Steve Courson is used to battling 290-pound linemen. He did it for 13 years with the University of South Carolina, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But now Courson is battling his toughest opponent -- heart disease -- and is using his experience with steroids to educate high school athletes, especially football players, who might be .. tempted to use steroids.
Courson, who retired from the NFL in 1985, is suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a weakened heart muscle, a condition he blames on the combination of alcohol and steroids. He is a candidate for heart transplant.
He is scheduled to speak tonight at the Greater Baltimore Sports Medicine Conference for Coaches. Dr. Donald Ian Macdonald, drug and steroid adviser to the World League of American Football, and Dr. Allan Lanzo, an orthopedic surgeon and associate director of the Greater Baltimore Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Center, will join Courson as guest speakers.
Courson is is working to educate high school athletes on the effects of steroids, something he said was not done when he started playing football.
"When I was growing up, drug education was not like it is today. It was nonexistent," said Courson, the offensive line coach at Trinity High School in Washington, Pa. "And what there was was not necessarily accurate."
Steroid use has been documented in children as early as fifth grade, said Dr. Charles Yesalis, head of research at Penn State who specializes in performance-enhancing drugs.
"These drugs can close down their growth plates and they can cause psychological dependence on the drugs," said Yesalis, who supplies Courson with the latest steroid research.
Lanzo also is skeptical about adolescent steroid use.
"Kids are hormonally and physically going through rapid growth," Lanzo said. "The steroids suppress the natural testosterone, and that's the vital hormone in the development of the male."
Courson, who said he was introduced to steroids after his freshman year at South Carolina to help him gain weight, is not optimistic about keeping youngsters off steroids.
"When a kid is 15 years old and he sees kids using steroids and gaining scholarships and winning body-building contests and being rewarded by society and he sees without them he can't compete at that level, why is it such an illogical decision to use drugs?" Courson said. "That is the educational nightmare.
