NFL Peds

Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who said last week that he used steroids when he played for the Steelers, has now clarified his comments. The New York Daily News reports:

"I'm not bodybuilding here," Bradshaw said, laughing about the confusion that stemmed from the interview. "They were not those kind of steroids. They were anti-inflammatories."

This is tricky because in medicine, the word "steroid" just refers to a general class of chemical substances. But in sports, saying "we did steroids," as Bradshaw said last week on Dan Patrick's radio show, is almost always meant to refer to anabolic steroids, which were widely used in the NFL duing Bradshaw's playing days and have since been banned by every major sports league.

Bradshaw would be wise to choose his words more carefully -- especially considering how prevalent "those kind of steroids" were on the 1970s Steelers.

Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw said in a radio interview with Dan Patrick last week that he used steroids during the 1970s, when he was leading the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl titles.

Bradshaw indicated that he obtained the steroids with a doctor's prescription, and that his primary motivation in using them was to recover from injuries, not to build muscle.

"We did steroids to get away the aches and the speed of healing," Bradshaw said. "My use of steroids from a doctor was to speed up injury, and thought nothing of it. ... It was to speed up the healing process, that was it. It wasn't to get bigger and stronger and faster."

It's been well established that several players on the great Steelers teams of the 1970s used steroids, but this is, I think, the first time Bradshaw has said he used them.

Via The Big Lead.

The Dallas Police Department has announced that it will add illegal anabolic steroids to the list of banned substances that officers are tested for, beginning on July 1. Acting Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson explains:

"It maintains the integrity of what we do and promotes community confidence," Chief Simpson said. "Nobody knows when they are going to be called for a test."

Dallas joins several big cities that now test their police officers, including Baltimore, Houston and Phoenix, where several cops were caught up in a federal steroid probe last year.

Chris Mortensen of ESPN is reporting that Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens could be subjected to more stringent drug testing because he has missed phone calls to schedule drug tests.

According to Mortensen, Owens has never failed a test. But the NFL's system of testing has strict rules, including saying that all players must make themselves available for random drug tests at all times. In Owens' case, there have been times when the league's drug testers have called him to arrange a test later in the day, and Owens hasn't answered the call or called them back. That's enough, under NFL rules, to subject a player to a more rigorous testing schedule.

Owens met with NFL officials on June 3 to discuss the matter, and he was told that he can now be randomly tested for performance-enhancing drugs up to 24 times a year for the rest of his career.

The NFL, the Cowboys and Owens' agents all declined to comment for Mortensen's story.

A day after local police said convicted steroids dealer David Jacobs had been murdered in his home, the medical examiner has now said Jacobs actually committed suicide.

Jacobs and his ex-girlfriend, a bodybuilder named Amanda Jo Earhart-Savell were found dead of gunshot wounds on Thursday in Jacobs' home in Plano, Texas. Police said both were murdered, but the medical examiner said today that Jacobs died of two self-inflicted gunshot wounds, one to the abdomen and one to the head.

Authorities have not made a ruling on the cause of Earhart-Savell's death.

Multiple media outlets have reported that Jacobs met with NFL officials and gave them the names of players he said bought steroids from him. Those names have not been made public, although Jacobs had said previously that he gave steroids to Matt Lehr (pictured), an offensive lineman who served a four-game suspension last year for a violation of the NFL's policy on steroids and related substances.

David Jacobs, the convicted steroids dealer who was found shot to death in his home Thursday, had predicted he might be murdered.

ESPN the Magazine writer Shaun Assael interviewed Jacobs after he had implicated other steroid users to federal investigators and to the NFL, and Assael reports this:

When explaining why he did not want to go public, Jacobs said: "The kinds of people I know about could put a bullet in the back of my head."

Jacobs' father discussed his son's death with Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times.

David Jacobs, a convicted steroids dealer who recently told NFL officials that he gave steroids to players, was found dead in his home today.

Jacobs, who had implicated NFL player Matt Lehr (pictured) as one of the people he gave steroids, was found dead along with a woman identified as his ex-girlfriend, Amanda Jo Earhart-Savell. A gun was also found at the home. Earhart-Savell's parents found the bodies.

A local TV news station reports that police said the deaths were considered a double homicide. The station also reports that Earhart-Savell's MySpace Profile lists her as an International Federation of Body Building and Fitness professional and a fitness model.

Jacobs was sentenced to three years' probation last month for his role in a steroid-distribution ring. He had been cooperating with law enforcement.

Convicted steroid trafficker David Jacobs met with NFL officials Wednesday and told them the names of players he says he supplied with banned performance-enhancing drugs. Jacobs will not, however, identify those players publicly. From the Dallas Morning News:

"The general topic was his knowledge of steroid and human growth hormone use by current and former players," said Hank Hockeimer, Mr. Jacobs' attorney, who accompanied his client to the meeting that took place in the Dallas area.

"They were thorough in their questioning," Mr. Hockeimer said. "David provided them with documents corroborating what he was telling them."

Mr. Hockeimer would not say which players were discussed.

"My view is that as long as the league is investigating this, we're not going to comment on any names provided," he said.

The one player Jacobs has named publicly is Matt Lehr, the New Orleans Saints offensive lineman who was suspended for four games in 2006 for violating the NFL policy on steroids and related substances. Lehr, with his suspension behind him, likely won't face further league discipline. The other players whom Jacobs named Wednesday likely won't be as lucky.

Convicted steroid distributor David Jacobs tells the New York Times that he counseled about 10 NFL players on how to exploit loopholes in the league's drug testing program, including taking the drug finasteride, which is found in the anti-balding medications Propecia and Proscar and which can mask the presence of steroids in urine tests.

Finasteride is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but it is not banned by the NFL. According to Jacobs, players have received prescriptions from team doctors, claiming that repeatedly putting their helmets on and taking them off was making them go bald.

Jacobs, who was sentenced on Thursday to three years' probation for distributing steroids, has said he helped NFL players, including Saints lineman Matt Lehr, obtain and use steroids. He now says he'll talk to the NFL about how to make its drug testing more effective -- but he says he won't name names.

Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports today that there's a rumor making the rounds that Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman failed a drug test.

So Acee followed up on the rumor and asked Merriman whether it's true. Merriman says it isn't.

"I would know, if anybody," Merriman said. "If I failed a drug test or steroids test I'd be the first one to know about it. And after it being leaked the first time, I don't think someone would be holding back the results this time."

When Merriman says "the last time," he's referring to 2006, when he tested positive for steroids and was suspended four games.

This time, however, Acee asked Merriman if there was any chance the rumor Acee heard would turn out to be true, and Merriman answered, "Zero. None."

Hat tip: Pro Football Talk.