In the spring of 1966, 17-year-old Terry Bradshaw from Shreveport, Louisiana, faced a crossroads with a pen in hand. Sports Illustrated had already put him in its “Faces in the Crowd” feature for breaking national high school track records, making him a prize recruit for any program nationwide. Yet in the mid-1960s, a bad college fit meant failing out, losing academic deferment, and being deployed 8,000 miles overseas. Looking back, the pro football Hall of Famer laid bare the terrifying personal stakes behind turning down LSU.

“I didn’t want to go to LSU because I wasn’t mature enough to go to LSU,” Bradshaw said on The Long Game podcast. “I wasn’t emotionally and mentally mature enough to handle that. I would have been lost. I would have been a failure. I’d have gone into the Vietnam War.

“I knew I should have never signed with LSU, but it sounded good to be going to LSU. How stupid was it for me to sign with LSU when the very guy that was a freshman quarterback at LSU was the very quarterback that kept me on the bench at Woodlawn High School for two years!”

At Woodlawn High School, Bradshaw spent years stuck behind Trey Prather, an All-State quarterback who forced him to sit on the bench until his senior year. When Prather signed a football scholarship with LSU, serving as the freshman starter in 1965 and backing up the Tigers in 1966, Bradshaw saw a ghost from his past. Going to Baton Rouge meant walking straight into the exact same logjam. On top of that, Bradshaw was a pure gunslinger who loved to air it out, while LSU’s offense was stubbornly grounded.

As he later quipped in typical unfiltered fashion, he had no interest in playing for a program that “didn’t throw the football back then, or really ever.”

“I didn’t want to go to LSU,” Bradshaw said back in 2019. “They didn’t throw the football. They do this year, right? But they never had thrown it. Matter of fact, I’ve always said they haven’t had a great quarterback ever. Even when they had Bert Jones, they didn’t use him properly.”

Despite his hesitation, Bradshaw actually signed with LSU first. But before he could ever put on the jersey, reality caught up with him. Unbeknownst to Bradshaw at the time, he was battling undiagnosed ADD, which made school a constant uphill fight. When he couldn’t pass the ACT, LSU head coach Charles McClendon was legally barred from admitting him under scholarship rules. For Bradshaw, it was a terrifying wake-up call. In 1966, the Selective Service was tightening draft deferments, requiring full-time college students to maintain strict academic standing.

Bradshaw knew if he somehow squeezed into LSU, he would flunk out, lose his deferment, and swap his football helmet for a combat rifle in the Vietnam War. Then, destiny took a chilling turn.

After a few seasons in Baton Rouge, Prather dropped out of LSU and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Deployed to the front lines of Vietnam, he was severely injured by a landmine just months later. In January 1968, Prather tragically succumbed to his wounds, one week shy of his 21st birthday. Bradshaw, who always considered Prather the “best quarterback” he’d played behind in those formative years, realized how thin the line was between their two fates. While Prather’s life was cut short in Southeast Asia, Bradshaw’s academic detour redirected him to Louisiana Tech, forever altering the course of football history.

He lettered all four years, serving as a backup during his first two seasons before becoming the starter as a junior. The Bulldogs went 4-16 during his first two years, then flipped to 17-4 over his final two. In 1968, Bradshaw produced 2,890 yards of total offense as Louisiana Tech went 9-2 and won the Grantland Rice Bowl. He led the NCAA College Division in passing yards that year, and finished third in 1969.

That year, he led Tech to a conference championship and finished his college career with 25 school and conference records. He was twice named a College Division All-American before the Pittsburgh Steelers selected him first overall in 1970.

Bradshaw was even pursued by schools like Arkansas, Alabama, Texas A&M, and Baylor, too. All Power Five schools. Yet, the iconic quarterback chose to play for a team that wasn’t as competitive. He is among seven NFL greats who didn’t go to LSU despite being Louisiana natives; the list includes Marshall Faulk, Peyton Manning, Ed Reed, Reggie Wayne, and others.

Baton Rouge sure has missed out on a lot of talent.