Once upon a time, Hollywood Henderson said of Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw, “he couldn’t spell ‘cat’ if you spotted him the ‘c’ and the ‘t'”.  “The image prevails three decades later, that Bradshaw is a buffoon,” mused The Detroit News’ Jerry Green, though he finds at least one instance where said image is not necessarily Terry’s creation.

A Terry Bradshaw byline was carried over a column on Fox’s Web site, concerning mostly the fallen Tom Brady.It was Fox’s blurb promoting the article that lured me:

“Terry Bradshaw says that’s good news for the rest of the league.”

Same old blockhead, I mused, again, as I attempted to locate the column bearing Bradshaw’s name.

Alas, Terry deserves an apology. What he said was:

That Brady’s injury “changes the landscape in the entire NFL.”

That it “brings the New England Patriots back to the pack in the AFC.”

That “this kills any chances of the Patriots making it back to the Super Bowl, etc.”

He never said anything about Brady’s injury being good news for the rest of the NFL.

Leave it to Fox to twist the issue backwards with a fictional and controversial blurb.

Tom Brady happens to be the face of the NFL.

As Bradshaw’s image remains oafish, Brady’s image is of the suave, sure, brainy quarterback leader who attracts off-the-field celebrity attention. This attention helps the NFL — much of which is televised by Fox to America — to thrive.

A season without Tom Brady kills too much of the mass appeal that is part of professional football’s package. Just as once a season without Terry Bradshaw would have been devastating to the pro football establishment.

Fox, with its “Hole in the Wall,” is well-suited to showcase Terry Bradshaw 30 years later. It has become the premier network for our numbskull culture.

And some unidentified numbskull saddled Bradshaw with another scar on his image with a blurb that projected the absence of Brady as beneficial to the other teams in the NFL.

I just wonder if that person — he or she — is capable of spelling “Fox.” Even if I spotted this deep thinker the F and the X.