Mandarich Blames Downfall on Drugs and Alcohol

Tony Mandarich, one of the NFL's biggest draft busts ever, discussed recently his football career failures on Showtime's Inside the NFL, saying he cheated on a steroids test (shocker, I know) prior to the 1988 Rose Bowl and that he was addicted to alcohol and pain killers when he joined the Green Bay Packers as a rookie.

Many, myself included, concluded that much of his severe drop in production from college to the pros was probably the result of being forced off the juice because of mandated testing in the NFL for performance enhancing substances. But, per the Milwaulkee Journal Sentinal, he says now that's not the whole story.

"There are 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 [to] 7 shots a day for the next three years."

Mandarich started just 15 games for the Packers after being selected No. 2 overall in the 1989 NFL Draft, just ahead of Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas, and Deion Sanders.

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