- Steve Courson
Stephen Paul "Steve" Courson (
October 1 ,1955 –November 10 ,2005 ) was anAmerican football player, playing lineman for the NFL'sPittsburgh Steelers .Career history
Courson was originally from
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania . He played on the offensive and defensive lines forGettysburg High School and graduated in 1973. His #71 was retired, and he is the only football player in Gettysburg High School history to receive such an honor.Fact|date=September 2008After graduating from Gettysburg, Courson went on to play on the offensive line at the
University of South Carolina .He played for the Steelers from 1978-1983 and retired in 1985 after two seasons with the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers . In 1991, his book "False Glory: The Steve Courson Story", about his life in football when he used steroids, was published. He was one of the first American football players to admit to using steroids and harshly criticized them, making nearly 100 speeches a year to high school and college athletes about their dangers. Courson bench-pressed 605 pounds but came to feel ashamed and guilty that he really didn't lift the weight – it was the power that steroids gave him.Fact|date=September 2008 Courson was one of the first players to confess he had been using steroids during his playing career. He suffered from a heart condition which was believed to have been caused by his steroid use.Fact|date=September 2008After his career Courson was effectively blackballed by the NFL because of his outspoken stance on steroids.Fact|date=September 2008 He had a spell as a high school football coach in the 1990s. Courson's wife Cathy committed suicide. After her death he met Denise "Dee" Masciola, who became his girlfriend.
Death
Courson stayed near Pittsburgh for the rest of his life. In November 2005, he died in an accident at his home in
Farmington, Pennsylvania . Courson had been cutting down a 44-foot tree on his property, but a gust of wind changed the direction of its fall, and he moved into its path while attempting to prevent his dog from being struck. The dog, a blackLabrador retriever , was found alive near Courson's body when the tree was removed [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_462321.html] .In the months before his death in 2005, Courson wrote a 5,000-word letter expressing disappointment that more players weren't open about their steroid use and saying the league's enormous popularity relies on a "myth" of its players as drug-free heroes. "I believe the NFL is a prisoner to their own public relations myth," Courson said in the letter, which was found on the computer of his western Pennsylvania home after he was crushed to death at age 50 by a tree he was cutting down. The level of deception and exploitation that the NFL requires to do business still amazes me." Frank, personal and philosophical, the letter amounts to a treatise from the grave.Fact|date=September 2008 Courson, who became one of professional sports' first steroids whistle blowers by detailing his use in a 1985 Sports Illustrated interview, wrote the letter to a former Pittsburgh Steelers teammate he played with on Super Bowl-winning teams in 1978 and 1979.
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