It happened to Terry Bradshaw the same way it happened to Joe Montana. Training camp, long pass, elbow goes, just before the start of his 13th NFL season.
The similarities are eerie.
Bradshaw, the only quarterback besides Montana to win four Super Bowls, has some advice for him: Don`t rush it, regardless of how well Steve Young performs in his absence.
That`s easy to say, Bradshaw acknowledges, and not easy to do.
”I can say the right things, because I didn`t do `em,” Bradshaw said in an interview.
”The key is don`t come back too soon, regardless of whether you`re feeling good. . . . Don`t let the performance of Steve Young make you do something that will cost you a career.
”When I was hurt, I couldn`t stand to stand on the sidelines and watch Cliff Stoudt throwing passes, and taking the team up and down the field with the fans cheering. That was ripping my heart out. Certainly, you`re happy for the team, but there`s a certain amount of ego that says, `Nobody can do this but me.` Boy, it`s a cold realization.”
Bradshaw was 34 when his elbow went, a year younger than Montana is now. It was the summer of 1982, and he was throwing a deep pass to John Stallworth in the Steelers` training camp. He slipped on a muddy field and as he threw,
”I felt a sting on the inside of my elbow,” he recalled.
The pain never went away. Bradshaw shot up with cortisone before every game. Once, he said, he had to scratch himself from an exhibition game, because a shot went into a nerve and put his arm to sleep. Even an eight-week layoff caused by a players` strike didn`t help.
Montana said he felt the sting in his elbow throwing a 40-yard pass in camp this summer at the 49ers` training camp.