In 1992, former NFL defensive lineman Lyle Alzado died a very ugly and public death from brain cancer. He blamed the brain cancer on his longtime steroid abuse. Alzado, who played for the Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns, and L.A. Raiders during his career, was one of the NFL’s premiere pass rushers and had embarked on a successful acting career before being diagnosed with the cancer.

To anyone who watched that Raiders-Jets game during the Super Bowl XVII playoffs, the moment is unforgettable. In a rage, Lyle Alzado snapped the helmet off Chris Ward and flung it at the Jets offensive tackle.

During the next off season, the National Football League created what is known as the Alzado Rule: the removal of another player’s helmet will result in ejection and a possible fine.

But nearly two decade later, Lyle Alzado is now in an even more unforgettable moment. Once thickly bearded and bushy haired, his frail face was pasty and a black bandana with white skulls covered his head as he acknowledged that his brain cancer was caused by a “certain steroid” he took when trying to return to the Raiders at age 41.

Alzado’s voice once growled and now it almost whispered. He didn’t identify the “certain steroid” that damaged his immune system and didn’t supply medical information .

You don’t have to be a NFL player to figure out that anyone who has ever taken steroids heard the alarm that Alzado sounded. He is one of the first pro football players to publicly link steroids to cancer.

For years doctors had warned of potential damage of taking steroids. Now anyone who has ever taken steroids must be wondering, was that “certain steroid” among them?

“Big massive guy that I was, I don’t like to admit this but it was all phony,” said Alzado, who had a gold earring in his left ear. “It got me where I wanted, but it also got me very sick.”

When Alzado acknowledged taking a “certain steroid” when he tried to make a comeback attempt, the NFL had to be wondering if he passed the test for steroids when he reported to the Raiders’ training camp and how effective were the tests for any player? If he wasn’t tested, why wasn’t he? Also, where does the Raider medical staff, the front office and its managing general partner, Al Davis, fit into all this?

“I’m clean,” Alzado had told a reporter during his comeback when asked about steroids. “I’ve always been clean.”

But during an interview, Alzado, who reportedly had lost 60 pounds from the bulky 265 he weighed a year ago, resembled a feeble old man. When he walked, one arm was held by by his wife, Cathy.

He liked to say that he “grew up in Brooklyn gangs” before moving to Long Island. All that rage was renewed in 1982 when the Cleveland Browns, thinking he was through, traded him to the Raiders for an eighth-round draft choice.

“You know what an eighth-round draft choice is worth?” he roared at the time. “Nothing!”

Insulted and embarrassed, Alzado worked out harder than ever. Heavy weight lifting. Running three to six miles in the morning. Sprints and stadium steps in the afternoon. And judging by his acknowledged steroid use during “most” of his career, whatever chemical assistance he could find. But that was in keeping with his desperation to maintain his NFL reputation.

However, when he alarmed the public about steroid use and the dangers, he alerted high school officials and college players, and NFL players. His everlasting quote symbolizes one of the reasons he took steroids, “If me and King Kong went into an alley only one of us would come out. And it wouldn’t be the monkey.”

- The Wanna-Be Sports Guy

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Tags | Lyle Alzado, nfl, steroid use