“I Love Working with Him”: Not Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski Names Another TB12 Who is “Always Ready to Go 24/7”

Rob Gronkowski doesn’t spend his NFL Sundays on the gridiron anymore, but he’s still in league circles. The future Hall of Fame tight end has acclimated to a FOX Sports studio role since retiring in 2022. In that time, he has gotten close to four-time Super Bowl champion Terry Bradshaw.

During his Dudes On Dudes podcast with Julian Edelman, Gronk talked about sharing the set with Bradshaw. He noted the 76-year-old Hall of Famer brings tremendous energy to the job and has helped him grow as an analyst.

“Nothing is stopping that guy… whatever gets in his path, he just keeps climbing over it… he’s always ready to go, 24/7. I’m 35, and I look at him sometimes throughout the full day at FOX, and I’m getting tired. Terry? Never getting tired. Just always ready to go… always on point… he’s just immaculate. And I love learning from him, and I love being under his wing. And I love working with him.”

Bradshaw, like Edelman’s and Gronkowski’s primary quarterback – Tom Brady – wore No. 12 in his playing career. He also, at one time, shared Brady’s name well before the legendary New England signal-caller reached the professional ranks.

Before Brady, Joe Montana, or Patrick Mahomes stepped on the scene, Terry Bradshaw was the NFL’s biggest winner. He was the first quarterback to win four Super Bowls and is still the only signal-caller to claim back-to-back Super Bowl victories twice. Anything that happened to him, or in his general vicinity – a la Mahomes today – was newsworthy. This forced him to take drastic measures for privacy.

Terry Bradshaw once used “Tom Brady” as a pseudonym

According to Edelman, one of those moments came ahead of Bradshaw’s final professional season. Bradshaw played through “torn muscles and tendons in his passing elbow” the year prior (1982) and needed surgery to repair them. To keep the press from finding out, hospital staff checked him in as “Thomas Brady.”

“Brady” underwent a successful operation, but tried returning sooner than recommended and reinjured himself. The only game he played that year was Pittsburgh’s regular-season finale, a 34-7 triumph over the New York Jets. Bradshaw completed 62.5% of his passes (5/8) for 77 yards and two touchdowns but aggravated his elbow ailment again in the process. He then retired at age 35.

Bradshaw doesn’t often get mentioned in conversations about the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks. He won his fourth Lombardi Trophy at 31 years old, sooner than Montana (33) and Brady (37). Had he listened to his doctors, he could have won a fifth or even sixth championship.

Unfortunately for Bradshaw, that didn’t happen. His statistical profile doesn’t stack up with that of other all-time greats, but nobody can dispute him being the greatest winner of his era. Even though he and Brady don’t actually share a name, there’s no disputing they have that in common.