USAToday

Fox's Terry Bradshaw told USA TODAY Sports on Monday that he's "so sorry if I hurt anybody and I'm shocked I'm in this position."

Bradshaw is talking about something he said during Fox's NFL studio show Sunday as he called highlights of the first half of the Miami-Indianapolis game. During a clip of Miami's Reggie Bush running for a score, Bradshaw said it was "like he was chasing that bucket of chicken the wind was blowing."

Bradshaw says he wasn't even aware he said "he" -- referring to Bush -- when he meant to say "you" as a reference to fellow Fox NFL studio analyst Jimmy Johnson. "I can't defend myself," says Bradshaw. "I've never been in a situation like this. I don't know how to react, except to apologize for something I didn't know I said. I've been upset today. It's not me. I'm shocked."

Bradshaw said the comment was just part of a running joke Sunday that Johnson's "big thing is chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken. He won't share it with anybody."

And the comment, says Bradshaw, had nothing to do with Bush specifically. "I always include the (other Fox on-air guys) in the highlights because it's fun. ... It could have been with a highlight about anybody. You never know what's going to come to mind when you do these things so quickly."

Fox spokesman Dan Bell says Bradshaw's "entire commentary was directed towards Jimmy Johnson." Johnson tweeted Monday that "for all those "chicken" comments. ... TB kids ME about how much I love chicken. He was referring to me!"

Fox studio analyst Michael Strahan, during the Sunday studio segment, seemed to understand the potentially insensitive nature of a "chicken" comment and suggested it had been directed at Johnson by saying to Bradshaw, "I'm glad you're talking about Jimmy and not me."

Bradshaw says nobody on the show mentioned anything about his comment, which got widespread attraction in cyberspace. The first reaction, he says, came when Fox staffers called him Monday morning and played back the tape repeatedly.

His first reaction was that he "would never say that." But hearing it on tape, he says his reaction was, "I can't believe I said it."

He says you always have to "be careful" on live TV. But when it comes to anything with racist overtones, he says, "I don't have to be careful because I don't think like that. I think strictly about what's happening on the field."

Plus, says the TV veteran, "I've been in this business way too long and am way too smart to make that kind of slip."

And, he says, "I don't want to change the way I do the show."

Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio says the network won't in any way reprimand Bradshaw: "His comment was directed at a studio mate and no one else."