Terry Bradshaw is now a Hall-of-Famer, but in college, the NFL legend was back up quarterback to Phil Robertson for two years at Louisianna Tech University. Phil Robertson was a talented college athlete. In fact, Bradshaw says the famous hunter had “as quick of a release as Joe Namath.”
Bradshaw clarifies the only reason he thinks he got to take on the QB1 position was due to Roberston quitting. “I did not beat him out, he quit,” Bradshaw says on Fox Football Daily. He acknowledges while the two played the same position, their passions were clearly different. “He knew his passion was duck hunting, and he knew my passion was football,” Bradshaw says in addition.
It was clear straightaway that Phil Robertson’s passion lay elsewhere. Bradshaw jokes, Robertson “used to come in with fish guts and junk.” He also laughs recounting the fact that Phil Robertson would hide squirrels and ducks that he shot if he surpassed the hunting limit “and then he’d pick ’em back up after practice.”
In 2014, Terry Bradshaw recalled to Larry King fishing with Robertson in college. He tells the amusing story of how Phil Robertson used to make him put a sack over his head and lay down as they boated out to the fishing spot. “He knew if we caught a fish, I’d go back the next day on my boat and go to the same spot,” Bradshaw explains. So the Duck Dynasty star would cover the NFL legend’s eyes as they made their way to secret fishing destinations.
He adds in the interview with King that Phil Robertson could have also made it the NFL if he “had the passion and devotion to football as he does for hunting.”
The two interviewed each other at their alma mater Louisiana Tech and Robertson delivered a similar message. “You had something I didn’t have,” Robertson admits. “You had the desire to excel in the game of football, and I really had the passion for the ol’ mallard ducks, ya know?”
Phil Robertson has also commented on the twos bond in college and their interactions later in life. Robertson echoes Bradshaw’s remarks that the two had conversations about differing passions. He says when he saw Terry Bradshaw decades after college, the football player told him about “all his ailments” and injuries. Robertson recalls he replied, “I told ya forty-something years ago, I was going the less stressful route.”
While they took separate routes to success, they both shine in their respective fields now. Phil Robertson says, “hey we both came out of it pretty good.”
