The brother of the former URI and Pittsburgh Steelers star suspects that Steve Furness' fatal heart attack at age 49 could have been triggered by use of the drug in the 1970s.

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, March 27, 2005

BY MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer

They never discussed steroids when he was winning four Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but five years after Steve Furness suffered a fatal heart attack, Peter Furness suspects that his brother was one of the Steelers who used them to get bigger, faster and stronger.

"More likely than not, in view of all the circumstances and what Jim Haslett said and the opportunities at that time," Peter Furness said Friday in the wake of Haslett's comments that the Steelers' use of steroids popularized their use throughout the NFL 30 years ago.

Steve Furness, who grew up in Warwick and played football at the University of Rhode Island from 1968 to 1971, died of a heart attack on Feb. 9, 2000, at his home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Saint Clair. He was 49 and had just finished dinner with his fiancee.

Studies have shown that steroid use can promote heart disease in later life.

A fifth-round draft pick in 1972, Furness became part of the Steel Curtain defense that helped Pittsburgh win Super Bowls in 1975, 1976, 1979 and 1980. He retired after spending the 1981 season with Tampa Bay and Detroit, and he coached for a while. He was a salesman for an artificial turf company at the time of his death.

Haslett, head coach of the New Orleans Saints, caused a stir last Wednesday at the NFL's annual meeting in Hawaii when he said he used

steroids early in his playing career (1979-1987), that steroid use was rampant at the time, and that the Steelers were leading the charge.

At the time, steroids were legal, and the NFL did not have a policy banning their use. Players such as Furness didn't talk about them much outside the locker room, but Peter Furness saw enough to suspect that something other than lifting was occurring in training rooms.

"You have to go back to when my brother played at URI," Peter Furness said from his lawyer's office in Providence. "He played fullback and linebacker as a sophomore and junior, and defensive end as a senior. He was 6-4 and weighed between 215 and 220. His weight fluctuated depending on what he was doing with track (Steve was an All-American hammer thrower). He lifted constantly and ran a lot. He got to 220 by working out all the time."

Pittsburgh drafted Furness because coach Chuck Noll preferred small, quick linemen to block in his run-oriented offense. But there was pressure to become faster and stronger to get or keep a roster spot or starting position, and in the 1970s a football player did not have to live in the weight room to get faster, stronger or bigger. There were drugs to help the cause.

Furness weighed 220 pounds when he left URI for Pittsburgh. He weighed 270 when he returned home after a season.

"I didn't know enough at the time to ask how he got so big. I'd say, 'Geez, you've gained a lot of weight, and you've bulked up.' He'd say, 'Yeah, I've been lifting a lot,' " Peter said. "Now, I'm not saying that with proper weight training and exercises you can't gain 50 to 60 pounds, but I had a bit of suspicion when a lot of guys go from 220 to 270 in a very short period of time."

He added that the NFL culture in the '70s was centered about Game Day and how players performed on Sunday afternoons, not how they trained, or didn't train, during the week.

"Guys lived a good lifestyle. They went out a lot and did things they don't do today. They'd go out and have a nice big meal and a couple of drinks and then go out and party. They felt they were okay as long as they could perform on Sunday," he said.

Peter Furness knows that his brother was unnaturally heavy during his NFL career.

"I saw him lift weights at home for 10 years. He was solid as a rock, and his body weight was 220. Two-seventy was not his body weight. When he stopped playing, he got back down to 225 or 230. It was the same with his teammates," Peter said.

Steve Furness's death in 2000, followed by teammate Mike Webster's death in 2002 -- the Hall of Fame center had been diagnosed with brain damage from all the hits to the head he absorbed, and may have had heart disease, as well -- has worried NFL players of that era.

"Steve had a number of friends who did similar things," Peter said. "They were scared once they saw relatively young men die before they were 50. They think back and question what they did. I'm not saying they did horrible things, but if drinking, doing drugs or even working out seven days a week can affect a professional athlete who was at the locker next to you for 10 years, you say if it can happen to him, it can happen to me."

Theirs was a brutal world.

"My brother, like Mike Webster and a lot of guys, prided himself as tough. He loved head-butts. Think about practicing and playing for 15 years. How many times are you hit in the forehead? Add up the potential issues from that and then throw in steroids," Peter said.

"Every time I see an article in the paper or hear that a player dies or gets sick, it's devastating. Fifteen years ago, people were clamoring to get their autographs. Now, some of them won't come out of the house. They have bad knees and bad backs. A whole host of guys on a team sacrifice their bodies and end up the next 40 years with a disability. A lot of guys took cortisone shots and other things to protect them in the game."

Peter Furness understands why pro athletes at that time would have used steroids. They were legal, and if doctors and trainers distributed them, they must be okay. He recalled how Steve tried to build him up through weight training, and when that failed, had him drink Nutrament, a diet supplement.

"I played basketball and was skinny. I was drinking cans of Nutrament like water. If that had been steroids, I might have taken them," he said.

Peter Furness feels for all athletes who felt the pressure to take steroids to gain a competitive advantage.

"You feel for those people because they didn't have the knowledge we have today. It was legal. There was no reason to believe it would have long-lasting effects. It was a way to bulk up, get faster and more aggressive."

Even if Steve Furness used steroids in his 20s, other factors may have contributed to his death at 49. An autopsy showed an enlarged heart and 90 percent blockage in his coronary arteries, Peter said. The family has a history of heart disease, although Steve didn't have elevated cholesterol levels or high blood pressure. Their parents had heart attacks and bypass surgery. An uncle had a heart attack. A year after Steve's death, Peter suffered a heart attack while jogging.

"I feel lucky; I got a second chance," he said. "I wonder if because of my brother's lifestyle then, he didn't have another chance."