Mandarich Was 'Not Sober' in Green Bay

In early March, Tony Mandarich appeared in Sports Illustrated. There, he admitted to and apologized for his steroid use. Oh, and he plugged his new book.

Now, Mandarich is set to appear on ESPN. In advance of a Sunday piece on Outside the Lines, Mandarich tells ESPN.com that he was so hooked on painkillers while with the Packers that he never had a sober day during his time there.

Those who watched him play with the Packers knew he wasn't anywhere near the player the team thought it was getting when they drafted him out of Michigan State. At the time, people just thought he wasn't as good as advertised. Truth was, he never reached that kind of level. Mandarich could have been completely clean while with the Packers, and he still would have failed miserably to live up to the hype.

He told Kory Kozak of ESPN.com that he had a daily diet of drugs he was taking.

He did this every day. Stadol, Fiorinal #3, Valium, Percodan, Percocet, Vicodin. The shots eventually became pills because they were easier to come by, and sometimes the pills were replaced by booze.

Mandarich created a monster built on lies. It was all torn down in a few months. He was the bust to end all busts. He never got on the field for the last year of his contract, 1992, and Mike Holmgren's new Green Bay regime elected to not re-sign him.

Mandarich did return to the league in 1996 after a stint in rehab. While he was never dominant while a member of the Indianapolis Colts, he did manage to stay clean.

It's good that Mandarich is telling his story. It should serve as a cautionary tale for every young athlete who thinks about taking performance-enhancing drugs.

It's just too bad that it took 14 years and a book deal before he finally came clean.