The 2018 NFL season is set to kick off on Thursday, as the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will play hosts to the Atlanta Falcons. To get ready for the season, we turned to one of the sport’s biggest names for some predictions.
Bradshaw is among the most well-known personalities in the NFL as a Hall of Fame quarterback with four Super Bowl rings from his time with the Steelers. For many younger fans, though, he’s known best for his role as an analyst on Fox’s NFL studio show. Beyond that, Bradshaw has found himself in plenty of ad campaigns, TV shows, and even movie roles over the years. His latest commercial role is in Pepsi’s new NFL “Theme Song” spot that will debut as the regular season kicks off.
He is also certainly not afraid to speak his mind on just about any topic related to the NFL and spoke with Uproxx recently on behalf of Pepsi about his acting career, who he sees making it to the Super Bowl, potential MVP winners, breakout players and teams, and why he thinks the New England Patriots’ run may come to an end this season with them missing the playoffs.
You’ve got the new Pepsi spot, and you’ve been in a ton of commercials and TV shows and movies. Something I always like to ask is, do you remember what was your first commercial appearance was and what that experience was like?
My first commercial. Wow, let me think. It may have been Uniroyal. A national TV commercial? I don’t know, man, you’re talking 40 years ago. I should remember, I haven’t done that many, but I did Pinkerton Tobacco when you could do tobacco on television. That may have been … oh man, I don’t know. It coulda been Uniroyal Tires years ago.
The spot that you’ve got with Pepsi, it’s everybody humming along to that NFL theme and it’s one of those things that immediately switches your mind to think about football. It’s got such an immediate recall. What are the things that you think about when you hear that music?
Well, believe it or not, I had a hard time doing that. I, probably, of all of the athletes that were involved had the hardest time getting it down. But it just, it’s football time. Pepsi’s always been … from my knowledge, Pepsi’s always been so heavily involved with pro football that I know, and they’ve always got these cool ideas, and this little humming along just reminds you as you walk yourself through the spot you’ll notice that we’re all getting ready. I’ve got a tattoo on with the Steelers, the players. It’s just, the tune simply means the way it’s being used that, and used by Pepsi, is the fact that we all know it’s showtime. It’s time for pro football to start. It’s pretty cool.
But that’s normal from Pepsi. They’re so actively, and have been, involved in the NFL for so many years that it was kind of a no brainer. But I did have trouble humming along to be honest with you. I don’t know why, but I did.
With the season start, I want to go through a quick little season type preview with you about the bigger stories we’ll see in the league this season. To start, who do you see as having the type of season to take home MVP honors?
With [Tom] Brady [winning] last year, I don’t think it’ll be Tom this year. I don’t have to have the league MVP history sitting in front of me to realize that a lot of quarterbacks win that award. There’s a running back, [Todd] Gurley, he’s a pretty special player. You know what? The first name to pop in my head when you said that was Ben Roethlisberger, because he has played so well for so long, and especially if Pittsburgh can get on a run. They were on a run last year, 13-3, but they lost to Jacksonville. Yeah, Ben could be a frontrunner. Aaron Rogers is always someone people talk about, anther quarterback. You can always pick out a wide receiver — Antonio Brown. There’s too many.
I don’t really think a lot about league MVP. It’s not something I dwell on at all. It’s like, as a player, you don’t think about league MVP. You sure don’t ever think about going into the Hall of Fame. You just think about winning, and hopefully you get to the Super Bowl.
I gotta get my football head on. I don’t have my football head on yet. It hasn’t started, I totally separate myself from football until I have to. I’m starting back up today, this afternoon. I’ve got a call in to a buddy of mine that keeps me informed. He brings me up to date on those things that are going on. I’ll actually start today because I fly to New York tomorrow.
But you know what? Pick somebody, I don’t know. Rookie of the Year would be fun among all those quarterbacks.
Yeah I was about to ask…
You know what, we’re gonna have such an interesting year because the ratings were down last year. The protests were up. You know, can we stabilize that? Can we all get along? Can we all meet in the middle. You know what I’m saying? We need a smooth transition from the summer into the fall without any problems.
If we can do that, there’s gonna be some great football this year and there’s always gonna be a team that’s gonna come on, you know? Last year, the Rams. There’s always a team that’s gonna come on. There’s always a team that’s gonna disappoint, and so who’s gonna take up the slack in there.
Basically you can look at … right now I can name probably 14 teams that don’t even waste your time on. Then the remaining, what, 18? That’s who you should focus on. You know, we saw Jacksonville come on last year. We saw Buffalo at the end come on last year. We saw Seattle go down. We saw the Rams come on. We saw the Saints make a little run with Alvin Kamara at running back. You know we saw Dallas go down. We saw the Chiefs in kind of a disappointing role. We saw the Vikings come up. We saw the Eagles win the Super Bowl. We saw the Ravens go down. The Redskins sunk. See how that works?
It goes up and down and up and down. So that’ll be fun. That, to me, the jockeying positions is always fun. Especially the first 10 weeks. That, to me, is critical.
I was gonna ask if you had any thoughts on the teams that we could see, a team you think we could see be on the rise and maybe one of those established playoff teams that could take the step back this year?
Well, it’s kind of what I was referring to then. You know … oh god. Something furry just rubbed against my leg and I look down and it’s a cat [laughs]. Get outta here.
I think that if they get [Aaron] Donald signed, I think the Rams are, boy they’re tough. They could be really, really good with that offense that they’re running.
And you know who is kind of a little sleeper? With Norv Turner coming back in to the league, it’ll be interesting to watch how that offense works in Carolina. That could be an interesting story. I see the Rams as kind of my team right now, but like I said, I haven’t sat down and just studied this stuff, I’m just giving it. But I see the Rams as holding their strength like they did last year, and I also see Carolina as probably that team that’s coming on a little bit. With the uncertainty of the quarterback in Philadelphia, Philadelphia with Wentz and the knee and I just don’t know about that.
And the team I see in the AFC, my team in the AFC is gonna be Pittsburgh. If they bring their defense on it’s gonna be Pittsburgh and the Rams in Super Bowl 53. How’s that? That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Now, in a week call me. Yeah, call me in a week or call me after the season starts and let’s see how bad I am.
OK [laughs]
I know a lot of people are worried about the Cowboys and are they gonna be back and, you know, the answer to that is probably not. I think New England’s not gonna be there.
Really?
I think with all the changes they’ve had up there, you know, it doesn’t last forever, brother. So I think New England could be a team that might not even make the playoffs, there you have it.
Lastly, who are some players that you’re really excited to watch this year and maybe have a breakout season?
The one guy that I really love watching is the Kamara kid with the Saints. He’s amazing, and I like to watch Todd Gurley. He’s something. Those two running backs right there. The second year kid and then Gurley, who got the big contract. Those are two running backs that I’m really excited.
And you know what? Throw in [Christian] McCaffrey, because he’s a versatile guy. A guy that can run, catch a lot of passes for Carolina. He’s another guy that I really think is gonna make a big difference for Carolina because of Turner as offensive coordinator.
Without having to study any of this that’s about the best I got today.
