Football great bares his soul

By ROD ROWE
THE GOSHEN NEWS

May 02, 2009 12:00 am

— ELKHART — Football great Terry Bradshaw poked fun at himself, his life and career, but between the laughs he also bared his soul and spoke about his own mental health issues.
Bradshaw was guest speaker at the 10th annual Spring Spectacular banquet Friday night to benefit the Oaklawn Foundation. The foundation helps Oaklawn Hospital address the mental health issues of people in the community.
After a patron party and social hour at the Matterhorn Restaurant that included an autograph-signing and picture-taking session with Bradshaw, he spoke to the crowd about his life and career, stressing that “the most important thing in life is that you’re happy.”
Some things in life you cannot choose or change, like being ugly, Bradshaw joked. “There are a lot of ugly people in Indiana,” he began, pointing to examples near the stage. “Half of America is ugly. I know I’m ugly, but I’m at peace with that,” he said.
He joked that he looked fat in the recent Paramount movie “Failure to Launch.” If he had known how he looked and the exposure he was to have in the movie, he would have exercised more.
He joked that he put his ex-wife through law school so she could become a divorce lawyer, and she later divorced him.
“I took her on a trip for a week to Hawaii. When we got back, she billed me for 40 hours,” he joked. “I like who I am. The poor ugly person that I am.”
“You can’t be happy if you are lying to yourself,” he said. “A lot of us can do something about it. Why can’t we figure out how to be happy? I’m 60. I have a beautiful trailer, made right here in Elkhart.”
But to wake up in the morning, he said, he knows “This is a good day. I like who I am. I’m a whole lot better person if I like myself.
“It’s a gift that you are happy,” he said, while dealing with the struggles of everyday life.
He also went on to say he was divorced 11 years ago, and spoke about the effect it had on him and his battle with depression. He said he suffers from attention deficit disorder and takes medicine for it. And he joked that his two daughters also have it, so when they went to Disney World he and the girls never got tired, but their mother did.
He told the group that he was diagnosed as clinically depressed, but did not want the news to get out. He later wrote one paragraph about his disease in a book. He now talks about mental health issues everywhere he goes.
But ADD affects his learning and test-taking, he explained. It kept him from attending Lousiana State University, but he went to Louisiana Tech to play football. He is obviously proud of winning four Super Bowl championships, but said he couldn’t care less about being in the Hall of Fame.
“I’m juiced on life. I’m proud of what I accomplished, but not too impressed about me,” he said, as he tries to stay down-to-earth.
He urged the members of the audience to “practice being nice. Watch what happens.” He also urged the audience members to continue to support Oaklawn Foundation.
After speaking he answered questions, many of which were about his professional football career.