(The Talk of Fame Two occasionally asks guest columnists to contribute to the site, and this week we're privileged to have that writer be Bill Nunn Award winner Vito Stellino, who chronicled the Steelers in the 1970s for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He wonders why, when historians list the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time, they tend to bury Terry Bradshaw behind a list of others. All Bradshaw did was win four Super Bowls.)

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were two quarterbacks who dominated the NFL, and each led a Team of the Decade – Terry Bradshaw in the 1970s and Joe Montana in the 1980s. Bradshaw won four Super Bowls in six years and repeated twice; Montana won four Super Bowls in nine years and repeated once. From 1974-89, they won eight of the 16 Super Bowls.

So you might think they’re ranked similarly in the pantheon of great quarterbacks. Surprisingly, they aren’t.

Montana is considered one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, generally ranked second to Tom Brady. In fact, when the Talk of the Fame Two conducted a recent poll of historians, Brady, Montana, John Unitas and Otto Graham were named to the Mt. Rushmore of quarterbacks.

I could live with that foursome if Bradshaw was considered No. 5. But historian John Turney recently put together a list of the Top Ten and didn’t include him, and I found another ranking on the internet where Bradshaw was only ranked 17^th. I admit that I may not be the most objective observer since I covered his four Super Bowl years for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but I am stunned at how underrated Bradshaw is.

To start with, he made long game-winning throws in the fourth quarters of two of his Super Bowl wins. Furthermore, he beat Hall-of-Famer Roger Staubach twice in Super Bowls ... with a Team of the Decade on the line in the second ... and twice was named a Super Bowl MVP.

In Super Bowl X, the Steelers were leading Dallas,14-10, with less than four minutes left when they faced a third-and 4 on their 36. Bradshaw uncorked a 64-yard touchdown pass to Lynn Swann a split-second before Larry Cole hit him in the jaw and knocked him out, driving him from the game.

In those days there was no penalty, much less an ejection. But that touchdown gave the Steelers a 21-10 lead, and they won, 21-17. Though Bradshaw threw two touchdown passes, Swann was the game’s MVP. He had four catches for 161 yards, including a tumbling 53-yard catch that usually makes all Super Bowl highlight reels, although the drive ended with a missed field goal.

Three years later in Super Bowl XIII, Bradshaw won his first Super Bowl MVP by beating Dallas, 35-31, while throwing for 318 yards and four touchdowns, including a 75 yard pass-and-run to John Stallworth.

The following year in Super Bowl XIV, the Steelers trailed, 19-17, and faced a third and 8 at their 27 early in the fourth quarter. Former Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Bud Carson was running the Rams’ defense and was so familiar with the Steelers’ offense that he was containing it. Plus, Swann has been injured earlier, so the Rams double-covered Stallworth. 

A 10-yard pass to keep the drive alive seemed a good option, but coach Chuck Noll -- who often let Bradshaw call his own plays -- decided to call "70 Slot Hook and Go," a deep pass to Stallworth. With the help of perfect blocking that allowed him to take a deep drop and Stallworth to get behind the Rams’ secondary. Bradshaw unleashed a perfect pass -- and Stallworth made a perfect over-the-shoulder catch that appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

The Rams’ Eddie Brown made a futile dive, but Stallworth caught the ball at the L.A. 32 and ran untouched to the end zone to put the Steelers ahead, 24-19. But Bradshaw wasn’t finished. He again hit Stallworth with a deep middle pass, good for 42 yards that set up another touchdown to give the Steelers a 31-19 victory and their fourth Super Bowl win.

So that is his Super Bowl resume. The Steelers had 10 Hall of Famers, but they needed Bradshaw’s clutch passes to win the last three. It was only in the first one, a 16-6 win over the Vikings in Super Bowl IX, where he didn’t make the difference. In that game, Franco Harris ran 34 times for 158 yards and was the game’s MVP.

Does that match up well with what Montana did in Super Bowls? I think so. Here’s why:

-- Montana also won four Super Bowls and had a game winning 92-yard drive to beat the Bengals 20-16 in Super Bowl XXIII. But while he passed for 357 yards, his longest was 44.

-- In one-sided wins over the Dolphins and Broncos, his longest passes were 40 and 44 yards.

-- In the 26-21 victory over the Bengals in Super Bowl XV, his longest completion was 22 yards. Granted, he didn’t throw a pick in the four wins, but he didn’t make the long throws that Bradshaw did. Plus, Bradshaw called his own plays.

Bottom line: It just doesn’t seem that there should be such disparity in how the two quarterbacks are ranked.

They both struggled in their first two seasons. Then Montana won his first Super Bowl in Year Three, while Bradshaw made the AFC title game in his third season. In Bradshaw’s fifth year (1974), the vets went on strike. So backup quarterback Joe Gilliam crossed the picket line and threw bombs to two rookies named Swann and Stallworth in preseason games.

Noll decided to give Gilliam six starts before going back to Bradshaw but benched him for one game later in the season. So he started only seven regular-season games in his first Super Bowl run before winning the job for good.

Montana won his second Super Bowl in 1984, but then lost a first-round playoff game three years in a row -- including a 49-3 loss to the Giants when he was knocked out of the game by a Jim Burt blow to the head. There was also a 36-24 loss to Minnesota in 1987 when he was yanked in the second half in favor of backup Steve Young.

The 49ers had a 6-5 start in 1988 as Montana dealt with a stomach illness, so Walsh went to Young at times. In the 10^th game with the 49ers at 6-3, Young led them to a 23-0 halftime lead over Phoenix, but the the Cardinals cut the deficit to 23-17 late in fourth quarter and eventually won, 24-23 in the final seconds.

Who knows if Walsh would have stuck with Young had they won to go 7-3? But Walsh went back to Montana and, despite a loss to the Raiders to fall to 6-5, he ran the table to win his third Super Bowl. He won his fourth the following year and took the team to the NFC title game in 1990. But he was knocked out late, the Giants forced a Roger Craig fumble and they won on a Matt Bahr field goal.

Montana missed the entire 1991 season while on injured reserve and started only once a year later before he was sent to Kansas City for his last two seasons. Meanwhile, Bradshaw didn’t get back to the Super Bowl his final three years, either, retiring after 1983 when he hurt his arm and played only once.

So they entered the league a decade apart and left it a decade apart. Yet their careers were similar in so many ways. Both won four Super Bowls, and both struggled at times. However, Montana is ranked so much higher by historians than Bradshaw, and I still can't figure out why.