I can’t say I’m terribly surprised. The NFL didn’t get even close to serious about the issue of steroids until the late 1980s, athletes did not have the more scientific nutritional regimens that exist today, and steroids made injury recovery much easier and allowed for linemen to bulk up.
In fact, I’d be more surprised if more than half of NFL players in that era didn’t take steroids.
Even today, one cannot help but wonder how many football players today have benefited from HGH, a drug for which testing is not readily-available.
I have an old collection of football cards from the mid-late 1970s. Most of the linemen averaged about 250-260 pounds. In fact, the heaviest player whose card I have from those days was John Matuszak (Raiders, 1979), who was listed just over 280 pounds. He was followed by Ed “Too Tall” Jones (Cowboys, 1979), at 272.
Today, linemen are so large that William “The Refrigerator” Perry–the 300-pound short-yardage man for Chicago’s 1985-86 Super Bowl team–would have been just another name. If you’re not at least 300 pounds, you’ll have a hard time making the team as an offensive lineman.
Wanna bet that none of those guys are using–or have used–HGH?