For decades, 4x Super Bowl Champion Terry Bradshaw was hailed for his chirpy, fun-loving personality, but only a few knew the battle he hid under his jokes. Bradshaw struggled to understand that battle for a long period, dealing with darkness that kept returning even when his life was supposedly going well. Now, in a candid revelation, the NFL icon opened up about his struggles.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
Speaking on the 10% Happier with Dan Harris podcast, Terry Bradshaw recalled, “I didn’t seek help at first. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. You get divorced, and of course you’re depressed. You have a bad game. Of course you’re depressed. I mean, negative is negative. But now in my life, I have no reason to be negative about anything. I’m the happiest guy, and I’m always the jovial guy. Here comes the black, dark demon.
“And thank God I married a woman who knows me better; she knows me well. And she senses when it’s coming, and she comes over, and she — this is kind of cute, I guess, she gave it a name, Roy. And she says, ‘Is Roy trying to make a house call?’ And I’ll say, ‘yeah, Roy’, she said, yeah. And she says, ‘Let’s talk about it.’ And we start talking, so thank God for that, right? So we had a stroke of genius there and didn’t know…So it works.”
Bradshaw couldn’t ask for help because he did not understand what he was experiencing. The former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback has always credited his wife, Tammy Bradshaw, for identifying the signs of his struggles and helping him work through them.
The former quarterback explained that he experienced depression with difficult life experiences, including his divorces and poor performances on the football field. He had three divorces before he married Tammy in 2014. Eventually, he realized that these episodes could return even when he was stable personally.
The couple’s approach involved giving his low moods a name, “Roy,” allowing Bradshaw to acknowledge what he was experiencing and communicate it to his wife. Rather than treating it as a dismissive subject, Tammy used the nickname to start a conversation when she sensed that her husband was struggling.
Bradshaw felt that the approach was effective for him, emphasizing that having a partner who understands his emotional patterns was important. His wife’s intervention led to a chance for Bradshaw to explain his feelings instead of facing them in silence.
Terry Bradshaw’s case underscores the value of recognizing mental health struggles and seeking appropriate support. For Bradshaw, having a partner who understood and helped him confront moments that he previously struggled to explain was crucial.