “Thankfully, and similar to other skin cancers, the chance of cure is much higher when caught early and treated appropriately.”
The two cancer treatments affected Bradshaw in different ways.
The bladder cancer treatment made him feel a little sick and uncomfortable, but he did not have any serious side effects. However, the treatment for Merkel cell cancer was a much tougher road. He experienced facial swelling and numbness, neck pain and soreness, along with tight skin, blisters, and breathing difficulties.
During this difficult time, Bradshaw said his wife, Tammy, was his rock. He admitted that he initially felt negative after learning about his cancer, but Tammy helped him keep his head up and stay positive. Speaking to Coping® magazine, he said her support, love, and encouragement helped him get through the challenging period.
Bradshaw never planned to tell the public about his cancer battle.
In September 2022, he became visibly winded while demonstrating a football play on FOX NFL Sunday and received criticism from viewers. His treatment had affected his breathing, and on October 2, 2022, he finally opened up about both cancer diagnoses on air and announced that he was cancer-free.
Bradshaw never wanted his cancer battle to become a public spectacle.
“I didn’t want to say anything to draw attention to it,” he said. “I just need the love of my family and my preacher and people praying for me. That’s what I wanted.” But surviving cancer changed the way he wanted to live. “I’ve become bolder,” Bradshaw admitted. “I’m not slowing down. This is what I do.” He added, “I want to travel a little more,” while explaining that cancer made him think about experiences he had never seriously considered before.
Bradshaw came out of cancer with less fear and more urgency. For him now, the goal is simple: love harder, live fuller, and stop wasting time.