When FOX launched its NFL coverage in 1994, Terry Bradshaw, dressed as a cowboy, the former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, rode onto the set on horseback. “New frontier, same game,” he declared, as FOX unveiled its first one-hour NFL pregame show. The spectacle was fitting for a network trying to make its mark on Sundays. 

As he settled into his second career, Bradshaw was also dealing with struggles that would take years to understand. He was diagnosed with clinical depression in the late 1990s after experiencing emotional lows he had struggled to make sense of. More than two decades later, two cancer diagnoses followed, with Bradshaw keeping his bladder cancer and Merkel cell carcinoma private for months in 2021 and 2022. By the time he disclosed the latter, viewers had already raised concerns about his on-air performances. Yet, Bradshaw kept going on for the love of the game. 

But now, at 78, Bradshaw has acknowledged that his time as a television broadcaster is finally approaching its end.

“I realize my time on television as a sports broadcaster is coming to an end,” Bradshaw confessed during a conversation with NBC News Daily. “I just love life. Billy Graham said, and I never forgot this quote, he said, ‘The day you retire is the day you start dying.’ I’m a workaholic. I love to work. I love my job. This year was the first year that I got nervous. 

“I wanted to extend my contract. So I signed through the Super Bowl. Two more years. I’ll be 80. Everybody in any business has to go. The young guys are coming. But I want to be relevant. I want to be good. I want to continue on. I want America to [tune in] and watch me. I want them to [like] me.” 

Read closely, though, the comments are not an exit announcement. Bradshaw attached the line about his career ending to a contract he had just extended, which doesn’t make this a farewell. The more revealing detail is the nervousness.

Bradshaw called this the first year he felt it, despite decades on television, but he did not say what caused it. He never claimed FOX threatened to replace him. What he confirmed is that he wanted an extension and got one.

Moreover, in an October 11 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he was asked directly whether it was time to make room for someone younger. His answer was not a retirement announcement. He repeated that he wanted to stay relevant and keep working.

Bradshaw kickstarted his broadcasting career at CBS, where he worked as a color commentator and tried studio shows, before finding his footing at Fox Sports in 1994. Since then, he has stayed true to the network and has appeared on Fox NFL Sunday since the very first episode, a distinction he shares only with Howie Long, the other member of the original desk still on the show.

As a Pro Football Hall of Famer with four Super Bowl wins, Bradshaw still has significant authority on the microphone. And for appreciable work as a studio analyst, the former quarterback earned three Sports Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Sports Personality/ Analyst category.

The extension runs through the 2028–29 season, which ends with FOX’s scheduled broadcast of Super Bowl LXIII, according to Awful Announcing. Bradshaw has not announced a final broadcast date, so the end of the contract should not be read as a confirmed farewell.