Bradshaw admits steroid use

Bradshaw admits steroid use

Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw admitted in a radio interview to using steroids during his playing days.

Bradshaw, who led the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl titles in a six-year span in the 1970s, said on the Dan Patrick Show that he only used steroids to help him deal with injuries.

“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 (I) 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.”

One of Bradshaw’s former teammates expressed surprise at the revelation of steroid use.

“To be honest, I never had any idea (about Bradshaw),” said Rick Moser, a rookie running back in 1978 who played two seasons with the Steelers. “The offensive linemen definitely did. They would talk about it freely.”

The No. 1 overall pick in the draft in 1970, Bradshaw also said he took the steroids with a doctor’s prescription.

Moser was quick to point out that steroids were not illegal during that era, and noted that players did not take them for performance-enhancing abilities.

“I think they just thought they made you bigger. They didn’t think it made you faster,” Moser said. “It was a bulk-up thing. That’s why a baseball player taking them made no sense.

“People thought it was just a linemen-type of thing.”

Moser, who said he never took steroids - “I never had the opportunity” - conceded that had more players been aware of the physical benefits of using steroids, there could have been a dramatic rise on the team.

“If those guys knew it would give them a tenth (of a second faster) in the 40 (yard dash) … a lot of people probably would have taken them,” he said.

Now a television studio analyst for FOX, Bradshaw played for the Steelers from 1970-83. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1989 - in his first year of eligibility.

Bradshaw twice was the Most Valuable Player in the Super Bowl and also was the NFL MVP in 1978.

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