Former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw never branded himself as smart, but to hear Hollywood Henderson say it is different. The Dallas Cowboys standout said of Bradshaw leading up to Super Bowl XIII that he probably couldn’t spell “cat” if you spotted him the C and the A. That moment helped define both men over time, but particularly Bradshaw.
On Sunday’s edition of Football Night in America, Hollywood Henderson briefly discussed that Bradshaw comment. “I was being clever”, he admitted, or so he thought. “I heard that when he went to Louisiana Tech [rather than LSU] that he didn’t do so good on the entrance exams. And so I came up with the line, “He couldn’t spell ‘cat’ if you spotted him the C and the A’”.
That didn’t play well for Henderson and the Cowboys, as Bradshaw’s Steelers got the better of them—again—35-31. Dallas stormed back with two fourth-quarter touchdowns, but it was too little, too late. There simply wasn’t enough time left, and Pittsburgh reached three Super Bowl wins before any other team.
And Terry Bradshaw went on to win the Super Bowl MVP award, going 17-of-30 for 318 yards. He threw four touchdown passes to one interception, both John Stallworth and Lynn Swann topping 100 yards. They combined for three touchdowns, the other passing score going to Rocky Bleier.
But RB Franco Harris also had his say, even if he didn’t have a monster day. He totaled 90 yards from scrimmage, but his highlight was a breakout 22-yard touchdown, putting the Steelers up 28-17. As he and Bradshaw recalled the story later, Harris, in a rare moment, asked for the ball. Bradshaw “called my play”, Franco said, and Hollywood Henderson and company couldn’t stop it.
That 1978 season is the only year Henderson made a Pro Bowl, and he would only play two more seasons. Bradshaw and Harris would win one more Super Bowl together, going 2-0 against the Cowboys. And nobody ever asked anybody to spell “cat” along the way.
“I think Terry [Bradshaw] was the Most Valuable Player” of the Super Bowl, Henderson recalled. “He said, ‘You can lose with me, but you can’t win without me’”. And, well, the Steelers didn’t win much before him, nor much after him for years.
The reality is Terry Bradshaw was never any kind of dummy, and part of that was portraying himself as one. That personality helped him in the media and his post-football career—and perhaps lulled his opponents into underestimating him, too. I don’t know if Henderson thought that or he was just being cocky, but he lived to regret it.
Bradshaw admitted that Henderson’s comments “burnt my butt”, but he refused to let that on at the time. Instead, he allowed his play and that of his teammates speak for him. Many years later, Henderson did offer an apology, saying that he was kidding and that it was “in the spirit of competition”. But the reality is that’s a stigma that was already out there that he perpetuated, and which continues today.
