"It Started, Really, In Pittsburgh"

Terry Bradshaw Reveals How Teams Exploited St—roid Use in the ’70s

Abhishek Sachin Sandikar

Jun 10, 2026 | 12:41 PM EDT

Although the NFL is considered the pinnacle of sporting excellence, the league has faced its fair share of problems throughout its 105-year history. Especially in the 1970s, when the league was marred by major problems surrounding the use of performance-enhancing dr—gs. Reflecting on this period, Hall of Fame and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw recently opened up about how teams used st—roids during an interview with comedian Joe Rogan.

“We played Cincinnati one year, and the night before the game, there was a lineup of players going into a room to be shot up,” Bradshaw said during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, sharing an anecdote about players going into a room before a game.

As Terry Bradshaw alluded to, the NFL was notorious for having teams and players use st—roids. The first team to be involved in a st—roids-related scandal was the 1963 San Diego Chargers, who went from a 4–10 record in 1962 to winning the American Football League the next year with an 11-3 record.

The team’s head coach, Sid Gillman, and Strength Coach Alvin Roy reportedly mandated that each player take 5 mg doses of the PED compulsorily three times a day during training camp.

According to Hall of Fame OT Ron Mix, Gillman attributed the use of these pills to the player’s protein intake, noting,

“He said, ‘Because you’re going to be lifting weights in addition to working out twice a day, you’re going to need more protein.’ And he said, ‘When I was a trainer for the U.S. team in the Olympics, I learned a secret from those Rooskies.’ And he held up a bottle of pink pills, and he says, ‘It’s going to help assimilate protein and you’ll be taking it every day.’ And, sure enough, it showed up on our training tables in cereal bowls.”

A decade later, the Pittsburgh Steelers also faced similar allegations when they went on to win four Super Bowls (IX, X, XIII, and XIV) under legendary coach Chuck Noll. However, these accusations weren’t made public until the 2005 season when then-New Orleans Saints head coach Jim Haslett released a series of comments accusing the Steelers of using st—roids at the NFL’s annual meeting.

“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,” stated Haslett, per Bleacher Report. “You had so many people using them because they were legal.”

Haslett also revealed “that when he played in the NFL, st—roid use was rampant because the league had no policy banning such dr—gs,” and according to him, nearly half the players were taking them. Former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton also accused the Steelers of using st—roid 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 that it was Mike Webster and these guys were juiced. Steve Courson, these guys were juiced, all of them.”

The NFL’s st—roid era remains one of the darker chapters in league history, and Bradshaw’s recent comments serve as a reminder that those questions are far from forgotten.

 

- "It started with the Steelers"

- Article clearly states first scandal was the Chargers in 1963

 

Right about the time the Pirates got caught with all that cocaine.

 

Right? The entire article reads like it was written by an AI platform that has since been scrapped for failing standards.

 

Did you actually read it? You are mixing the author's writing with Haslett's quote.

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/32363-terry-bradshaws-steroids-revelation-who-cares

This has been reported since 2008. Apparently team doctors were writing prescriptions for them!

 

Old news but the youngsters may not know it

Keep in mind it was common and legal

 

So Chuck Noll learned it from Sid. Several Steelers players paid the price of early deaths because of the steroid use. It is interesting that Joe Greene wasn't one of them.

 

I read the article and the quote. The quote, which is intended to prove a point, has that point contradicted elsewhere in the article. As soon as I read the first paragraph, I knew where this was going - "during an interview with comedian Joe Rogan", not spelling out the word steroids. Calling this a scandal despite the fact that in 1963, when the Chargers first started using them, steroids were twelve years away from being banned in the olympics and 24 years from being banned in the NFL. To me, this article seemed like someone heard a quote on Rogan and asked AI to write an article about the history of steroid use in the NFL with a negative slant.

 

wtf is up with the censor?

 

I remember watching all those World Strongest man competitions with the Steelers O-Line being represented.


AI
Three prominent Pittsburgh Steelers players competed in the early editions of the World's Strongest Man competition:

Jon Kolb: Competed in 1978 and 1979. In both years, a total of 10 competitors participated, and Kolb finished in 4th place overall in each contest.

Craig Wolfley: Competed in the 1981 competition, where 10 competitors participated. Wolfley finished in 5th place.

Steve Courson: While not in the official World's Strongest Man broadcast, he placed 1st in the similar made-for-TV "Men of Steel" Strongest Man competition held in 1982.

 

I have a hard time believing that Pittsburgh was the birthplace of steroid use.

More than likely, they just had the best ensemble of good players on the stuff.

 

There is no other way to do it but a negative slant, just like the league's disgraceful history with concussions. Trying to put the blame on the Steelers is bull****, but that's another matter.

 

I read where blood letting started with the Steelers

 

It would have gotten more attention, but the Steelers weren't very good during the Middle Ages.

 

This is incredible. Just high quality from
Both of you.

 

There’s always that documentary on the subject…North Dallas Forty

 

Well there's plenty of leeches in the 3 rivers here.

 

I don't know if it started in Pittsburgh, but I do know it definitely was happening with the Steelers in the 70's. I was able to watch the Steeler practices during that time at Three Rivers Stadium and I could see players come in as rookies but then the following year they would look like
Mr. Olympian with huge arms, chest, and legs that was impossible to get that big that fast with just weight lifting.

Usually it was mostly the offensive lineman and it was rampant back then.

 

It would be great if all our Pitchers started using LSD again. They might be able to close out a game instead of blowing 6 run leads.

 

I knew I wasn't losing my mind when I thought Mike Webster had competed in the Strongest Man Contest along with Kolb and Wolfley. Turns out besides the "Open" World's Strongest man competition there was also the NFL Version where Mike Webster had won it.

 

Steve Furness came in 4th

 

I don't blame the players, but I do blame teams for pushing that stuff. They knew there were serious side effects, short-term and long-term. There are very good reasons steroid use isn't legal now.

Of course, anyone with a functioning brain who has paid attention knows the league doesn't give a damn about what happens to players after they retire. They showed that by fighting for decades to suppress information about the damage being done to players' brains. Things have been improved, but to this day, the penalties levied against teams for violating concussion protocols are a joke. The league has fought hard against paying benefits to former players who suffer from CTE and other forms of brain damage caused by their playing careers. The league wants to protect players while they are active so they can bring in revenue, but could not care less what happens to them after that.

The years leading up to Mike Webster's death, which happened when he was only 50, were a nightmare, and the league tried to cover it up when doctors figured out why.

 

Some guys are so talented and strong they didn't need steroids.