Terry+Bradshaw

= = Terry Bradshaw //By Basil Inferrera//





//Someone once introduced me by saying, "There is only one Terry Bradshaw and here is all of them." Truthfully I'm as confused about who I am as everybody else. I got the name right, but the person standing behind it tends to change with the wind. -Terry Bradshaw in the preface to his novel __It's Only a Game__//

**Biography:**
//“I could not bounce back from my divorce - emotionally - I just could not bounce back. With any bad situations I’d experienced before - a bad game or my two previous divorces - I got over them. This time I just could not get out of the hole. The anxiety attacks were frequent and extensive. I had weight loss, which I’d never had before. I couldn’t stop crying. And if I wasn’t crying, I was angry, bitter, hateful and mean-spirited. I couldn’t sleep - couldn’t concentrate. It just got crazy.”// //Bradshaw on his mental health in a USA Today article//

Terry Bradshaw was born in Shreveport, Louisiana September 2 1948 as the middle child of three boys to parents Bill and Novis Bradshaw ("Terry Bradshaw Biography"). During his childhood summers he would spend time on his Grandfathers farm, and says in his 2002 autobiographical novel //It’s Only a Game// that “This is where I learned my values… and more than anything, I learned on that farm in Hall Summit that it is the simple things in life that make all the difference.” In high school he played football, baseball, and threw the javelin. In his senior year he set the national javelin record with a throw of 244 feet and 11 ¾ inches at a state meet. (Bradshaw)

After high school Bradshaw chose to remain in state and attend Louisiana Tech University. Even though Louisiana Tech is not a typical college football powerhouse, Bradshaw was considered the top college prospect for his incredible arm strength and was chosen number 1 overall in the 1970 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers. After struggling his first couple seasons Bradshaw went on to become a 3 time Pro Bowl selection (1975,78, and 79), a 2 time Super Bowl MVP (Super Bowl XIII, and XIV), and eventual hall of famer ("Hall of Famers: Terry Bradshaw"). Despite his success he was often criticized for his perceived lack of intelligence and southern roots. (Terry Bradshaw -cbn.com)

While in the NFL Terry Bradshaw played his entire career from 1960-1973 with the Steelers. Bradshaw and his powerful arm emerged as an integral part to the Steeler powerhouse in the later half of the 1970’s. Bradshaw, running back Franco Harris, and Pittsburgh's infamous “steel curtain” defense lead them to 6 AFC championship appearances, and 4 Super Bowl appearances and victories, including Pittsburgh's first Super Bowl win (NFL Hall of Fame).

Despite his cheerful humorous demeanor, Bradshaw has battled depression, anxiety, and ADD during and after his NFL career. “Look at me,” he says in a 1994 USA Today article by John Morgan, “I’m always happy-go-lucky, and people look at me and find it shocking that I could be depressed.” Bradshaw had three failed marriages ending in divorce, Melissa Babish from 1972-73, JoJo Starbuck from 76-83, and Charlotte Hopkins from 83-99. The failure of his last marriage served as the catalyst for years of problems. Terry Bradshaw’s growing trouble controlling his anxiety made it difficult for him to appear in public. Art Rooney, Pittsburgh Steeler founder and owner, died in 1988, and Terry Bradshaw didn’t attend the funereal, reportedly due to his anxiety. Former Steelers guard Gerry Mullins said in a 1989 article from the LA times “It’s tragic. It’s a personal decision on terry’s part, and I’m not going to question it, but I think it’s a real shame he’s chosen to isolate himself from everyone.” However, in recent years Bradshaw has come forward about his diagnosis of depression and the fact that he takes prescription Paxil. He has expressed his concerns over the social stigma associated with depression and mental illness.

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Trait/Skill Approach:
Born in Ancient Greece, Hippocrates lived during the time of famous philosopher Socrates and playwright Euripides sometime between 380 BCE and 470 BCE (IEP: Hippocrates). Often called the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates was the first to propose a trait approach, “the use of a limited set of adjectives or adjective dimensions to describe and scale individuals,” to personality (Friedman, 2009, 257). Hippocrates approach attributes various human temperaments to the influence of different bodily humors.

During his television appearances Terry Bradshaw appears outgoing and cheerful, often cracking jokes and smiling (“Terry Bradshaw on Jimmy Kimmel Live” ). These characteristics would classify Bradshaw’s temperament as sanguine, or influenced by the bodily humor of blood (Friedman, 2009, 258). However, Bradshaw by his own admission has battled depression and crippling anxiety for a number of years (“Bradshaw's winning drive against depression”). The sad, depressive temperament would fall into the melancholic category, yet is clearly a side of Terry Bradshaw the public rarely sees.

While Hippocrates’ “bodily humors” is no longer excepted as a reasonable explanation of personality, psychologists have developed better ways of approaching personality through the trait method that Hippocrates laid the foundation for. The Big Five approach arose in the 1960’s following growing experimental evidence that personality could be captured into five broad dimensions: Extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. The Big Five was different from other theories as it was primarily researched based, and not theory based. Psychologists were able to extrapolate a theory out of the date that was found, instead of applying a theory to the data (Friedman, 2009, 267). As mentioned Terry’s public persona was that of a laughable jokester, always with a smile, and a good natured humor about sensitive issues like his three divorces (Bradshaw). Terry would rank high in extroversion, which is characterized by enthusiastic, sociable, and talkative. Bradshaw is often the comedic relief on Fox’s NFL Sunday broadcast, and uses his “southern boy” attitude as a comedic schtick (“5Quick Questions with Jimmy Johnson“). The friendly, farm boy routine makes Terry high in agreeableness, which means he appears friendly, trusting, and warm (Friendman, 2009, 267).

During Terry’s first years with the Steelers he was often mercilessly booed, and called a huge bust of a draft pick (Bradshaw). His ability to overcome the struggles he experienced in his first years and lead a city he never felt truly embraced him, to their first super bowl victory would rank him high in conscientiousness, as he’s persevering and dependable. Nothing showcases his dependability better then his immaculate post season record. As a starter he posted a 14-5 post season record, which included 4 super bowl victories. Unfortunately, throughout his career Terry has suffered from a host of mental health problems. After he had retired from the NFL he became elusive, and didn’t return to Pittsburgh until 2002, always feeling a little unwelcome by the city he had been part of for so long (“Bradshaw Embraced in Return to Steelers”). He also reported to having frequent “overwhelming” feelings of anxiousness after games in the locker room (“Steeler Quarterback Terry Bradshaw: Anxious and Depressed?”). These feelings of anxiety would character Bradshaw as being high in neuroticism, constantly nervous, high-strung, moody, or worrying. (Friedman, 2009, 267).

Bradshaw’s southern roots have often depicted him as being unintelligent, or simple minded. Jokes directed towards Terry often reference his intelligence or southern farm-boy attitude. A segment including the E-Trade babies characterizes this well.

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Being easily categorized into such a category would rank Bradshaw low on openness. A person who isn’t open would often be seen as plain, shallow, or simple (Friedman, 2009, 267). While this may be an unfair classification, it’s the perspective the public often sees while Terry milks his exaggerated persona.

During the past decade Bradshaw has come out and been open about his issues with his own mental health, the Terry Bradshaw most people have been exposed too in his lucrative life after football, doesn’t portray an image associated with depression.

Neo-Analytic Approach:
The neo-analytic approach to assessing personality is “concerned with the individual’s sense of self (ego) as the core of the personality” (110). Carl Jung is one of the foremost figures in the neo-analytic approach, but one of his most controversial ideas was his archetype theory. Archetypes are “emotional symbols that are common to people and have been formed since the beginning of time” (113). Archetypes are often seen in literature, examples like the trickster, or mother image appearing in ancient cultures mythological stories.

Terry Bradshaw’s private life problems and cheerful exterior fall neatly into Jung’s two opposing archetypes of the persona and shadow. Latin for “mask,” the persona archetype is aptly named as this archetype is the “mask” that you present the people you interact with in your life. The persona archetype is the “socially acceptable front” which in Bradshaw’s case is the demeanor seen in his movie roles, broadcasting roles, and novels (114). When the public sees Bradshaw they don’t see the anxious, depressed wreck he’s described himself as sometimes feeling. Bradshaw has talked about the social stigma associated with a mental illness like depression.

"Stigma is incredibly powerful," says the two-time Super Bowl MVP. "We'll talk about cancer and every other disease, including alcohol and drug abuse, but people do not want to talk about depression. There's something about depression that seems to say, 'I'm a tremendous failure' or 'I'm the biggest wuss there is.'" (“Winning Drive”)

This stigma would associate his depression with a side of Bradshaw’s personality he was ashamed or embarrassed of. This aspect of one’s personality would be characterized as Jung’s shadow archetype. This concept is seen throughout history in the form of an evil twin, or a “dark-side” (Friedman, 2009, 114). Bradshaw’s shadow archetype would be whatever behaviors or thoughts he deems as socially unacceptable. He seemingly embraces his defunct love life in stride and uses his stereotypical southern drawl in a comedic way, but he still has to deal with the fact that certain core parts of his personality, like how he grew up, have often been ridiculed.

After Bradshaw began to experience some success with the Steelers he was greeted with a new found fame in a demographic wildly different then the one he had grown up in. A very religious man, Bradshaw has expressed his inner guilt about reconciling his Christian morals with the fact that he’s been divorced 3 times. His time spent being ridiculed by harsh media criticism could have created a mental list behaviors or feelings that would fall into the public persona archetype or the shadow archetype.

Discussion:
For a man who's spent most of his grown life in the spot light and in front of the cameras, Bradshaw's outward demeanor rarely shows the depression and anxiety he feels on a regular basis. Terry's place in the Big Five is able to capture these conflicting sides of his personality. By being categorized as high in positive characteristics like agreeableness, but also high in negative characteristics like neuroticism, one can see how this trait approach is able to accurately correlate both the external and internal trains of Bradshaw's personality.

Jung's concept of archetypes in the neo-analytic approach is also able to really capture the nature between Bradshaw's two archetypes. The persona and shadow archetype easily describe the apparent duality in the personalty of Terry Bradshaw. The quote at the top of the page accurately describes Bradshaw's process of categorizing his identity into these two archetypes.

Bradshaw's recent openness about his struggles have helped give an unusual voice to awareness of clinical depression. Terry's positive fight to better himself can be seen as an inspiration to people in a similar position.

Despite his struggles with mental illness and the hardships he faced during his first five years in Pittsburgh, Bradshaw, now a Hall of Famer, is considered one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game. His rocket powered arm helped create a Pittsburgh dynasty during his years in the league. Terry Bradshaw's legacy as a phenomenal football player will last for years to come.

References:
"5 Quick Questions with Jimmy Johnson." //Daily Tailgate | Your Morning Shot of Sports//. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. .

Boylan, Michael. "Hippocrates [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]." //Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy//. 5 July 2005. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. .

Bradshaw, Terry, and David Fisher. //It's Only a Game.// Atria, 2001. Kindle.

Dufresne, Chris. "Bradshaw Isn't Looking Back to Find Any Old Steeler Friends - Los Angeles Times." //Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times//. 05 Aug. 1989. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. .

Dulac, Gerry. "Bradshaw Embraced in Return to Steelers." //Post-Gazette.com//. 22 Oct. 2002. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. .

Friedman, Howard S., and Miriam W. Schustack. //Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research//. Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon, 2009. Print.

"Hall of Famers: Terry Bradshaw." //Pro Football Hall of Fame//. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. .

Morgan, John. "USATODAY.com - Terry Bradshaw's Winning Drive against Depression." //News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com//. 30 Jan. 2004. Web. 16 Apr. 2011. .

"Steeler Quarterback Terry Bradshaw: Anxious and Depressed?" //International Bipolar Foundation//. 2010. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. .

"Terry Bradshaw Biography." //TV Guide, TV Listings, Online Videos, Entertainment News and Celebrity News | TVGuide.com//. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. .

"Terry Bradshaw: Jesus Changed His Life - CBN.com." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.// 13 Oct. 2008. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. .

"Terry Bradshaw on Jimmy Kimmel Live 10 19 07 Part2." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.// Web. 17 Apr. 2011. .