Steve Courson and 'The Steroid Explosion'.1985 story in Sports Illustrated on steroids in the NFL.

I've been reviewing some of the major steroid stories in Sports Illustrated.It's America's most prominent sports magazine,and a source of high level journalism.The standard is ( usually ) up to the level of top news reporting,and investigative journalism on any subject.They've had some great writers over the years.
I took the magazine from the early eighties to about early 2000's.I was mainly following the tennis stories.But I read a lot of the articles.It was a pleasure to read so many fascinating stories about all kinds of things I wouldn't have thought to look into otherwise.It presented many great human stories through the lens of sports.
Of course I was always interested in anything about bodybuilding,and weight training in general.
Including the revealing stories about football players training,and affinity for the world of weights.
Football players often engaged in power lifting,and general bodybuilding.Many were friends of the gym scene.
I was a football fan when I was a child.My father was a fan of the Dallas Cowboys.Which is a little funny because he was from New York City.He lived the rest of his life in Texas were my Mom was from.
I really enjoyed the drama,and color of football.They seemed like mighty giants fighting it out on the field.And this was the time of the classic Cowboys team coached by Tom Landry.Roger Staubach,Tony Dorsett and others.I think I even had a poster of the team on my wall.
That time in football was great.It was certainly more innocent for the fans.Most people had never heard of steroids.And it was far before the knowledge of CTE.

This was also the time of the great Pittsburgh Steelers teams.They had the reputation of being some of the toughest bastards that ever thundered over the gridiron.
This was the era of Terry Bradshaw,Mel Blount,"Mean" Joe Green,Jack Ham,Franco Harris,Jack Lambert,John Stallworth,Lynn Swan,and Mike Webster.
Mike Webster was one of the main subjects of the film Concussion.
It was was based on the book League of Denial.It was also the subject of an excellent documentary made by PBS Frontline.You might be able to find it free on YouTube.
Webster was the first NFL football player medical examiner Dr Bennett Omalu performed an autopsy on.Which lead him to discover the evidence of catastrophic brain injury in football players named Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy,or CTE.

Steve Courson was one of the players during this era.He was a teammate of Webster.

Steve Courson and Mike Webster

In the May 13, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated Steve Courson was a subject in the three part expose of Anabolic Steroids.
The story is listed on the cover as "The Steroid Explosion."

All the issues of Sports Illustrated are online in the SI Vault.But it's not always easy to find stories.The search system isn't good.
You can see the whole issue with original photos,or easier to read print.( you can just keep going forward in the full issue to view all original images )
The first part is Steroids:A Problem of Huge Dimensions.
Here is the print version.
The story is by William Oscar Johnson, a respected writer.
The main photo is a two page picture of Steve Courson looking like a great burly beast.Doing bicep cable curls,and sweating profusely.He appears to be a fine example of the big lumbering lineman.He's big,and smooth.Not cut with the fine delineation of a bodybuilder.
I would hate to be the opposing player who was on the other side of this genuine hulk.He could run into you like a freight train.Good night buddy.
There's a picture on the next page of a shirtless man holding a tray of various steroids.It's like Jeeves bringing you your morning Winny.Of course there are some current bodybuilders who would look at that picture now and drool.Because those are all real pharmaceutical drugs.Not black market Mexican horse 'roids.Whinny indeed.
So the story goes into the use in college football,the NFL,the USFL ( it was a now defunct football league.Trump owned a team.Yes.Really),and gyms across America.
I'm not sure the writer had the history of steroids correct.He said they were invented  at the University of Alabama! Huh? I didn't know UAB was in Germany!
We have the usual rundown of effects,and side effects.Including the psychological symptoms.Such as a young man named Scott who was suffering from an obsessive case of what we would now call muscle dysmorphia,or 'bigorexia'.

His wife, Kathy, said, "I'm so tired of him asking me, 'Do I look big? Do I look small?' It's annoying."

Sadly steroids made Scott annoying.Maybe Scott was annoying already,and they just helped.
The story does cover the experts,and drug dealers at the time.The serious legal issues that have now buried steroids in the law were starting to blow up.

On to the second part of the series Getting Physical-And Chemical. ( print )
This is the first person account of Steve Courson and his personal experience with using steroids.He is very honest,and open about his reasons for feeling he needed to use.
It's one of the most forthcoming pieces on the issue of steroid use in major league sports you will find.Particularly at that time.

"Football is my business. I take this attitude toward drugs: They give me an edge in my business. I don't regret anything I've done so far as pharmaceutical use is concerned. It's very easy for people on the outside to criticize."

The third part of the series is A Business Built On Bulk. ( print )
It's about a drug dealer named Charles Radler.

"Radler was running the most lucrative steroid-dealing operation in the U.S. His records showed he was grossing $20,000 a week and that in the last nine months of 1983 he had salted away more than $673,000 in four different bank accounts."

He was arrested and sent to prison.
But before they caught up with him he was doing a thriving business.He had been working at a pizza place when he got into lifting.He started using steroids himself.Then got the bright idea to go into selling more than pizza.He looked up names in a powerlifting magazine,and sent out fliers in the mail.Responses came in.He went on to live the movie drug kingpin life.Money,cars,guns,and a ruined life.
He received a surprisingly short sentence.( I'm sure he'd do more time now )
I didn't find further news on him.

Some readers may find the stories generally sensationalistic in tone.Steroid stories almost always play heavy on the negatives,and concerns.But I've seen far worse.It's fair,and accurate about the scene at the time.
I do think it's an interesting insight into the developing story of steroids in sports.

I'm going to do a further post on Steve Courson,and follow his story.
There were serious repercussions in his life due to steroid usage.
Heart problems,and legal scrutiny.

Steve Courson on the field.

Reason magazine article on the history and legal issues of Steroids in the USA.

This is one of the best articles I've read recently about the history,and current usage of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids.
It's mostly focused on the current legal status,and the problems users are facing.The fact that young men are purchasing steroids illegally,and older men are being prescribed testosterone by cooperative doctors.
This is far better researched than the usual journalistic shallowness on the subject.
Basically the semi reluctant criminalization of AAS has done little to stop people from using it.It's made it more dangerous to the users.

How Washington Lost the War on Muscle

Of course as long as the old gas bags in Washington can get testosterone from their doctors,why let the commoners have it?

Ben Johnson at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

In 1988 sprinter Ben Johnson was caught using an Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid during the Seoul Summer Olympic games.
It was a massive story at the time.He didn't just win the race.He left them in the shadows.He blitzed them.
Most of these runners were probably doping.But he got caught.

He was stripped of his gold medal.
The fact is he physically won that race.That's what happened.
But he tested positive for a banned substance.History erased on paper.

This was a watershed moment in sports history.
Before;most people probably hadn't heard of steroids,after everyone had.
They were shocked,and became suspicious,and cynical.
People don't like to be made fools of and they felt like they had.They didn't know what was going on behind the scenes in high level sports.
The evidence of the East German doping program had been noticed by those following international sport.But before the fall of East Germany all the records,and revelations were yet to see the full light of day.
This was the time when people realized how much of a difference doping an athlete could make.At least that was the perception.That Ben Johnson was a kind of Stanozolol powered Superman.
Who knows how these athletes would have performed if they were all perfectly natural?
Ben Johnson might have still won.We'll never know.

Here's the Sports Illustrated covering the story at the time.
The loser

Here's the famous cover Busted.

I think it's worth looking at the history of the increased awareness of AAS use in sports.It has certainly effected the view of bodybuilding,weightlifting,and physiques in general.
People have become intensely suspicious of anyone with muscular size.
To be a muscular human now seems to attract accusations of being a 'cheater'.
I think too many people overreact ,and howl "Roids! You can't fool me!"
Clearly people have been fooled in the past over all kinds of subjects.They'll get fooled again by many more.
Better more informed opinions than jumping to conclusions if you ask me.

I'll post a few more stories of interest on this period.

Jackie Paisley - Dead at 54.Her burst boobs ruined her health.

Jackie Paisley died at the age of 54 on March 17,2017.She was a female bodybuilder who competed from the 1980's to her retirement in 1991.Her Wikipedia entry shows how successful she was too.I was watching bodybuilding at the time,and remember her.She was tall,and leggy,and a very expressive poser.
She really wasn't one of the athletes I followed closely at all.Not the body type I could identify with.
But she seemed like a nice positive person.She certainly had plenty of fans,and media coverage.
There's a large gallery of pictures of her on this 80's muscle blog.
You can see she was an impressive woman.
Women's bodybuilding was booming in the 80's,and it seems somebody spotted her natural gifts and told her she could make it onstage.She had a fast rise up the ranks,and competed at the highest level.She won the Ms International in 1989.She competed in three Ms Olympia's.
She retired in 1991 at the young age of 26.
Bodybuilding is a damn hard thing to do.It's sad but not surprising when people stop competing at a young age.It seems she didn't feel like the demands of competition were worth it anymore.

She went home to Arizona,and worked in training,and nutrition.She had been a music student,and posed for this statuesque photo.

Jackie Paisley playing the violin.

I do remember at the time seeing the progression of her career once she got on the national scene.The earliest photos show her before she got implants.She had a well developed but flat chest.It followed the usual trend with female bodybuilders.She started out with her real breasts,then boom,big hard implants were installed.Of course the drugs,and dieting reduce their breast tissue.But it was depressing to see how many women thought artificial breasts were a necessary addition.
At that time in the 1980's breast implants were becoming more generally popular.There's a sensationalistic but entertaining 1997 movie called Breast Men that portrays a fictional account of the rise of silicone breast implants.Silicone implants made by Dow Corning became the fake boob of choice.It was softer,and more pliable than saline.A lot of women got them.Many of them came to regret it horribly.They claimed it made them extremely ill.Dow Corning was sued into bankruptcy though the company survived.There is information about the whole controversy in this Wikipedia article on breast implants.Fair warning there are graphic pictures.
There were subsequent studies that claimed that the risk of silicone implants was exaggerated.That they weren't proven generally dangerous.
This 1997 story from the New York Times includes the following quote;

In recent years, tens of thousands of women have claimed that they suffered a host of health problems from silicone-filled breast implants, including hardening of the breast tissue, implant rupture and disabling disorders that resemble autoimmune disorders like lupus.

There is abundant evidence that silicone implants ruptured at rates far higher than initially suggested by manufacturers. But the vast majority of recent scientific studies has found that the rate of autoimmune diseases in women with implants is about the same as for the general population.

  This 2015 article from Forbes takes the other side of stating that the whole lawsuit onslaught was financially motivated,and a debacle of the real science.It reviews a book "Silicone on Trail;Breast Implants and the Politics of Risk" by Dr Jack Fisher.The article author Henry I. Miller takes a strong counter stance against the concerns over silicone implants,and places blame on FDA head David Kessler for overstepping his authority and using his power to suppress a safe medical device.

I do believe in healthy debate.And I understand the antipathy to David Kessler.He comes off as a self righteous crusader.But he may have been correct in his caution.
It's also clear we have a classic case of battling greed.Dow Corning didn't put enough research into how large bags of  soft silicone placed over the chest cavity would actually affect the patients health in the long run.When the lawyers got involved in this conflict.They had a field day with it.They hit the jackpot.Sick mutilated women against a cold corporation.It's one of the most notable recent cases of a major company being devastated by class action lawsuits.

I'm not a medical expert,or lawyer.But I can smell the bullshit.Silicone breast implants might not be statistically proven to cause a whole range of  common autoimmune disorders.But they can cause problems when they leak.And they can,and will leak in time.They can develop mold too.I've seen a number of images of capsules full of murky goo pulled out of women's bodies.I did enough online research to believe the women,and doctors who claim they can be damaging to women's health.

Jackie Paisley claimed to be suffering from silicone toxicity in this 2013 article in Iron Man magazine.
She had had surgery,and was asking for support.
She posted this YouTube video on December 9,2012,

I think you can see her health has deteriorated.
She's talking about her medical history with her silicone implants.
She had developed pain in her left chest,and shoulder.This would have been about 2005/6.
She had surgery to remove the old implants,and replace them with a new set.She claims this surgeon failed to notice,or inform her,that there was silicone leakage.He failed to clean out the silicone that had leaked.
She seems to have become distrustful of mainstream medicine as well,and started pursuing alternative therapy.Following Naturopathy , and Allopathic  healing ideas.
Which is in fact Pseudoscience.Sadly this melange of antiquated intuitive ideas is attractive to people.Though her disappointment with mainstream medicine's failures in her case are understandable.See Alternative Medicine for the bigger picture.
She continued feeling ill,and talked to other surgeons about having her current implants removed.Unsurprisingly she had problems with insurance coverage,and couldn't afford treatment.
She eventually had surgery in Atlanta by a breast implant specialist; Dr Susan Kolb.
Kolb is a legitimate surgeon.But she also has ideas that could be described as out there.She believes in all kinds of woo in addition to scientific medicine.Still Dr Kolb has been very involved in care for silicone leakage victims.
Jackie had the implants,and about 10 lymph nodes removed in 2011.
She had a mold infestation and went through a course of antifungal,and antibacterial treatment.She said she was treating herself with an antibacterial treatment.( more about that in a bit )
During this whole crisis she had become dependent on Benzodiazepines which she had been using for her insomnia problem.It's basically a tranquilizer.These drugs can cause dependence,and withdrawal problems.
Jackie went through a very difficult time during withdrawal.She had spells,and seizures which were very frightening to her.
Then she goes on to claim she had some unique genetic issues.She claimed she did research,and found she had some kind of vitamin D problem.She claimed she had found something she's calling "the genetic code"
Oh dear.It sounds like nonsense.No real idea about what she thought she had discovered.Gene polymorphism regarding vitamin D?
Some people do have such a condition.But I have no idea how this person with no medical education believed it effected her health issues.
She never published anything about these claims.
She mentions doing a podcast with Dave Palumbo.This would have been an episode of Heavy Muscle Radio.I tired to listen to it.But there's only a repeat of another show where that show was listed in the order.It's not available.

A friend of hers named Derwin White published an appeal on the Inside Edition Facebook page by Allison Pease.You can also read it here on Area Orion.
Pease is saying Jackie was helping her,and "used her knowledge to identify “The Genetic Code” to help others become healthy through herbal supplements rather than medication."
I'm afraid this is where she may have started taking some dangerous substances.
This is an interesting interview conducted by Derwin White  on the site Muscle Insider.Here she talks about the treatment for the fungal,and bacterial infections.

Q. Tell us about the progression of your health problem.

A. I was given two years for recovery. Ten lymph nodes were gone. I had steady recovery, but used antifungals, which made me feel horrible, and killed the mycoplasmic bacteria with Miracle Mineral Supplement, a natural but powerful bacteria-killing solution similar to bleach, for up to six months before and after surgery. My recovery has been slow but getting better. Tapering off the medicine I was on for sleep has almost been worse than the surgery! By this February 11, it will be two years, and I think I will be a new person.

That substance called Miracle Mineral Solution is poison.I don't know what else to call this horrible swill.It's either sodium chlorite, or chlorine dioxide solution.It's bleach.
People selling this as a medicine have been prosecuted. 
I certainly hope Dr Kolb wasn't recommending this noxious stuff.
I have no idea why Jackie would have thought this was a good idea.
I don't object to people taking supplements.I also don't object to people making their own informed decisions regarding their health.
But this is simply out of bounds.There is no conceivable benefit to this caustic solution.
I wish she had of had better medical advice. 
Clearly a part of the problem was she couldn't pay for it,and couldn't get insurance.We're back to  the American tragedy of proper health care being a luxury for the rich.
She went on about her ideas on gene receptors,and illness.Since she had no education in this area I could only call this her speculation.She also claimed to be treating her disabled son in some way.
( The question of silicone implants affecting babies has been examined.It's unlikely to contribute to health problems. )
She sounded hopeful at the end of this interview.It's sad things didn't turn out that way.

It does seem like the whole cascade of health problems started with the implant leakage.I don't have the information to say what actually caused her death in the end. ( The death certificate would have information if it ever becomes available ).
The damage from the implants? She may have succumbed to the impact of the bleach solution on her long term health.She may have suffered a relapse of her drug dependency.Though that seems unlikely.
It's awful the poor thing had to go through this misery.
I'm sorry for the melodramatic title about the burst boobs.
But it does seem like the implants were a kind of land mine she stepped on.
RIP Jackie.