Tony Mandarich

September 30th, 2008 filed in Football

Tony Mandarich, “The Incredible Bust”, sits down in an exclusive interview with Armen Keteyian for Inside the NFL on Showtime on Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 9 p.m. ET/PT admitting for the first time ever that he used anabolic steroids while at Michigan State. Mandarich also reveals that he had a life-threatening addiction to painkillers and alcohol prior to entering the NFL, which continued during his three-year tenure with the Green Bay Packers. He also confesses to cheating on his drug test while playing for Michigan State in the Rose Bowl. All shocking revelations from the “Incredible Bulk” pictured to the left on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1989.

From the Showtime press release :

Mandarich details his struggles with steroids, pain-killers and alcohol in a new book, “My Dirty Little Secrets — Steroids, Alcohol & God — The Tony Mandarich Story,” which will be released in March 2009, nearly 20 years after he was drafted into the NFL.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

(On no one knowing he entered the NFL addicted to pain killers and alcohol, assuming his poor performance was a result of a stoppage in steroid use):

Mandarich: There’s other factors that were involved that nobody knows about that were way more of an effect on why I had the huge downfall in Green Bay than steroids (such as) drug and alcohol abuse…I was injecting a drug called staydal…and it was euphoric. I went from doing one injection on that one day, and a week later I was doing between 5-7 shots-a-day for the next three years.

Keteyian: You went into Green Bay essentially a drug addict?

Mandarich: Mmm hmm, not the same, not the same person they drafted…I got to the point where it was a struggle to workout three or four times-a-week because the priority of getting high was above the priority of working out.

(On reports that seven Michigan State players participated in faking a drug test prior to the Rose Bowl while at Michigan State):

Mandarich: I can’t speak for other players. I can only speak for myself because I am the only one that witnessed what I did. But yeah, there is validity to that.

Keteyian: So in essence a fake urine (sample) was supplied to the NCAA during the course of a bowl game, the Rose Bowl game, by you?

Mandarich: That is correct. You got to improvise. You got to improvise.

(On repeatedly and often heatedly denying ever using anabolic steroids and how he answers that question now and why he lied for so long):

Mandarich: I used them. I used them…and this is the first time I ever said it…If I would have come out and said it, I think it would have affected a lot of other people that were doing the same things.

(On whether he will name names in his book like Jose Canseco did in his book):

Mandarich: I don’t think that you should benefit off other people’s short-comings. In my opinion, Jose Canseco is an (expletive) for what he did, the way he did it. I mean that’s chicken (expletive).

See Steroid Nation’s “Where are they now” article for more information on Mandarich, including this quote, yet again proving that where there’s smoke, there’s fire :

Virtually every interview he has done, Mandarich has been asked if he was a user. Every time he has denied it. “It bothered me, but I wasn’t the first player they said that about and I wasn’t the last,” said Mandarich, who had to pass a drug test before the Colts would sign him. “But you know what, that was magnified by me and my big mouth. It made the snowball get bigger.

“I can’t tell you how many drug tests I have taken in the NCAA, in (scouting combines) in Bowl games, in the NFL and I’ve never tested positive for anything.” He doesn’t deny using supplements. And he doesn’t deny being a workout freak. But steroids? No.

Tony Mandarich is a CHEATer
Chester Cheater
Startling news released today. I am sure the only person this comes as a shock to is Tony’s mommy. Mandarich was obviously on the roids, and the fact that he denied it for years, while sucking made it even worse. What an incredible flop he was. Now he is going to release a book, and goes on Inside the NFL to release the “bombshell” and sell some copies? Doesn’t he realize that nobody cares about him anymore? The only people who will buy this book are Packers fans who want to burn it. Apparently Mandarich’s previous denials were credible enough to be cited in the recent NFL Doping Report. I guess they feared a law suit, or a roids rage.