When Dr. James Bradley was hired by Dan Rooney, there was no intense negotiation. No ten-step vetting process. There was hardly a formal interview. Just a conversation between two men, a handshake, and a decision. Appearing on the Nittany Game Week podcast, Steelers team doctor Dr. James Bradley remembered how he got his start.
“When he interviewed me the first time, which I didn’t think was for the job, he was just interviewing me,” Bradley told Todd Sadowski and former Steelers DBs Coach Tom Bradley. “We talked for 55 minutes. We talked about current events, we talked about religion, we talked about the press, we talked about the media…And then he said to me, ‘Jim, do you want to take care of my team?’ Of course my mouth drops. And I said, ‘do I have to sign anything?’ He said ‘no, you have to shake my hand.’
“I shook his hand, I walked out of the room. And my trainer said to me, ‘are you my new blankin’ orthopedic surgeon?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, he shook my hand.’ The trainer said…’Listen, he shook my hand 27 years ago.'”
Bradley was the hire. And remains to this day. He’s spent the past 34 years as the team’s top surgeon, helping mend players and get them on the field as quickly as the injury allows. For Rooney, it’s a classic story of being a family-run, old-school business. A hand shake was as ironclad as pen and paper.
That philosophy is rooted in Dan’s father Art, The Chief, who boldly purchased an NFL franchise in 1933. A time when the league was still 13 years old, struggling to survive, and the country was in the Great Depression. But the organization powered through and is now one of sport’s most iconic franchises with six Lombardis in their trophy case.
Bradley described another moment that showed Rooney’s character.
“Once I did take the job, he came up to me and said…Doc, if anybody ever interferes with you taking care of my players, I want to know his name. I knew he had my back. He was just such a great man.”
While some owners are cold and calculated with a separation between themselves and the players, Rooney wasn’t. He fought for their interests and helped navigate player strikes. During one lockout, he secretly handed keys to a practice facility for Tunch Ilkin and other players to use.
Though Dan Rooney passed away more than seven years ago, the Steelers are still family-owner with Art Rooney II serving as principal owner and Team President. Bradley remains the team doctor with the same mission he had when Dan Rooney shook his hand 34 years ago.
Check out the entire interview below.
