For a four-time Super Bowl winner, you’d think the happiest moment of his life would probably be on the football field. But for Terry Bradshaw, those memories were at his uncle’s farms, the place where he could be with animals. He had always loved pets, and he was never shy about showing it. 

But there was one animal Bradshaw will never forget, a mare that he lost years ago, one that was taken from him from Cowboys fans. 

You see, over the years, Bradshaw formed memories around particular horses that stayed with him long after his playing days. One of those memories, however, would be far less playful than the sight of Bradshaw joking with his dachshund at Three Rivers.

“I had trucks come at me while I’m running on the road,” shared the former Steelers quarterback on the September 11 live streaming of The Buddy Martin Show. “Come right at me. And I run into the ditch, which is full of sandbars. Oh, I had a great black mare. They shot it standing right there in the front pasture road: shot her dead. And when we posted her, or when we did an autopsy, she had a .22 shell stuck in her heart.”

That memory will make more sense once you understand just how personal the Steelers-Cowboys rivalry had become around Bradshaw.

For much of the 1970s, Pittsburgh and Dallas were not simply two successful teams meeting on the biggest stage. They were built around two quarterbacks who came to represent their franchises: Bradshaw in Pittsburgh and Roger Staubach in Dallas. Chuck Noll and Tom Landry stood on opposite sidelines, while the Steelers’ Steel Curtain and Dallas’ Doomsday defense gave the rivalry a clash of styles to match the personalities.

The stakes were particularly high because the teams met twice in the Super Bowl during the decade. Pittsburgh won the first meeting, Super Bowl X, 21-17, after Bradshaw’s late pass to Lynn Swann helped put the Steelers ahead and the defense held Dallas’ final drive. Three years later, the teams met again in Super Bowl XIII, the first Super Bowl rematch in NFL history. Bradshaw threw for 318 yards and four touchdowns as Pittsburgh survived 35-31.

Even the smallest exchanges between the teams could turn personal. In Super Bowl X, Cowboys safety Cliff Harris mocked Steelers kicker Roy Gerela after a missed field goal, patting him on the helmet. Jack Lambert immediately threw Harris to the ground. Lambert later explained why: “We were getting intimidated, and we’re supposed to be the intimidators.”

Franco Harris, who was there that day, still remembered the incident decades later. “It still pisses me off even thinking about that, that someone would do that,” he said in 2021. “Lambert handled that in the right way. He handled that in the Steelers’ way.”

That attitude was part of what made Pittsburgh so difficult to play against. Lambert wasn’t simply a hard hitter; he had become one of the faces of a defense that took pride in refusing to be intimidated. The Steelers won four Super Bowls in the 1970s, while Lambert earned nine straight Pro Bowl selections and became one of the defining personalities of the Steel Curtain.

Bradshaw’s recollection, however, points to a different kind of hostility, one that did not stay inside the stadium. A 1990 D Magazine profile reported that, after Bradshaw moved to the Dallas area, some Cowboys fans still had not forgotten his Pittsburgh years. He reportedly woke up to find his driveway gates welded shut, while the brick wall around his property had been damaged with sledgehammers. During his early-morning runs, drivers would even try to run him off the road.

The harassment could be mocking as well as destructive. According to the same profile, youngsters would spot Bradshaw and pretend he was Staubach, asking, “Gee, Mr. Staubach, would you mind giving me your autograph?” Bradshaw, though, did not present himself as intimidated. “I’ve always been a fighter. I’ve always liked a challenge,” he said.

That account came years after Bradshaw’s playing career, so it does not establish that the same people were responsible for what happened to his mare. But it does show that the hostility surrounding Bradshaw and the Cowboys could follow him well beyond game day. His latest recollection adds a far darker memory to that history.

The rivalry has produced its share of more recent flashpoints, too. During Dallas’ 20-17 win over Pittsburgh in October 2024, Steelers receiver George Pickens and Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis got into a postgame confrontation after Lewis taunted Pickens following the final play. Pickens grabbed Lewis by the facemask and pulled him to the ground; both players were later fined.

The irony became even greater when Pickens joined Dallas in 2025. He went on to post the best season of his career, finishing with 93 catches for 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns.

The rivalry has changed considerably since Bradshaw and Staubach were trading Super Bowl blows, but Dallas now holds the overall edge. The Cowboys lead the all-time series 18-16 after their 20-17 win in 2024, while Pittsburgh still owns the postseason advantage, 2-1, with its two victories coming in Super Bowls X and XIII.

For Bradshaw, though, the numbers only tell part of the story. Decades after those Super Bowls, the games are remembered not only for the championships and Hall of Fame names, but also for the hostility that sometimes followed the players home.