Former Pittsburgh Steelers star quarterback Terry Bradshaw transitioned to broadcasting after retiring from the gridiron in 1983. After almost 43 years as a broadcaster and TV personality, Bradshaw’s career is nearing its end.
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During a conversation with NBC News Daily, Bradshaw admitted that he’s entering the final chapter of his broadcasting career.
“I realize my time on television as a sports broadcaster is coming to an end,” Bradshaw confessed. “I just love life. Billy Graham said, and I never forgot this quote, he said, ‘The day you retire is the day you start dying.’ I’m a workaholic. I love to work. I love my job. This year was the first year that I got nervous.
“I wanted to extend my contract. So I signed through the Super Bowl. Two more years. I’ll be 80. Everybody in any business has to go. The young guys are coming. But I want to be relevant. I want to be good. I want to continue on. I want America to [tune in] and watch me. I want them to [like] me.”
Bradshaw kickstarted his broadcasting career as a color commentator for CBS. Later in 1990, he tried out studio shows. But he found success with Fox Sports in 1994. Since then, he has stayed true to the network and has been appearing on Fox NFL Sunday since the very first episode.
As a Pro Football Hall of Famer with four Super Bowl wins, Bradshaw still has significant authority on the microphone. And for appreciable work as a studio analyst, the former quarterback earned three Sports Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Sports Personality/ Analyst category.
But all good things must come to an end. Bradshaw is already 78 years old. In two years, his two-year contract extension with Fox Sports will expire as he concludes the broadcast for Super Bowl LXIII in 2029. And that will put an end to Bradshaw’s TV career at the age of 80.
Yet, that’s not the most troubling part of Bradshaw’s story. While fighting Father Time, he also had to face some significant health problems.
Terry Bradshaw addresses his fight with depression
A couple of years after hanging up his cleats, Bradshaw got diagnosed with clinical depression.
“Men are the worst about knowing they have a problem, not wanting to seek they have a problem because they don’t want anybody to know they have a weakness,” Bradshaw said of his struggles with depression in a recent interview with PEOPLE. “And as a football player, it’s even worse, the macho thing.
“It took me three different doctors, three progressions, to finally get to the point where they diagnosed me clinically depressed. The key to it for me was No. 1: acknowledging I had a problem; No. 2: accepting that it was depression; and then No. 3: working my life to try to do everything I can to not bring it up because it’s an ugly little monster.”
He concluded with a message to the public, asking men to seek help.
Apart from that, Bradshaw battled two types of cancer. In November 2021, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He went under the knife at the Yale University Medical Center and announced that he was cancer-free after the treatment. But three months later, in March 2022, doctors found a tumor in his neck. Upon investigation, they diagnosed it as Merkel cell carcinoma.
While promoting his book, Looking for Terry, on Good Morning America with Michael Strahan, Bradshaw confirmed that he’s indeed “cancer-free.”
Nevertheless, as the beloved NFL icon prepares to ride into the sunset after the 2029 Super Bowl, fans need to savor every remaining second of his broadcasts.