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Fox football analyst Terry Bradshaw came up with a novel excuse for why he insulted Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin. Bradshaw said that when he was a guest on Fox Sports 1's "Speak for Yourself," he was caught off guard when host Jason Whitlock — gasp! — asked him a question.

What an unexpected development!

"It wasn't a prepared question," Bradshaw said. "I didn't have time to think about the answer."

What he clearly meant to say at the Television Critics Association press tour is that he didn't have a prepared answer. But then Bradshaw never has been among TV's more articulate football analysts.

A big part of his job on Fox Sports since 1994 has been to provide comic relief. And he's clearly uncomfortable when that's not working.

Bradshaw, who won four Super Bowls quarterbacking the Steelers, was attempting joviality while he explained why he called Tomlin a "cheerleader guy." Bradshaw wasn't telling jokes or even saying anything amusing, but he was taken aback when there was no laughter.

"You people don't laugh, do you?" he asked. "Really, are you all just miserable right now? Because I feel like I'm getting ready to face a firing squad here."

Actually, TV critics do laugh … when somebody says something funny. And the questioning of Bradshaw was really quite gentle — he just didn't like the questions. He admitted he was hoping the issue "wasn't going to be brought up."

But it was. Because when asked on FS1 if Tomlin is a great coach, Bradshaw said, "I don't think he's a great coach at all. He's a nice coach. To me, I've said this, he's really a great cheerleader guy. I don't know what he does. I don't think he is a great coach at all. His name never even pops in my mind when we think about great coaches in the NFL."

With a couple of weeks to think about, Bradshaw said that he believes there's only one great coach in the NFL today, "and that's that coach up in New England." (Bill Belichick, that is.)

Fair enough.

And with a couple of weeks to think about it, Bradshaw was able to choose his words more carefully.

"I shouldn't have said cheerleader," Bradshaw said. "Like I said, it was an instantaneous response. ... On the sideline the camera will catch [Tomlin] a lot of times, and he's gyrating and so ... cheerleading was the first thing that came to my mind."

And when fellow Fox sportscaster Howie Long suggested that Bradshaw could have said "motivator," Bradshaw agreed it "would have been a better word."

Bradshaw said he understands and doesn't have a problem with Tomlin being offended by the "cheerleader guy" comment. And yet he criticized Tomlin for responding to him, "which he should have never done."

Tomlin said Bradshw's comments "maybe fall outside of bounds of critique or criticism" and probably "fall more toward the area of disrespect and unprofessional." Then Tomlin said he grew up a fan of former Cowboys player Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson.

Back in 1979, Henderson joked that Bradshaw "couldn't spell cat if you spotted him the C and the A."

If you're going to claim that you were surprised when you went on an interview show and someone asked you a question … you're pretty much validating Tomlin's comments and Henderson's joke.

Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.