NFL Legend, 78, Reveals ‘Ugly Disease’ Behind Championship Career

Bettmann / Bettmann Archive NFL legend Terry Bradshaw has opened up about mental health struggles that followed him beyond the football field.

The 78-year-old former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback opened up about his lifelong struggle with clinical depression in an interview with People this week to promote his new memoir, Looking for Terry .

“Men think that’s a weakness.

I got past it being a weakness.

It’s a sickness,” Bradshaw told the outlet.

“There’s nothing wrong with admitting you’ve got issues.” The four-time Super Bowl champion said he spent years struggling behind the scenes, even as he built one of football’s most celebrated careers.

Bradshaw played quarterback for the Steelers for 14 seasons, winning four Super Bowls before retiring in 1984.

He then became a CBS Sports analyst and joined Fox NFL Sunday in 1994, where he remains a co-host.

But his championship record concealed emotional turmoil that started long before his football fame.

Growing up in Shreveport, Louisiana, Bradshaw writes in his memoir that he had undiagnosed ADHD.

He later experienced anxiety attacks and intense emotional highs and lows during his playing career, which he dismissed as normal.

“You didn’t talk about it,” he told People.

Admitting that he was struggling was especially difficult in a sport where players were expected to appear tough.

“Finally saying, ‘Hey, I’m really f----d up.