Release
TONY MANDARICH ADMITS STEROID USE AND CHEATING ON ROSE BOWL DRUG TEST IN COLLEGE AND REVEALS ADDICTION TO DRUGS AND ALCOHOL DURING NFL CAREER IN NEWS-BREAKING EXCLUSIVE ON "INSIDE THE NFL" ON SHOWTIME
Armen Keteyian, Chief Investigative Correspondent for CBS News, Conducts Sit-down
with Mandarich
NEW YORK (Sept. 30, 2008) -- Former NFL player Tony Mandarich sits down in a news-breaking 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 pain killers 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.
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.
Host James Brown anchors INSIDE THE NFL on SHOWTIME with All-Pro NFL greats Cris Collinsworth, Phil Simms and Warren Sapp serving as expert analysts. INSIDE THE NFL is being produced by CBS Sports and NFL Films with new shows airing on SHOWTIME every Wednesday during the NFL season through February 11, 2009. Pete Radovich serves as coordinating producer. The executive producers are Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports, and NFL Films President Steve Sabol.
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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.
(Over)
(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)
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