When the call came into Marty Schottenheimer’s new office with the Redskins yesterday, he couldn’t have been more delighted.
It was The Post that first informed Schottenheimer that Terry Bradway, one of his key former front-office men in Kansas City, was hired yesterday by the Jets as their new general manager.
“What a great choice,” Schottenheimer said excitedly. “He’s one of the best personnel people I’ve ever been around. He and I used to go on the road and we would just go, sit down, start the tape rolling and be there for hours. We’d agree, disagree, agree and disagree. We would sometimes spend 10 days looking at players.
“He’s an excellent administrator. He’s a very, very solid evaluator of personnel. If there’s something he doesn’t know, he’s going to find out about it.”
The positive reaction of Schottenheimer, who was the Chiefs’ head coach while Bradway was their director of player personnel, was similar to that of a number of other NFL people who’ve worked with Bradway.
“I think it’s a solid choice,” former Giants’ GM and current NFL executive George Young said yesterday. “He’ll work hard and do a good job and be able to deal with people.”
Young was Bradway’s boss when Bradway worked from 1986-92 as a scout for the Giants.
“He’s a strong personnel guy and a hard worker,” Young said. “He’s certainly paid his dues – and I think he’s been interested early in being a general manager, so he’s paid attention to it. Personality-wise, he deals well with people. I think he’ll do well with the media. He looks to get along with people rather than not.”
Young credited Giants’ draft guru Tom Boisture for “putting the finger” on Bradway.
“I recall that [Bradway] had a lot of enthusiasm for the job,” Young said. “He worked hard and he competed with the other scouts in the sense that he wanted to look good and have good reports and do well when we had meetings and such.”
Current Giants’ GM Ernie Accorsi said of Bradway: “I’ve always thought he was a sharp, bright man of strong convictions.”
Lynn Stiles, the Chiefs’ vice president of football operations, called Bradway “a great hire” by the Jets.
“He’s grown tremendously over the years we worked together,” Stiles said. “I’m excited for him and his family. I know this is something he wanted. He’s a diamond in the rough.”
Stiles called Bradway “extremely detailed with a very good mind.”
“He’s very sharp and he doesn’t forget anything,” Stiles went on. “He’s extremely organized, he knows talent, he knows people and he’s a very outgoing individual.”
Stiles called the most recent Chiefs’ draft “as good a draft class as I’ve seen in my 20 years of doing this.”
Bradway is from Atlantic City and much of his family still resides in South Jersey. He’s married (Kathleen) with three children (Michael, Jennifer and Tommy). He played football at Trenton State, where he conceded to being “a very average” player.
His oldest son, Michael, 14, was so good as a freshman that he started at quarterback on his Kansas City-area high school varsity football team.