It might be the Christmas season, but don’t expect Fox’s Terry Bradshaw to send Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith Christmas cards any time soon.
During the Christmas Eve edition of ‘Fox NFL Sunday,’ the usual crew previewed the upcoming games on the network. One of those includes a battle between the Falcons and the visiting Indianapolis Colts. It’s a pivotal game for the Colts to try and stay in the playoff race while the Falcons are desperately trying to stay in NFC South contention.
Smith and the Falcons have been up and down this season due to enigmatic quarterback play. Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke have been at QB this season and the former has struggled. He’s a young quarterback, and to be fair to him, his situation isn’t spectacular. At times, he has looked bad, yes.
But with that said, Bradshaw doesn’t think that Smith did a very good job nurturing him. In fact, the former four-time Super Bowl Champion quarterback couldn’t think much more of the Falcons’ head coach.
The Steelers great told a story about how he, as a child, got in trouble with his dad for lying. Bradshaw then explained, “Nothing upsets him more” than when he gets lied to. He recalled Smith naming Ridder “his quarterback” after Week 8, but then he thinks something changed:
Nothing upsets me more than when someone lies to me. Alright? I think Desmond Ridder, the third-year guy, they drafted in the third year… uh, third year, third round by Atlanta. He was told after Week 8, ‘You’re my quarterback the rest of the year. I’m not gonna bench you. You’re my man.’ Arthur Smith said, ‘Not gonna bench you!’ What did he do?
Someone upstairs said, ‘If you don’t win out this year, you’re gonna lose your job, Arthur Smith.’ And he benched him. So I have no respect for Arthur Smith. Messed with that young quarterback Desmond Ridder like that. You set him back. Play the young man, leave him alone, don’t lie to him. And he lied to him. And he needs to get his but whooped!
It’s definitely a colorful rant and one where there’s a clear aim and focus. Say this: while sometimes he loses his fastball, and while he has gone off the rails recently, Terry Bradshaw can still provide noteworthy TV when he needs to. While the story told before the rant might have been a bit too… oversharing, in some ways, this is certainly a case of an analyst going hard toward someone of interest. Now, you wonder if Smith will respond.
[Video Credit: NFL on FOX; WNYW-TV]
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022