The Steelers, Steroids, and Profound Misconceptions

During the NFL annual meetings in 2005, coach Jim Haslett (then of the New Orleans Saints) delivered a series of comments that set off a renewed firestorm about the Pittsburgh Steelers use of steroids in the 1970s.  In an article that was carried by both the Los Angeles Times and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Haslett claimed the Pittsburgh Steelers brought the use of steroids en vogue throughout the NFL.

Haslett stated, "It started, really, in Pittsburgh. They got an advantage on a lot of football teams. They were so much stronger (in the) '70s, late '70s, early '80s. They're the ones who kind of started it."

Haslett (an admitted steroid user himself) carries respectable NFL credentials.  Yet from his statements, one might construe from his comments that he used steroids as a Steeler.  Haslett admits to one year of steroid usage immediately after being drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1979...not as a Steeler. 

He got another point critically wrong.  The Steelers did not start the use of steroids in the NFL. 

Haslett further stated, "You had so many people using them because they were legal."  Haslett went on to say "that when he played in the NFL, steroid use was rampant because the league had no policy banning such drugs" and he estimated nearly half the players were taking them. (Haslett says '70s Steelers made steroids popular in NFL). 

Jim Haslett fueled misconceptions about the beginnings of steroid usage in the NFL. 

Fran Tarkenton recently added to the fire in June of 2009, commenting during a radio interview on 790 The Zone in Atlanta "We’re playing the Steelers in the Super Bowl in ’75 or ’76, and I’m warming up with my center, Mick Tingelhoff, who’s an eight-time all-pro, Tarkenton said. “He’s my roommate … he’s about 6-2, 245 … we’re on the field warming up, and I see these Steeler offensive linemen with their sleeves rolled up, and they’ve got these bulging muscles....Later, we found out it that you know, it was Mike Webster and these guys were juiced … Steve Courson … these guys were juiced … all of them. We talk now about (former baseball stars) Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds. But how about the Steelers of that era? Did that make a difference? Yeah, it made a difference. It increased their performance.”

Tarkenton was mistaken however in his facts.  Courson was in college during that Super Bowl.  In the '74 season he referenced, Webster was a rookie at 6' 1 1/2" and weighed only 238 lbs (smaller than Tingelhoff) and didn't play in the game.  Ray Mansfield, never linked to steroids, was the starting center.  Also, it was the Steelers defense that won the game, not the offense, and no Steelers defenders have been linked (only rumored) to steroids. "“At that time we beat them, I would say this, none of our defensive guys did (steroids),” ex-running back Franco Harris said. “So, if Fran’s talking about our (offensive) linemen, if they did (steroids), probably only a couple. That would have been it." (Steelers of '70s dismiss Tarkenton's comments).  Jack Ham and Jack Lambert absolutely refused to use the drugs.

If the Steelers didn't glamorize steroid usage, or introduce it as Haslett indicated, who did?

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