Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Terry & Tammy Bradshaw

Episode Date: October 28, 2026

This week NFL legend and broadcaster Terry Bradshaw and his wife Tammy sit down with Ted Danson to talk about how Terry finally got his emotional act together for the sake of his marriage, the story behind the Immaculate Reception, Terry’s passion for horse breeding, writing his new memoir "Looking for Terry,” mental health, and more.  Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Quarterbacks know the roars. We know a good roar. We know a first down roar. We know a bad play. But boy, do we know a touchdown. Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. Lately, I've been talking to a lot of alpha males. Usually kind of boring, but, you know, today's guest is, boy, anything but boring.

Terry Bradshaw is a four-time Super Bowl champion, all of them with the Steelers. A two-time Super Bowl MVP, one-time regular season MVP, NFL Hall of Famer, TV and movie actor, and Emmy-winning host of Fox NFL Sunday since 1994. Damn it, man. Woof! He's the author of a new book just came out last week. It's called Looking for Terry, a memoir. It's his sixth book, by the way. I wanted to know what keeps Terry going at this age, and I think I was very clever by asking Tammy, his wife, if she would join us around the table. That's one way to keep these alpha males in line, you know. Anyway, here's Terry and his beautiful wife, Tammy.

I think I read that you're not necessarily anymore, at least. Let's go up a beer and hang out. You'd rather hang out with Tammy. By the way, we're up and running. Oh, okay, great. Okay, we're on. We're on. No, I think it's kind of a blessing, really, that your wife is your best friend.

You ever thought you'd say something like that? Oh, I like my buddies. No, I like my buddies, but I'd rather hang out with my wife. So I find that unusual maybe, but I think it works for me. It does work. Yeah. I think guys are fun and they're relaxing to be around, but they're beside the point. Yeah.

She's the point. Yeah. Mary's the point. Yeah, I've been down the divorce lane and had to figure out what the heck was wrong. You know, and the commentant nominated was always me. So, okay, so let's work on me and figure this out. And we've been together now 22 years and we've only been apart one day. I love that.

Can you imagine being with your wife, 22, 23 years now and been apart one day? And one time, one time had I actually got up, got dressed, 5.30 in the morning, put on everything, and she says, where are you going, honey? I said, well, I'm going to run over to Joe's house. He's got a horse over there. He wants to come look at you think it'd make a good broodmare. Then I'm going to see Benny. He's got a couple of our fools.

I'm going to go over here to Jason's place. He's got another. And then I'll be back this afternoon. Well, wait a second. I'm going to go with you. And I went, no, no, I'm going to go by myself. And immediately, I sense a great deal of hurt. And I still went and got in my truck, drove out of the ranch, got on the highway, got halfway to where I was going.

And turned her around and went back. Oh. I couldn't do it. Yeah. It killed me to kill her. Yeah. Because we fish, everything we do, we like everything together. We do everything together.

And I just think it's like perfect for us. It works. That moment is why you're sitting here. Well, I mean, I really didn't even know it was that big a deal. But it was like, if you want to go by yourself, that's fine. I'm a little surprised. But okay. No, man.

Hey, hey, you know, if you really want to go by yourself, that's it. No, I know. I know. I don't. Yeah. Yeah, tone says a lot. Fine. That's fine. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, I, I, you know, we play golf and she said, I don't play golf without her.

I have never, I haven't played golf without her in 22 years. And my friends, they just know better to ask me to come play golf. How old were you when you guys met up? 50. You were 52. 52. Yeah. And you were 16.

You were way younger. So I was 50, 42, just turning 40. I was just about to turn 40, yeah. Oh, man. See, I think, because I married, the third time I've gotten married, and that was 32, 31 years ago. And we're the exact same creature. We don't, we just love being together. We're very blessed.

But I think if you've come through several marriages, I'll speak for myself. And, yeah, just emotionally immature. Really emotionally mature. Exactly. You know, and I, the first one was like, the truth was we were good buddies at drama school, and then we were all going to go off to New York. And I think the emotional truth would have been, I'm scared to go to New York City by myself. Let's bunk in together and be buddies.

Yeah. That was the emotional truth, but somehow we got married. Yeah. Yeah. If you look at, I think, if you have failed marriages, There's a reason, okay? Yeah. Well, maybe not.

I'm not for your marriage. No. There's a reason. And I think after two, then three, and you get smart. Because I don't think God intended for man to be on this source by himself. He gave him a partner. And I said, boy, I got, I got to figure out what's wrong with me. Why am I choosing the same people?

All we're alike. All three women were alike. So that's what I did. I went on a voyage. And who helped you on that voyage? Well, I had, I started with my preacher, and he said, I can't, it just got too heavy for it. Then he sent me to a family counselor, counselor for probably a year. And then from there to a psychiatrist for two years and psychologist for a year.

down the, hey, you ever emptied your heart out? It's exhausting. And you want to lie because you don't want to be that guy. You're not going to believe what a piece of you know what I am. But here it is. Then you go, God, it's hard to do. But I did it. And it was the best thing I ever did.

Best thing I ever did. Me too. My kind of mentor during my similar period said, you need to treat this as a holy war. You are going to war with a very strong. strong side of yourself. Yeah, because there is, there is, there is something about everyone and successful marriages. Those people were obviously a lot more mature than I was, and they had the maturity factor jumps in, and they figured out, okay, everything about this person, I love this, what is that I don't like? And all of a sudden, you're, you're finding was just not a whole lot here.

But when you get married, you definitely learn a lot more. There's no question about that. And I was thankful. That's why when Tammy and I met, the physical attraction was bingo. That's a great-looking gal. Holy cow. And then you go, wait a minute. So with the other three.

Wait a minute. Hey, time out here. All right, now let's go on this journey and figure this out because I'm thinking this is just like the other. But you had already done some work on yourself. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. She wouldn't even have been passed in the hallway. She wasn't going to go out with me because I was a celebrity.

And it had not been for her daughter who finally said, Mom, for God's sake, go out with the man. It ain't going to hurt. It either be good or to be bad and it's over with. Go out with. I kept calling. She wouldn't take my phone call. I was the second day that I had to be able.

Let's go to the source on this. So what was, you? Do you remember the first time you met in a boy girl kind of way? I know if she was working. Oh, not my turn. So we crossed past the first time in the hospital. I was working in the hospital in radiology. Gotcha.

And he brought his horse trainer in who had hurt his ankle. So I took care of the patient and then left them alone, him and then his horse trailer. And I was like, well, that was just fun. You know, I knew who he was. But it was just, and that was fun. End of story. three weeks later I get a page and from the hospital that this happened at

and I call him back and I'm like, I'm not working over there today. And he's like, Tammy, Terry Bradshaw wants to know if you can have your phone number. And I said, why? And he goes, well, he wants to take you out to dinner. Can I give him your phone number? Why?

What do you mean? Why? And I was like, why? And he goes, I, and I was like, I don't know. Okay, fine, give him my number. And so then I was panicking. Wait, wait. Was there just a little bit of a flutter?

Terry, come on. No, it was more of a panic situation. Oh, alright. Because I'm, the one opposite in us is he loves the spotlight. I'm the person that I'm fine in the background. Wait a minute. That doesn't sound good. You do love the spotlight.

I love the spotlight. You love the, okay. Well, I do like being on stage. That's what I'm saying. There's nothing wrong with it. Yeah, we have to have entertainment. That's not a downer. No, that's a good.

Good, good go. Go on. Okay. So, so, so. So, so, so, so then myself. my phone rings, and it was a number I didn't recognize, so I knew it had to be him, but I wouldn't answer it. And so I made him leave a message. And he left the most endearing, sweet, sincere message, you know, unassuming. And, you know, Tammy, I, I hope you don't mind

that I got your phone number from Dr. So-and-so. And I, you know, started at the hospital, and I'm going to be in town for a few days. I'd love to take you out to dinner. So if you're willing, you know, here's here's my home number. I'm about to go fishing, so I'll take my phone with me so you can call me. Oh, that's good. That's good. Yeah.

And so anyways, I hope you call. So I was like, oh, man, do I do this? And I'm talking to my friends and one of my girlfriend. She's like, just go. It'll just be a fun dinner. It'll be something to talk about. And that'll be it. No big deal.

And I was like, okay. So I called and we met for dinner. We met. at a restaurant for dinner. And guess what? He brings friends. Oh, wow. Good.

Dude. Is that good? I'm not so sure. No. Well, clearly, maybe it was. Maybe it was. Well, can I stop it right there? Here's the reason I brought friends.

I could tell that she was nervous. That I'm very shy. And so I brought my best friend and his wife. And I knew that they would engage with her to make her feel more comfortable. Or else I... No, that's good. That's the way... But no, evidently, not good.

No, much respect. I thought I was doing a nice... Clearly, it worked. It worked. It worked. But let me ask you this. When you met Mary, did you say, did you look at say, Mary, I want your phone number. I want to take you out.

Did you say that? No. Did you use somebody to get her number? We were working together on a film when we kind of fell in love. So it was contained in a night. way for us. Oh, so y'all fell in love doing a movie. Yeah. I'm not going to tell you which, because you might go watch it and it sucked. But our relationship is great. But everybody said, you used the doctor to get her number? I'm shy. I don't want people. I don't want you,

Ted, will you go out with me tonight? No, I'm so sorry. You're not my type, but thank you anyway. I couldn't handle that. No. But I can go. to a doctor and she could say no and I'm like, all right. All right. I wouldn't give it up that easy. I think you were perfect. Yeah, so we had the dinner and it was all good and I went home that night and I'm driving. I get home and he calls me and he goes, I just wanted to make sure you got home okay

and tell you that you were everything I'd hoped you to be. Damn it, man. You're good. I know. Is that not great? I don't know what to say. I'm going to put that stuff in a book. Things to say.

But then that's when I. Oh, there. But I, and that's when I wouldn't answer the phone for the second date. Then he said he called for the second date. And for like 24 hours, he was very persistent. He kept calling and calling because I just had to step back and think, am I confident enough to enter this world? You know, I'm like, he's in Los Angeles.

So it wasn't a girl move. Right. It was really taking a look. Yeah. He's going to be living. in L.A. for six months of the year, around every beautiful woman that ever walked down the street. And I don't want to sit around and think, oh, well, what's going on? Well, I don't want to be that person. So I was like, am I confident and strong enough to do this? And then my daughter was like,

Mom, just answer the phone. Let me ask you a couple of questions. Whoever. Who made the first kind of boy-girl move? Oh, definitely me. Then what's not her? How soon? Absolutely. After how long? A couple of dates, two or three dates? No, I'd say what. God, six months. Well, it depends on what we're talking about. Are you talking about a kiss? Let's just go with a kiss.

Romantic. Oh, a real romantic. I like you. I physically like you. Aye, aye, aye, aye. Oh, it didn't take that long. I'm not rude. Oh, man, I wouldn't shake her hand or anything.

I'm not that goobish. But I, I'm real careful about that. stuff because I mean, seriously, I'm real respectful. Yeah, he was. I'm still working on. The first time he brought me after, you know, we've been dating for a while, and he said, do you want to come out to L.A. with me for the weekend? And I was like, okay.

And he calls me and goes, do you want your own room or do you want to stay with me? That's fantastic. I know. I was like, such a gentleman. So how long before you realize, oh, this is not. that Terry Bradshaw, you know, the image of and the impression of stardom, but he was this guy who you decided to marry. Well, okay, so funny thing.

You know, I've never heard the answer. I want to hear the answer to this. This is good. I got it going. Go ahead. Your show, by the way. I worked every day, so he would fix dinner for me frequently. That'd be our date.

I'd get off work. I'd go to his house. He had cooked dinner. And I had kids, teenagers at home. So I'd had to go home. So one evening we had dinner and I went home for the night and I'm driving home. This was like six weeks maybe since we met. And I'm driving and it just came to me like I believe in all this intuition stuff 100%.

And I had to start, this is a man that could fall in love with me and I could fall in love with him. That's wonderful. I just knew it. I just knew at that point. This is the man. Careful. Careful. I'm sorry.

You're right. Go on. I'm backing out. Back now. But so I just, it was like inside me, I just knew at that moment. Now, I knew it wasn't going to be easy and I knew it wasn't going to have them fast. And it wasn't that I was trying to make it happen. Never did I say, I'm going to make him fall in love with me. Yeah, yeah. I just knew it was going to happen.

Yeah, that's wonderful. And 12 years later, we got married. Let me jump around. How old were your, if I may, how old were your daughters and how old were your kids when you guys got together? What were my? Rachel had just turned 16. 16. 16 was a 16?

Because you had just bought her a car. So they were 16, 14, yeah. And 14, Lacey. And Cody would have been 18. Yeah, 18, 16, and 14. And yours? Mine was 14 and 18. Wow.

So you had. Similar. You had, you weren't married yet, but you had a house full of teenage girls. Yeah. Let me tell you, three girls. We've done this. Yeah, you know. Three girls is never.

I had a horse trainer in my youngest. I had a songwriter, performer, Rachel. And then Lacey was my athlete. So I had it all right there. And then Cody, her son, unfortunately, died early. Before you guys met? No, why we were dating. He had just got a job with the railroad,

which is hard to get. And he was like on cloud nine going to make a ton of money, smart, good looking young man. And he dies. And so that was a moment in our lives for everything kind of stopped. You know, that's tough. It's still tough. It's unspeakable. Yeah.

I'm so sorry. But I mean, wow. But I knew, I knew after after something. several months, you know, I said, boy, you know, I love this girl. And I love it. Am I in love? What's the different? Am I in love? Okay, I'm going through all my checklist. You know, I remember my counseling. Am I in love? What is it? You know, she's great looking. It's just because she's great looking. I mean, I'm, my brain, I'm working on myself. It's hard. It's hard. It's like getting sober in a way, you know. Yeah, I just, God, I just could not, you know, I didn't want to make a

mistake and she's such a wonderful woman. What if, I can't necessarily say that I was convinced that she would fall in love with me. And, you know, that wasn't the case at all because she never once in 12 years said, look, where's this going? Are we going to get married now? We were in love. And I just, I remember what in the living room? I said, well, I've got to ask you to marry me. got to get on my knee, all right? And so Ted, I get her hand, and I get on her, I get on my knee,

and I'm looking at her, look up at her face, and I went, Tammy, I, I couldn't, I couldn't say it. I couldn't say it. Wow. It's just, God, I'm sweating now, thinking about it. Yeah, yeah. Here's how I got married. We got married. Here's how it happened. And this is the only way it could have happened. Walked by her, pastor in the hallway of the house, Saturday night. We're heading for Hawaii the next morning on vacation. And I said, oh, and by the way, we're getting married Tuesday in Hawaii. She said, okay, and boom, we just crashed. Never brought up again. Get on the flight, having a great time, all the way of Hawaii. We have a beautiful home in Hawaii. And so we get to the house and we're taking, we're opening the sheds, blinds, open the air, getting the breeze going.

get out to the pit to barbecue. It's all great. Get the cars, get the dust, wash everything. We're having a great time. Now, this is Monday. And she says, look, I don't know if you were kidding. A mess and it was a joke. But you said we're getting married Tuesday.

And today's Monday. And if we're going to get married tomorrow, we need to get a marriage license. I'm like, oh, you're right. So we drove up to, what's the name? Waye-Maya. And I went into the place there, and she backed off as I was walking because she filled me walking in.

Because she said, I'm not sure he's going to make it. I went in, I said, out. And I filled it all out. Went down. We met a couple. We just bought another house, and we were selling them when we were in. and we had nobody coming to the wedding. And I said, look, we're getting married tomorrow at our house.

Would y'all like to come to the wedding? They said, are you serious? I said, yeah, come on down the road there. So we had those and a couple of friends. And my preacher was in Houston, Texas. And I told him, hey, look, Tammy and I are getting married Tuesday. He said, not without me. So I bought him a first class ticket to Hawaii, he and his wife.

And when he got on the plane, he went to the right because that's coach. That's where he thought he was headed. And the lady said, Sir, sir, you're in first class. And he went, they didn't even know how to get in first class. It was hysterical. That was it. How sweet.

And my agent, five, six people, it was. And then the minute we got married, the minute we got married, why didn't we do this early? This is crazy. Yeah. Led by him. That's probably what he was saying. That's what he said. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The term. All in the fullness of time.

Yeah. That's great. The term goes. is very popular now. Remind me. That's when you don't answer. Right. This is the original ghoster, you know, 25 years ago.

So the first after the night driving home and I'm saying, oh, he could fall in love with me. I could fall in love with him. We never lived together before we got married. We just dated. And we'd go off on vacation, have a great weekend. So much fun. He'd be, you know, everything I wanted. And I felt reciprocated.

And I'd bring the kids. I'd go home. And I could see it in his eyes as I was leaving his house. I'd be, I'd go, I'm not going to hear from him for two weeks or whatever. And he wouldn't, no call, no nothing. And I mean, I didn't call him and chase it down. What a jerk. I hope you guys don't split up after this podcast.

Shut up, Ben. Because you sit over there going, oh, my God, the guy's an asshole. I know, that's what I say. Hey, I am not proud. I am not proud of how I dealt with our courting. I'm not proud, with 12 years, I'm not proud, but she's right. It took all of that for me to get to a place in my life where I could finally say, I trust this woman.

She's everything, I think she is. And she's not going to leave me. You know, I'm not going to be broke again. She's my buddy. We do it. I mean, families all. I just felt like, man, this is perfect. I'm not going to lie.

I was petrified because the minute we got married, I said, oh, God, why not? You know, this is amazing. And then there were times where you go, okay, you know, what we're going to do today is how's the day. I kept waiting maybe for her to be something else, and she never was, man. And so we, to say that love grew as we got.

married was, is, you are, as are you. And I'm so glad you're sitting here. You're such a good man. You're not a good man. You're a good woman. You're such a good man. I love, works in progress are the most inspiring things in life. Yes. They really are. I mean, you say about getting up in your book. Just keep getting up. You have to. Yeah. I'm a, I've never been so happy in my life. and I've told her, and she knows this, I said, golly, why not me and you from the beginning? Yeah. You know, why not take all of that I have and go back 30 years, you know? There's some good, easy answers.

Yeah. I mean, I get the question. I do that myself. Do you? Yes. I had a tough, by my behavior, too, second marriage. But I had two amazing daughters. Yeah.

as a result of. And if you have to make a little you turn in life and the big picture to get those kids, aren't you lucky? Yeah. You know, I think. Can I jump to a little bit to football in that two of your daughters

walked you out, you holding their hands when you went back to Pittsburgh? Yeah. Which was a tough going back kind of place for you. Right. But that was so moving, so sweet. Yeah, it was really lovely.

Those kids love you, man. Well, you know, my relationship in Pittsburgh when I retired was, and by the way, I never retired. I just didn't show up. Just didn't show up. And the sign was CBS. But going back, I'd had a rough relationship after. with my head coach, Chuck Knoll. During and afterwards, though, you're saying, yeah.

Afterwards, I had nothing to do with him. He, you know, was no big deal. I do remember being at a playoff game at CBS that sent me down for Pittsburgh at Miami, and I'm standing on the sideline, and I went out on the field to say hello to Dan Marino, and Chuck Kno walked out and walked 10 yards from me and never acknowledged me. And then I'm thinking, am I supposed to acknowledge him? This isn't right. A coach and a quarterback that went four Super Bowls together, this isn't right.

This should not be. So I was always uncomfortable, always nervous. They don't like me in Pittsburgh. And when they asked me to come back. Was that your point of view? Yes. Yes. Yes, my point of view.

Your point of view. And so when I went back with my two girls who go out on the field, What was it for? What was the event? Sorry, why were you? It was a Monday night game. It's all I can recall. It's been so long ago now,

but they just wanted to honor me at halftime. Gotcha. And went out in an introduce me. I went out with my two girls. Yeah. Holding your hand. Holding the hand. And they were blown.

I remember the girls, oh my, they were squeezing my hand. They were going, oh, my God, Dad. Yeah. God, Dad. You are so. good. And I wanted to go, yeah.

Yeah, it was. But it was very emotional. And to tell the folks, well, thanks for welcoming back and the love we have. And that was good. And I'm glad I got to share it with them because, you know, they never saw any of that. I mean, they came along after, you know, I was gone. That was good for Pittsburgh to be able to do that to you. So now it's even better.

Now it's, now it's, you know, it's great. It's great. I went back for the draft and I'm going back for some more stuff. It's good. It's the way it should be. Pittsburgh has come a long, long way, man. When you were there and I was there in 68, a little before you, right? You got there in 70?

Right, I got there in 70. Yeah, 68. You come out to your car in the morning and it was as if somebody had crumpled up newspaper and lit it on fire. The ash from the mills and from the pollution. and everything was visibly on your car. Hot holes that would eat your car, you'd have to replace a... It was a tough, tough little town, and now it's just exploded.

It's beautiful. I mean, it's suffered from the steel mills going down. But it's beautiful now. Beautiful. Beautiful buildings have gone up. They cleaned it up. Yeah. All surrounding the stadium, everything is immaculate.

It's really best work. It's really classy city, really. And I'm not saying it wasn't before because I'm kind of a hard-line guy. Pittsburgh was a hard-line team. A city which loves defense and they love physical toughness. And so I fit into that mold. And they were tough on me.

But they are, like I think most teams' fans are, they're all pretty loyal, you know, especially if you're winning. But this was, it was a great, great learning experience, a good, great life's learning experience. So I retired at 33. So I'm just starting my life, you know. I'm just really starting to get going.

Yeah. But, yeah. And you went to Mellon, Carnegie Mellon, Carnegie Mellon, Carnegie Tech. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I was just. I mean, I'm surprised we weren't in acting class together.

Well, I thought we, we were. No, I guess we weren't. Shakespeare. No, really? You know what? Drama. You're right. By the way, I'm full of shit.

I never. Here's why I'm full of shit. I was the one kid at a classical theater school who never did any Shakespeare. So when I'm sitting across from an actor talking about Shakespeare, I'm starting to do this. You know, I feel like such an imposter. I'm an imposter, yeah. I can't imagine having to do Shakespeare. Well, I can't either because I haven't.

No, but I've seen who did the last Shakespearean movie? Who was that? Big actor. Who did it? Which one? Lawrence Fishburn did. Hamlet. A fellow?

Hamlet. Hamlet? Oh, my God. I knew a Magistar. I can't even understand what's going on. And whenever I try to do it, I go to church and sound like a total dufous. Oh, you know, I do that. I lose Ted completely and I just suck.

Look, I don't even understand what it's about. I'm a sitcom actor. I'm a sitcom actor, God damn it. Yes, you all. me alone. And you are excellent, outstanding, award winning. There you are. And a great commercial pitch man.

Thank you. I'm a commercial actor. Oh, my God, you're amazing. All right. By the way, can I switch you to consumer cellular? I'll trade you one consumer cellular for a... How many of those have you done? How many of those commercial?

Four or five years now. Yeah. You're all hooked up like those progressive people, like the Mannings with that one company. I mean, everybody gets hooked up with a company. And now they can't get rid of. You got them where you want them, Bub. I hope you're making millions.

I hope you're making millions. Thank you very much. You're very. Welcome. Yeah. Just all not earned enough money. I know. Yeah.

But you know why? Our train is long. We have a great big, huge family. And it's, I always set it up, so I have to go to work. Because I love going to work. I really do. I love going to work. work. And my kids are so sweet, they'll all say to both me and Mary, I hope you don't think you

have to work. We're fine. We're fine. We love it. I cannot imagine retiring. People have asked me that, and I've said, I don't know how many times. I quote Billy Graham, the great evangelist, who said, the day you retire, the next day you start dying. Yeah. And I've never forgotten that. But I didn't need to hear it from him because I can't imagine. I'm 78. and I just signed an extension with Fox, which takes me to an age of 80, which leads me to say to myself, well, at 80, will Fox say,

he's 80, it's time to move on. And then I'm going, but what if I'm not ready to move on? What if I'm still, let's go. Game time. A lot of people are age out there who want to see someone their age having fun. So we're good.

We're good. Yeah, I hope so. I hope so, too. And I love, and I do. corporate speaking, and I'm always asking Washington Speakersville. Is my age going to, am I going to, am I, they, no, no, no. So it's scary though. We should say.

I would never want, I never wanted to get to a point my life where I had to say, my age. Because I don't act, I don't know how you act when you're 78, although my wife pointed out one day, we're sitting at an airport, we're sitting waiting on our plane. And, and she's heard me say this, babe, do I look 78? No, you kidding me? You know, she's in radiology. There's people in here. You're saying,

anything. Honey, you're way past that. And here comes this guy by owner Walker, and she says, he's 78. Yeah. I went, all right. I think we need to change the subject because I believe in the ironies where, you know,

you and I trip going down the stairs. No, no, no. Ted and Ted died. Terry and Ted died the same moment. Celebrating how young they feel. Does Mary, does Mary, tell you, Ted, now you be careful.

Watch, honey, watch. No, I'll get that. No, you leave that tray. I'll get that tray. I mean, a little bit. Yeah, I'm getting that. I'll drive, sweetheart. I get a lot of that.

I'll drive. I don't think I've got it. We haven't got to that one. But he'll take an extension cord and plug it in and string it across the bed where he has to get up in the middle of the night and in the dark. And I'm like, no, we're not putting that like that because you're going to fall hit your head and die. The good thing about how many people who you know are Madeline love, I know my wife loves me so much. She can rag on me and it makes us both laugh because I know how

much she loves me. Her favorite thing is talking about old duffecy kind of things or forget about old duffancy kind of thing. I'll be sitting back, you know, talking to you guys in a, you know, our living room or something and my phone will get a text message and she will have taken a photo of the fact that my shirt revealed my belly button. It's like usually when I'm on to something really cool, I'll go, oh.

That's good. I have, the cord thing, I say, I'm not going to, because I swear to you, I swear to you, I swear to you, I get up four times a night to go to the bathroom. I know where that cord is. Yeah.

That's the first thing I think of. But our first night out here at LA, I forgot I'd put my cowboy boots a little bit out in front of the bed. And I dang their felt a way across that room. I tripped. And she's like, are you okay? Are you okay? Yep, yep, I'm good. I'm good.

Can't see. Don't know what I stepped on. But I am aware of the cord. I swear to you, I don't, I never get out of bed that I don't go. Where's the cord? I swear, that's the first thought I have because I put my computer in bed with me. All my movies are on the...

We don't go to bed without watching... We always watch a movie. We've never had... Lights out, sound off. Never, ever do we do that. Are you like that? Yes. Do you need quiet?

We like to laugh. No, if I'm horizontal, I'm asleep. Oh, boom. Yeah. We like to laugh. So right now we're into Would I Lie to You, which is a TV.

British game show is, but it's really, but it's really funny. Yes. We turn it on. Mary's laughs and we laugh and I'm asleep. But let me tell you how sexy I am when I sleep. Let me describe how I have these black, they're not, they're really. I wear pajamas. I wear pajamas.

Everybody's, you wear pajamas? Yeah. I wear and I don't wear underwear under my pajamas. I'm in pajamas, Jack. Yeah. And I'm not. And I wear house shoes. Do you wear house shoes?

You mean slippers? No, not zippers, slip on. No, slip-ons, yeah. Yeah, I keep them by my bed. I step right into them. Because my feet, my feet hurt too much to walk across. My feet are cold. Hey, do you, I tell you, we got a lot in common here.

Here's the sexy thing that my wife, Mary. She's taking a picture of this, too. So I have these black kind of yoga pants that are so soft, great for pajama bottoms. And I have the same thing up top. So I'm black. ninja. Right? And then I realized, shit, my neck's really hurting. I got a little bone spur. So I can't watch TV in bed anymore. So I go online and I get these prism goggles that allow you to watch the TV because it bounces off a mirror and gets the TV. So now I got these black goggles.

You know, that's just, that's not right there. It gets sexier. It gets sexier. You need to sit up or something. Wait, let's hear those. I do. I do. Now, this is definitely strange. Also, the weight of my wife's heart is giving her something to make fun of. So she's madly in love with all of the what I'm describing. Then my wrists go, so I have carpal, not carpool, but something. So I get these black things for carpal tunnel that you wear. So I got a bed too?

My friend, I'm only halfway through. Oh, okay. So I'm this way. I'm this way. And then I have to get a CPAP machine. Oh, for breathing. It's serious. It's helping me, and I'm thrilled.

I'm doing it, but I hate them. Bub, but they're tough. I got one. Wait, let me go. No, I'm down. You go there. Almost go. Yeah.

Honey, just leaking. Yes. Yes. Yes. We got a lot in common. But wait, but wait. So if you have to pee, you don't want to take the whole thing off because then you have to have the whole thing on.

You unpoppet. You unpop it. There you go. But that leaves you with the nose like an elephant. I'm telling you. You know what? Makes sense. Yeah.

Makes sense. Yeah. Because she said, live on, brother. Or I'm laying there. And next thing I know, her hand is over my mouth, pulling my bass. I hate that thing with a purple fashion. I looked at having that thing planted in your body.

Yeah, yeah. But I hate that. that thing. I hate it because I somehow now here lately I'm sleeping with my mouth open. Yeah, yeah. So I keep gatorade by my bed because I get spasms. I get spasms. That's health food right there. Yeah. And so I drink a couple of shots of Gatorade, but every time two shots of Gatorade is three trips to pee. Yeah. It's not good, man. Kittin' old is not. I'm telling you. I swear to God, after this podcast, you got to keep your eye on Tammie. She could be.

Here's tiptoeing out the door. Here's the thing. We watch a lot of detective shows. Yeah, yeah. And there's a lot of ways to kill a person. I am finding that out. It's usually the wife. I think I am.

If it's the wife or if it's the husband, it's one or the other, no matter what. You can go look anything, but that DNA stuff jumps up at you now. Yeah, this is a heads up. DNA. Don't even think about it. You kill me, but you're going to get caught. I don't know when. It may be a cold case, but you're going to get caught.

I can't believe. It's great. I don't know what our audience is like out there. They've got to be in their 70s. Do we just go to old folks' homes? Where are we going with this? Well, yes, as long as it's within like a five-mile radius of a cemetery, they'll listen. You're amazing when you talk to someone.

And, oh, my God, you do that too. Oh, yeah, I do it. It's very comforting. You wear pajamas in a house. Oh, my God. It's crazy. I was looking like the doofus until you jumped in with the CPAP thing, so we're on the same page. I mean, what else are they going to put us in?

You know what? I will shoot up and do and replace whatever that allows me to keep him as much fun as I'm having. Yeah. Maybe not shoot up, but you know what I mean? No, but life is... Too delicious. Yes, but it's short. No matter how you look at it, it's short.

in the big scheme of things and why not enjoy it. I mean, you know, why put you in a position of thinking? Yeah. I do say this, and I'll ask you this, do you ever, do you sometimes say, hey, Mary, golly, 7,8, what do you think? How much time I got laughed or what you into, and she'll say, stop it. Stop it. Stop talking like that. And I don't think like that.

You know, I don't, I flip it because I do do that. Yeah. I don't, I don't, I'm a little smarter than you. I don't ask Mary, because I know she'll just beat the crap out of me, or not beat the crap, but she'll make it not worth my wild to have that negative thought. But I flip it and go, oh, I get it, Ted, you're scared. But you're not scared of dying or something. Another way is you're just so fucking grateful.

Just say thank you, Ted, when you have that, oh, I hope I don't, this is too delicious to leave. This is a great time of life because we've got, we've been on this long journey and experience so many things in our lives, good and bad, and we've gathered all this fantastic knowledge. And we're able to take this and put it over there and this over there and put in its proper spot and be able to sit down and enjoy what we have and appreciate what we have.

And to me, there's not a better place in this world. To be a young person trying to find your spot and make your money and do it or it is your goals are, I've already been there, I've already done that. And I say this in the movie Tombstone, when Doc Holliday and Billy Bob Thornton walks out and he's going to shoot it, shoot wider for running him out for embarrassing him in the bar. And he walks out and he sees Doc Holliday and Billy Bob Thornton goes, why, Doc? I thought she was dead. And he said, I'll beg to differ. I'm just reaching my prime. And that's the way I look at it.

I'm just reaching my prime. And you know what else? You talk about who listens to this. Jane Fund is a friend of Mary's and mine. And the example that she gives to older people, the example that we give to people our age is keep going, keep going, keep going, have fun. don't roll over quite yet. Keep going. And it also, for younger people, I think about all the girls who thought were taught maybe that there's a shelf life to, you know, there's no shelf life. You can go forever and ever and ever at whatever age, now more than ever, especially for women to be, you know, productive, creative, you know, teaching, whatever it is, you get to keep going. You don't have to like,

become this older person and, you know, stop doing stuff. It's a good thing you're doing. I always tell him, you have to live till you die. You just live till you die. Don't stop living. Okay, I'm jumping around. Where you going? Horses.

Yeah. Tell me that. How did that happen? What is that? Tell me what you have. You have a barn full of the most beautiful looking horses I've ever seen. We have been in the courthorse business for over 40 years. and we stand stallions and we have a training center.

And we have a... When you say stand stallions, sorry, that means they are for breed. We have stallions of our own and outside people's studs, and we stand those studs. And we breed to outside. We breed to clients and horses. Right. And we do it through, we do it through artificial insemination. We freeze and ship.

Right. And so that is primarily our breed, we call it a breeding business. Right. And then we have a training center. Not only do we have our mares that have had babies out of our studs, but we put them over in the training center with our trainer and we train them and outside people's horses that they send in for us to train also. So it's a total operation both for the, this has only been the second year where we've taken outside horses. But to make money, we're downsizing because of, well, my age, I want to travel a little bit more and you're going to so forth. So we've downsized. We each have over 200 brood mowers. Oh, wow. A brood mare is a horse that you breed and they have babies far. We had over 200 of those. We're down to 14, 14 horses. And we were talking yesterday and we were talking, we're going to do this,

and we've got to go here, and we want to do that, and we don't do this. We need to pick out our six best producing mares. And I said, well, I can tell you right now, Miss Iowa's not going anywhere. That's my Samara I love. I call her Miss Iowa. That's my mare. She says, well, I've got hair and makeup.

I said, that's our best mare. We got to share that mare. No, that's my mare. You picked one, and I picked one. So we each picked three mares. That's fantastic. At the end of this coming breeding season which starts in February,

we'll have another sale. And we'll sell a bunch of yearlings, a bunch of two-year-olds, a bunch of babies. Well, and then we'll still sell the remaining brood married. And we'll be down to six. Wow. So when you say training, what are you training them to do?

We train them. We train for Halter. We're in a halter business. Okay. It's nothing but arms and wants from there. It's just body building. Beauty contest. Beauty contest.

Big. These horses are 16 hands. They're massive. Quarter horses. Yeah. And they're gorgeous. We also have the 52nd Supreme Champion. His name is BRS, sending my regards.

And he is amazing. And he's a racehorse. He's a barrel racing horse. Roping. Cutting horse. Cutting horses? No, no, we don't do that. And so he's got points and all that.

And he became a supreme champion. And we have the very last supreme champion. So we stand him. And we have one of the top five pleasure stallions, extremely hot chips is his name. So we have the Supreme, we have the top pleasure. And then we also have thoroughbreds, which, by the way, is a great right-off. If you need a tax write-off, you need to buy some thoroughbred.

You lose money. Oh, you not, I'll tell you, that you are so smart. I knew you were. Yeah, it has not worked out. Why did that start? Were you together when you started, or did you do that? I've been doing it. And she grew up loving horses.

Why did you start? My uncles were horsemen. And they were cutting horse people and ropers. Right. And so I used to ride their horses. Where? In Louisiana. In Louisiana.

I was Freeport. Freeport. And so I used to ride their horses when I was a little boy. And I just loved it. And my grandfather plowed his 40-acre farm with two Clydesdells, Tony and Shorty. And I used to love it when they would sweat. and the smell of their skin. I have never forgotten that.

I just fell in love. It's like you introduce yourself to a lot of things and then something sticks and grabs you. And that, and that, and I've been doing that ever since. I used to ride from about age five until about 15 when basketball became more important to me. But I, my dad wouldn't let me ride by myself in a saddle. I could go off in any direction.

Bear back, he didn't care. You're kidding. Because if you fall. You get drug? Yeah. Oh, wow. If you fall, you just break something as opposed to get dragged. I got drugged by a horse.

Oh, damn. Yeah, oh, damn right. You got dragged all over the place, didn't you? Football. I got drug by a horse. Tore my clothes off off. I shattered my elbow, knocked my tooth out. And the two players that were there with me that day,

when the horse finally went through the creek bottom, back across the creek bottom, back up, and the horse was exhausted. And the horse just come to us. stop, and they ran to check on the horse. Get your foot off the skirt. Get out of there. I'm back there, and I'm almost out. I'm almost out.

And then they finally came and got me, and then they picked me up and carried me into the trailer house that one of the players lived on a trailer house, and they filled the tub up with water, ice-cold water, and put me in the tub. Oh, I beat up. purple. Did you put, did you point to your right arm, elbow? Yes. When was that? Were you still playing?

I mean, 75, 76. Whoa. Yeah, and I played that weekend. That's when I'm playing. They drained all this blood out of the bursts of, they kept draining all this blood out. And right up, and then that morning of the, I didn't practice all weekend in that morning of the game, they drained all this blood out and I went out and got a hell of the game. Just a little bit of a something?

I don't think so. Oh, wow. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. Wow. No shots. So can I, let's check. Maybe it's better to ask you about his body.

She'll tell you, it's pretty powerful. Go ahead. What limb, what knee, what joints are all, how many joints do you have that you came in with? Well, let's see. Both knees have been replaced. hip has been replaced. The ankles was fused, and the wrist is fused. Right.

So two kifopalactes in your back, a laminectomy. I mean, we've pretty much addressed all the joints at some point. I was going to ask you, how'd you get out of this? Scott Free. You didn't. Well, I got out free. Yeah. But you, you know, you have to kind of do maintenance.

Got some maintenance going on there, yeah. Can I ask you about, you know, I mean, when you were playing, oh, God, that hit. Was it the immaculate reception? But I watched you get beat this helmet to helmet. Bam! Weren't you just laid out? I was not late. I was knocked down.

And they were on top of me and I couldn't. I didn't see the play, but I heard the noise from the crowd. And while I'm laying on the ground, I knew. That's a touchdown, Jack. I knew that was a touchdown. So I'm thinking, I'm thinking, well, how many commercials am I going to get out of this? I'm going to have a movie career. I got a music career coming.

I'm a hero. My fourth wife is going to be hot. Oh, my fourth wife is. She's all she's going to ask me, tell me about that past. Tell me about that past. Yeah, because I was nine when it happened. You win. You win.

That's why you're in this room. I would be, you know, overwhelmed. But it was, it was, it was, it was, that was a cool moment. I mean, I make fun of it. Oh, my God. And you know what? You know, it's really cool, Ted. Tammy and I went to, what's the name of this place? Nemocolon.

Nema Coulin Resort outside of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia. Most incredible place in the world. I never seen anything like. I didn't know existed. And I was there because they were bringing out the ball that I threw, which was encased in plastic and guarded. And to show everyone for the first time, the football that I threw for the emaculate reception.

And they took it out of the, they had security there, and they took the ball out of the case and handed it to me. Wow. And I'm telling, it was a spiritual moment to touch that ball. I thought, I had not touched it since I threw it.

Wow. And I touched it, and it a little. And you didn't even get to see it cross the finish line. No, but I heard it. Yeah. Yeah, heard it. But yeah. Walk us through, walk us through that.

So you throw it. It bounces on. Who is your receiver intended? I'll tell you what the play was. You don't think it's a play. Full right split, 66, circle post. And I told the split and do an option. If the safety lays to the outside, go to the post,

feel he's inside, shake him and go to the corner. Because it's fourth down. 66 tight end stays in in blocks. Fullback, Franco Harris stays in and blocks. It's basically maximum protection. I'm going to try to hit the back on a circle. if they come up on the back, which is Franksie Fuqua, then I'll go to the post or the corner route.

And if that's open, now I've got to come up a plate to the right side. And so I've got an out somewhere. But that was the play. The tight end did a good job blocking. Franco missed his block. That's why I was flushed out of the pocket. So I get out of the pocket. I'm stopped by the outside.

The defense of the end, he tries to get me. I swing my, you'll watch me, I swing my arm up in the air so he, so he can't get to my hand. And when he did, and I duck down and then I come back up and I see a black jersey coming across the middle. Boom, I just, I turned it loose. And then I go down on the ground and then I hear the roar. Quarterbacks know the roars. We know a good roar.

We know a first down. roar. We know a bad play, but boy, we know a touchdown, especially at home. Yeah. And I heard that roar, and I went, oh, my, get chill bumps now. Just thinking about it. I'm like, God, Terry, you, you, you're something. You put it right there, right on him. I was so jacked up. I couldn't wait to get up. Get up. I don't get up and see it. And then when I got up, and the place is going crazy, and I'm like, yeah, this is great. This is great. And nobody's telling me great throw, nothing. I'm just an afterthought. But the ball, and I'm going, what happened? What happened? Well, the ball went to Frenchie over the middle. Oh, that's who I threw

to Frenchie. All right? And the ball bounced in the air back towards the line of scrimmage, back towards the line of scrimmage. Yeah, yeah. And Franco scooped it. Franco scooped it. He scooped it off. Franco, yeah, he scooped it. And then he ran into the end zone. Yeah. Really? I'm got to tell you, I was pissed. Who messed up my past? What happened in my movie career?

Oh, my God. And then when I see it, and I'm going, holy cow, Jack Tatum, comes up and hits Frenchy and the ball, and who touched it last? And did Franco trap it? And the reps are on the phone to the press box, and John Madden and Al Davis are furious because they're like, hey, look, if we don't call this a touchdown,

we're not going to get out of this stadium alive. It was just all kind of chaos. And it was. Yes. Yes. I did see a picture later, years later, of Franco, and the ball was about 10 inches off the ground, so he did catch it. Now, in high definition today,

with all the tape machines and cameras today, which you see on Monday night and all these games now, Fox has, where you can slow. it down. And you can go frame by frame. And you can get under the ball on the side of the ball through the huddle.

I mean, you're everywhere. And they'll go, oh, right there. There it is. There it is. There it is. It is just a shred of his jersey. Right there. Come on. This is just wrong.

You know it was so much fun about this last two or three minutes. What? of you talking. It was like, I got you in the booth. I got you with your memories of football. I got you why,

you know, why you were so good. Everything about that was so cool listening to you talk. It's a fun, it's a fun story. Yeah. You know, I do,

funny how quarterbacks are, our players in general, but you do remember great moments. Yeah. I'm glad. I'm glad I, I'm glad I, I'm glad I remember.

remember them. You know, in the big events, you know, it's the Super Bowl is just there, every Super Bowl I played in, there's, as they would say, there's a, you know, there's a defining moment. Right. And I remember them, which is nice. Tara, you're pretty fucking cool, man. Well, thanks, Ted. Yeah. How come it take me so long to get on your show if I'm so cool? I like you as a man. I like your, what'd you say? I said, if I'm so cool, I wanted it takes along for me to get on your show. No, this is the bottom of the barrel. The show, oh, oh. I am so sorry. You were out. By the way, this was your swan song. They're not coming in for my book.

You talked about the book. No, this is not a goodbye. I just had to tell you how cool you are. Oh, I thought you were kicking me out the door. No. Oh, oh, let me reassess everything. I take all that back. No, no, but you talked the book.

But why did you decide to write this? Because you wanted to do more of your journey as a man. Yeah, I think so. This book is different than the other five. Looking for Terry. Yeah. It was, it'd been 21 years since I'd done a book, and I've been talking about it for five years. Okay.

I like doing books. I do. I'm not so vain as to think, well, everybody's waiting on me to do a book. Right. You know, why would they want to? And it's not about money because you don't make any money. I'm not going to make any money with this book. I'm not going to make nothing.

But I didn't do it for the money. I'm lucky that I even have a publisher because more people passed on this book because he's a football player. You know, it's that same old thing. Well, he's a football player. Well, he's a football. We don't need another football book. And you're trying to tell these people, this is not, I'm a football player. You know me as that, but I'm much more than that, you know?

And you can't act because you're a football player. You can't sing because you're a football player. You can't do a lot of things in life because you're a football player. So God only blesses you with one talent. Yeah. You know, and that's just not true. And it pisses people off, too, at first. You're going to go act?

We're not going to let you. No, no. I did movies and who did I play? Terry Bradshaw. I mean, but that, you know, that's okay. But I wanted to do this book because I felt like I had some really good stuff to save to people in general. Stuff that, about the pressure.

about success, about failure, about the journey of life and the fun that I've had. And I open up, it's a total open up, and I enjoyed. And then I did the audio version of the book, and I just loved it, you know. And so while I'm doing this book, I kept telling my writer, David Fisher, hey, I'm telling you, I'm sitting here, but I got some more stuff over here. I got another book. We need to start another book because I got a bunch of stuff I want to say.

So that's what we're going to do is start another book. But this book, I really enjoy this book. It's really good. I am not someone that will say, oh, you got to get my book because I'm the first one to tell you, look, you don't want to buy this book.

I'll tell you, Ted, you don't want to see. Hey, look, I did a movie called a TV movie called The Stockers. All right? Yeah, horrible. NBC, horrible. Horrible script. horrible acting, horrible music, horrible directing.

The whole thing was horrible, horrible, embarrassing. Ernest Borgon, I'm in Birmingham and Ernest Borgon. I said, you, terror, hear your shows on the night with Mel Tillis. You mind if we come up to your room and watch your pilot? And I went, I've never seen it. And I, you all right? It's a pilot. And I said, wow, Ernest Borgnam.

You were talking about Academy Award. And I said, yeah. I said, I'll be proud. So Ernest Springs's gorgeous wife. and all I got little bitty rooms. I'm sitting on the bed and I pull up a chair, and he's sitting on the bed and his wife got the chair, and we're sitting there.

And on comes the play, I mean, the movie, the show, and I'm like, oh, my God. In the minute it starts, Ted, I'm like, obviously you've done something like that. And I went, oh, my God, this is horrible. Oh, my God. Even the music's bad.

Can the music be bad? So this horrible pilot, Johnny Carson production, Al Ruddy. Oh, wow. Yeah. I pick time. Hal Needham was a director. Whoa. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I'm headed. I'm coming out here and life's going to be good. And they pick it up. I make more money. I would have made in 10 years playing footballs. I'm leaving football after eight years. This is great. Get through.

And it goes, yeah. He goes, man, he says, boy, you guys have great chemistry. And you know he spent the last 45 minutes going, what shall I say? Chemistry, chemistry, yeah, chemistry. And he goes, wow, you can just see it. Boy, I wish you luck with this. Man, this is really, you know, boy, you've really got this and he's so sweet. So sweet.

So sweet. And his wife hugged me, told me, oh, darling, she says, golly, this is going to be so good. Thank you for letting us come up. Before they leave, they stood up the phone rings. Excuse me. So I answered the phone. It's Mel Tillis. You know, he stutters.

So I said, hello. Well, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, and I go, it's Melville. And I go, hello. He goes, well, well, well, well, horse. Eat, eat, eat, eat, it, it, it, it wouldn't know. Gone with the world. wins.

I just lost it, man. Oh, my God. Oh, such a bad show. Oh, so bad. Can I tell you quick, a Walter Mathau, Jack Lemmon, they were buddies. They had so many movies together

and they were best friends. Jack's in a movie, and he says to Walter, there's an early screening. They haven't, you know, I'd love you to come look at it. I'm not so sure, but I'd love your advice. So they screened it just the two of them.

Sat through the whole thing, and at the end, Jack turns to Walter. And Walter goes, I'd get out of it if I were you. Hey, I mean, I didn't anybody tell me, I hope they don't pick it up because, boy, it was bad. I mean, it was, listen, it was so bad that even the sound was off. What, what, what, win, win, win. I mean.

Oh, oh, you mean the, yeah, it was out of sync. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Yeah, but at least I can tolerate it. And thank God all those people are dead so they don't have to, I don't have to worry about hurting anybody's feelings. Shoot, thank God. Thank God.

Yeah. But, you know, it's, you know, it's also great. Hey, making people laugh, which you do, and your knowledge about football and all about stuff. This is my wife. Give me the phone. I'll tell her not to bother. What's the matter?

I mean, does she not know you have a big star here? This is me. Oh, it's my agent. He wants me to try to get out of this. I'm so sorry. Oh, you've got an agent. I'm impressed. That was so embarrassing.

I can't remember where I was going. Oh, all right. The book. Right. sharing, you know, because you're Terry Bradshaw, you've won four, da-da-da, everybody put you up here, rightfully so. But that means that you don't suffer, you don't have, you know, issues, you're not human, you're not this, you're not that. You didn't have to overcome anything. And for them to be able to read this and go, oh, you too go through what I'm feeling or going through is a huge comfort.

Another thing you do so well is you do make people laugh. You laugh at yourself. You are funny about football. You're funny. You make people laugh and feel good. And that nowadays is huge. Huge what you do. I had a producer at CBS when I first came out and started doing football for television.

And he called me into his office and he says, look, you've got to cut out the silliness, the humor stuff. You're losing your credibility with the audience. Well, how am I losing my credibility? They're going to take my Super Bowls away from me? I'm credible. Yeah. I'm just, it's just that I'm more, when I played football, Ted,

and I got into the huddle, and I called the plays, I am dead serious. I'm not joking around, all right? when that three and a half hours is over with, if I had played well and we had one, there is a down. There's a, they'll come down, emotional, where you come down to which I would go into a deep state of,

it's not depression, but it's the adrenaline. When you come off of adrenaline high, man, it's exhausting. Yeah. Exhausting. And so when I had a chance in the off-season and I started my career as a professional speaker, I found that, oh, man, they really liked me when I told these funny stories. So I told more funny stories.

And I started creating more funny stories. And I started making fun of myself. And I enjoyed it because they were laughing and they were having fun. And I thought, oh, man. So I kind of found myself doing all of those things. and when I would do interviews in Pittsburgh, I would give everybody a good interview because I want you to have a great interview.

You're going to go write for your paper or your magazine or your radio or television show. I want you to have a great interview. So I'd give you a great interview. I'd give you a great interview. And then I'd give him a better interview than I gave you and we're talking about the same subject. And then I'd tell him something that I didn't tell him or him

and he'd have a great interview. And then everybody would love me because I want to be loved by everybody. But you flip that like you, it's like you want to be loved. Yeah. Yeah. Who the fuck doesn't want to be loved? But what you're really doing is you're giving people happiness and joy and you're treating them with huge amount of respect.

Some people. Some people. Yeah, for sure. Some people. Then there's others that are like, look. Oh, we can name them here. We have dicks in this. Oh, you met.

He's, what? I totally am. I'm never coming back to this. No, terrible. I hope he hears this, too. You know what? I just met Conan O'Brien. Isn't he cool?

I've loved him. But why does he want to fight me? I don't understand that. Folks, listening right now? He did. He challenged me. Now, he needs to get dewormed because he is a skinny boy and he's got a big tapeworm in his body.

I'll kick his ass. all over Hollywood. He knows it. So when I leave here, don't you, you just tell him, you have really upset, Bradshaw.

I will. As a matter of fact, I'm going to cut this part into a loop and we're just going to play it in front of it. Because I'm a little upset with him, him and that eight-inch hair over top of his head,

dying at red, claiming he's Irish. Do you talk about or can you not? Because about, I mean, you're so lucky you got maybe busted here and there and all of that. But brain stuff.

CTE. Yeah. And the difference in the equipment, and I mean, you were playing kind of in the wild west in the 70s. 70s was probably different than the 50s and the 60s gear-wise. Right. Pretty much all the same suspension helmets,

which were just straps. Yeah. Just straps of the rubber thing right in the top of your head where they pulled them all together. But we started having players do strange things when they retired. Mike Webster, sleeping under bridges and acting weird and crazy. And other players, people, guys committing suicide. And then they found out they did an autopsy on their brain.

And I'm not sure how that all started. But just that's what happened. They did an autopsy and found out that there was this thing. thing called CTE. It's just a big tech. I used to know the term, what it all stood for. But anyway, it's a deep, deep depressive where you get in your life and there's no end. And so you take your life.

It's out of control. It's scary. It's very scary for athletes in my decade. And I think all athletes now, but the equipment is so. so much better, so much better. So Tammy and I, when we had Webster and we had a few more people, Sayal, committed suicide in San Diego. And, I mean, it was just heart-wrenching. The Pittsburgh Steeler guy that drove his bus right into a gasoline, a tanker on the highway and blew up and killed him. So it's on and on and on. So she took me and had me, were we at Yale?

Yeah, we went to Yale. We're at Yale. And we did a complete three-day brain scan treatment thing. Right. To see if there was any indication there that I had damage. Damage. DEM, you can't, unless she can tell you better. Now, CTE, you can't, I don't know why they're trying to come up with a way now to figure it out. You can't be diagnosed definitively until after you've died.

Yeah. That's just go right into the brain and see if the plaque is there. Right. whoopty-dos? No, it doesn't show up on imaging studies, no. Wow. So some symptoms or indications can be visible in behavior, but, but, and assumptions made, but you can't definitively diagnose it until after someone's passed away.

But so, so we went to get a baseline study of his cognitive status so that we could track it through the years if we saw changes. And it was very, it was very intense three-day process. and the doctors at Yale, all of them. And they flat out said, we know you're playing history. We've seen what has happened to your head in the games. And they were shocked that his imaging studies showed no damage whatsoever to his brain, much less his cognitive status was excellent.

And they told him you show no signs of potential dementia or Alzheimer or anything that would lead us to think CTE would be down the road for you. So that was very comforting to get that information. Because having being diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, I don't know which, that was alarming and kind of explained some of your behavior as a child, like why you couldn't study, why your grades weren't good, because you couldn't lock in, you couldn't stay focused. But very prevalently. Yeah, exactly. So many people. And then later on, the depression. and getting diagnosed, being clinically depressed, and it's like,

geez, that's what all this is. And it's kind of like when you find out those things, you're not disappointed. You're like, oh, God, there's the answer. And then you get treatment and you get counseling and you do all of that. And the best thing about all of these is that my wife knows the symptoms as well as I do. I know I'm experiencing them. And she's able to step in and help me. get over it, which is a godsend.

Yeah. Because that depression is ugly. It's sickening. It's, I've tried to explain it to people. It's hard to do because it consumes you. She knows if I'm sitting on the porch by myself and I'm rocking and I'm something I don't normally do, if I'm really quiet or she's, where are you?

Her big thing is, where are you right now? Yeah. I'm here. No, you're not. No, I am. I swear to you, I am because I don't want her to worry. I really am here. You know, maybe I got something on my mom.

I mean, I'm thinking about something that's going on. But then there's time where I'll just go to her and say, hey, I'm struggling today. Yeah. And she helps me. It's good. That's a good deal. It's the best. Yeah, it is.

Yeah. I'm so glad you sat in. Oh, thank you for asking. Really, really. When I walked in and it was like, and I've seen enough interviews of you guys talking about each other and all of that. And I don't know, no comparisons, but Mary and I are very similar. Yeah, from what you said, it sounds like you. Yeah, we just love waking up, making each other laugh.

We found each other me after two marriages, but I was 45, she was 40. So we know how lucky we are, you know. Yeah. And we celebrate. We celebrate 31. 31. Found each other in 93. Got married at 95.

I walked around a minute, you know, well, within the first week or two, I was like, oh, well, I can't imagine being with anyone else. Really? Yeah, ever. But I have fucked up several relationships in my life, that same conversation. Yeah. But I walked around finally and I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to go buy a ring. So I bought a ring.

You bought a ring? Yeah. In two weeks? No, no, no, no. Two years. No, no, no, no. Two years. And we had kids that we were trying to mesh into a family and all of that.

But it was two years. And I walked around going, practicing in my head, I'm such an idiot. I want to marry you. It just doesn't sound right. I better wait. No, I'm madly in love. Yeah, no, it's time. I want to marry you.

Shit, what's wrong? And it finally was like, oh, will you marry me? Oh. And within a day, we were engaged. We do have to wrap this up. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that I got to sit in a room and talk to you. We're friends now. Yeah, I'm going to hug your ass when I see you.

Yeah. I'm standing up and I'm hugging you. Oh, we're out of here. We're out of here. An amazing, amazing, amazing. conversation. Thank you, Terry. Thank you, Tammy. This weekend pick up Looking for Terry, a memoir, out now at a bookstore near you. That's it for this week. Special thanks to Team Coco, as always. If you've enjoyed this episode, send it to a loved one. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe

give us a great rating and review on Apple Podcasts, if you're on a good mood. All our full-length episodes are on YouTube. Visit YouTube.com slash team. Come Coco. See you next time where everybody knows your name. You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow. Our executive producers are Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer. Engineering and Nixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grail. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Jane Batista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Ante

And again, Mary Steenbergen and John Osmore.