- 3 months ago
One of the biggest intimidators in NFL history, and a good guy off the field
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00:00Down goes Frasier! Down goes Frasier! Down goes Frasier!
00:07You know Mr. Obechie, Obechie powers in, Obechie powers in!
00:11The Dio is going to go forward! The Dio is going to go forward!
00:19Mr. Obechie has won their sixth NBA championship.
00:23Yes sir, swig!
00:25This is going to be an all-round unbelievable!
00:27No! I don't believe what I just saw!
00:44Hello, I'm Chris Fowler, and welcome to SportsCentury.
00:47Manic to the point of mayhem on the field,
00:50obsessed with his own physical strength,
00:52and often extravagantly generous to friends and strangers alike,
00:56Lyle Alzado played and lived with the clock pounding in his ears.
01:01In 1979, he told a reporter that he had a recurring dream,
01:05part glory, part tragedy.
01:07I accomplish all I ever wanted, he said of his dream,
01:11to win the Super Bowl, be Player of the Year, and all that,
01:13and then I die.
01:15Thirteen years later, the tragic part of Alzado's dream
01:18stood darkly at his doorstep.
01:21Hmm.
01:25Either I'm dying, or something that obviously is a lot of wrong with me.
01:31I don't want anybody to have to go through what I'm going through.
01:34He said, Jan, I'm scared, and I'm going to come out,
01:39and I'm going to tell everybody this.
01:41How long were you on steroids?
01:44Most of my pro career, you know, I played 16 years,
01:48and it got me where I wanted, but it also got me very sick.
01:53The strength that he used to have, he didn't have anymore,
01:56and he didn't want anybody to see him weak.
01:58I'd never seen a warrior like him so torn down,
02:06knowing what he had been.
02:11And that's where he was.
02:15He was a great combination of speed and power,
02:18but more so, it was about attitude.
02:22He wanted to intimidate you to think that you couldn't block it.
02:26Pressure from the Raiders.
02:28Alzado's there.
02:31He was like a mad bulldog, always down in his stands, growling,
02:36you know, his teeth always showing.
02:37He was slobbering, and his eyes were this big,
02:40and, you know, you just had to think,
02:43well, what is this guy on?
02:47He would walk around as he was building toward game time,
02:51and he would just go,
02:55so that by the time he got on the field,
02:58he literally was a wild man.
03:03The helmet came off.
03:05I said, now what are you going to do now, Lyle?
03:07He's not rawr, rawr.
03:09You want to see his Hollywood name?
03:10They have to make a rule to ban that.
03:11They have a rule now in the NFL,
03:12and it's called the Alzado rule,
03:14and the rule is you can't take your helmet off
03:16and beat people with it.
03:19It was like that as a kid.
03:21I remember seeing him in a bar fight at 17 years old,
03:24knocking out two bouncers,
03:26and all the two big construction workers,
03:27he was a lot bigger and older than he was.
03:29That violence that you saw on the field,
03:32that was real stuff.
03:34I mean, Lyle really used football
03:35as a way of expressing his anger
03:38at the world and at the way he grew up.
03:47He was born the second of five children
03:50on April 3rd, 1949 in Brooklyn
03:52to an Italian-Spanish father, Maurice,
03:55and a Jewish mother, Martha.
03:57Maurice, who bounced from one odd job to another,
04:00moved the family to Long Island when Lyle was 10.
04:04The neighborhood we all grew up in was called The Fire.
04:06And Lyle actually grew up in a town called Cedarhurst.
04:10It was upper middle class, and we were the slum.
04:14It was a huge house.
04:16Huge.
04:17But my father was a junk collector,
04:19and every room was filled with junk.
04:22Cars out in the backyard, broken down,
04:26seven TVs piled on top of each other.
04:29My mother was a wonderful person.
04:31My father was a violent alcoholic.
04:33And it shaped the person that he became.
04:38Lyle's life was a battle.
04:40It was a war.
04:41What we'd have to do as kids,
04:43we'd sit up on the steps.
04:45When my father came home and listened to the door slam,
04:49and if he was drunk and started beating up my mother,
04:53we'd run downstairs and try to protect her.
04:55Lyle would step in to stop him from beating my mom,
05:00and in turn, he would get beat.
05:02My father came out of the car and went for her.
05:05Lyle punched him, knocked him down, and broke his jaw.
05:08My father put Lyle in jail for that.
05:12Why was the father...
05:13He was always told he wasn't good enough.
05:16He was never going to amount to anything.
05:20And when you're a young person growing up
05:22and someone is telling you that constantly,
05:26you believe it.
05:29He had a lot of anger.
05:30And he had an emptiness inside himself.
05:34He was always terribly frightened
05:37about turning into my father.
05:39His steroid use was my dad's alcohol use.
05:43And some of the violence that happened off-field
05:46was reflective of my father's violence.
05:51The sweet, lovely, generous little boy.
05:56And the angry, violent, addicted man.
06:07So those two things...
06:08Even when I say that, I'm really touched by it
06:11because I realize the pain that that...
06:17I don't know how he got out of bed some days.
06:20He would be black and blue.
06:23And he never complained.
06:25Never, ever complained.
06:27And the world could end
06:29while Lyle Zato would be at Gold's Gym at 7.
06:34He really felt that he didn't have any God-given take
06:37his own talent and...
06:40The Sting Athletes on Steroids
06:42or Zato did the...
06:44Then Lyle was a little kid
06:45and he started working out there.
06:47He'd wear four, five, six, seven t-shirts
06:50under his shirt
06:51so that he would look huge.
06:53Because Lyle wasn't going to get recognition of
06:55having the best clothes.
06:57He wasn't going to get recognition
06:59of bringing it to his house.
07:01He was going to get recognition
07:03by going on the football field
07:05and being the toughest person he could be.
07:09It's halftime and we're losing 20-0.
07:12And our head coach came into the locker room
07:15and he said,
07:16Al Zato, you stink.
07:19And he spit at Lyle in the face.
07:21They get the ball.
07:22Lyle kept sacking them.
07:24Time after time.
07:25They didn't score a point.
07:27He couldn't throw nothing.
07:28He couldn't throw a quick out.
07:29Lyle was like,
07:31bang!
07:32Every play.
07:33Killing him.
07:34We won 28-20.
07:36All he did was piss off Lyle Al Zato
07:38and the game was over.
07:41That was it.
07:43However tough Al Zato played
07:45at Lawrence High
07:46in Cedarhurst, Long Island,
07:48the lanky defensive lineman
07:49was rated not ready
07:50for major college football.
07:52After failing to make the team
07:54at Kilgore Jr. College in Texas,
07:56he tried again
07:57at Tiny Yankton College
07:59in South Dakota.
08:01From the first day I met him,
08:02he wanted to be in the NFL.
08:03And he wanted to be all pro.
08:05They were poor.
08:06How did he get from
08:09Long Island
08:11to Texas
08:12up to South Dakota?
08:15A lot of people laughed about that,
08:17but Lyle was determined.
08:19He worked extremely hard
08:21on the weights,
08:24pumped iron Fridays a week.
08:26He was probably the most coachable
08:28young man that I've ever
08:30been associated with
08:32and was willing to pay the price
08:35to get to that level.
08:49The player of the AFC
08:51as the Orange Crush defense
08:53led the Broncos
08:54to the conference title.
08:56Lyle was a big part of it
08:57because he was so emotional.
08:59He could create
09:00unbelievable turnovers.
09:01Because when you least expect
09:02that we're going to be defeated,
09:04he'd come up with a great play.
09:05And it was time and time again.
09:08Despite league-wide respect
09:10that included all pro selections
09:11in 1977 and 1978,
09:14Halzado remained haunted
09:16by his insecurities.
09:18He had probably one of the most
09:20fragile egos
09:21that I've ever seen in a player.
09:22If you pointed out a mistake
09:24or yelled at him
09:25or got on him,
09:26he would blow up.
09:28In fact, he probably
09:29walked out of practice
09:30six or seven times.
09:32He was never satisfied
09:33with the way he played.
09:35I don't care if he had
09:36a fabulous game,
09:37he was never satisfied.
09:39He wasn't the biggest
09:40or the fastest
09:40or the strongest,
09:41but he knew that he had
09:42to make himself
09:43bigger,
09:45thicker,
09:46stronger.
09:50When we were married,
09:52I found pills in a drawer once
09:55and I asked him what they were.
09:56And he said,
09:58oh, vitamins, vitamins, whatever.
09:59And I said, well,
10:00you know,
10:00they're in an on-marked
10:01prescription bottle.
10:02I want to know what these are.
10:03There was common use of steroids
10:05amongst offensive
10:06and defensive linemen.
10:07It wasn't a secret
10:09from our trainers
10:10and doctors.
10:11They knew,
10:12but there wasn't this
10:14stigma attached to it.
10:17I can remember guys
10:18using them
10:20throughout the league
10:22and in college.
10:23They weren't illegal.
10:24There is no documented proof
10:26in actually following
10:28an athlete in his career
10:30when he's taking steroids,
10:31what it does.
10:32He had a huge,
10:35overflowing
10:37grocery bag
10:38full of
10:38every different
10:39imaginable type
10:40of oral anabolic steroid,
10:42injectable anabolic steroid,
10:43steroids that had pictures of
10:45He had bane venom.
10:58He said,
10:59Pete,
10:59I'm going to do
10:59what I need to do
11:00to play the game
11:01the way I want to play it
11:02and to hell with
11:04what happens afterward.
11:05Most people are addicted
11:06to something
11:06and Lyle was addicted
11:08to being bigger
11:10than he was.
11:13Even when he left football,
11:15his whole persona
11:16in the movie world
11:17and television
11:18was this massiveness.
11:21That was his personality.
11:22It's almost like
11:23an anorexic
11:24looks at themselves.
11:25They're never thin enough.
11:26People that are
11:26using steroids
11:27and working out,
11:28they're never big enough.
11:30They just want to get
11:31stronger and stronger
11:32and stronger and stronger.
11:33I know that it was based
11:34on his childhood.
11:36Once he got out
11:37of the environment
11:38he lived in,
11:39he didn't want to ever
11:40think of going back.
11:41And there were times
11:42when he would have this fear
11:44that he would never
11:44play football again
11:45and that he would end up
11:46a bum on the street.
11:47I mean,
11:47he really just had
11:48this mental image
11:50that, you know,
11:51I have to keep
11:52staying successful.
11:53you know,
11:54I can't go back
11:55to what could have
11:56happened to me.
12:00A bunch of people
12:01all wrapped into one.
12:02He might have been
12:03the WWF
12:04before the WWF.
12:06I mean,
12:06he was a showman.
12:07He was a guy
12:07that was driven
12:09by being somebody.
12:33That was one of the
12:35things that made me
12:36fall in love with him
12:37is because he had
12:37the amazing ability
12:38to make people laugh.
12:40You don't really think
12:40I'm serious about
12:41all this stuff, do you?
12:42You think I can beat
12:44everybody up in the world?
12:45I can kick your ass
12:46then.
12:48He could melt
12:49anybody in a second.
12:51Men, women,
12:52children, animals,
12:54whatever it was.
12:55He would just take me
12:56and put me on top
12:57of his shoulders
12:58and he was just giant.
13:00Giant, but like
13:01a big teddy bear
13:01at the same time.
13:03Well, I had a real
13:04rough childhood
13:05and he made our childhood
13:08as much not like his
13:09as possible.
13:12The son of a gun
13:13had the world believe
13:14in he was the nastiest,
13:16toughest, meanest,
13:18dirtiest son of a gun
13:19that ever played the game.
13:20And I think that's exactly
13:21what he wanted people
13:22to think.
13:23I think there are some
13:24false perceptions
13:25out there about Lyle
13:26that he did a lot
13:27of street drugs.
13:28Mescaline and cocaine
13:29and marijuana
13:30and he never got into that.
13:32I rarely saw him
13:33take a drink.
13:34Most of the time
13:34he's drinking orange juice
13:35and most of the time
13:36he's out and about
13:37doing things
13:38in the community.
13:40That was a great moment
13:41for me in my career
13:42but let me introduce you
13:43to another great moment.
13:45I bet he was involved
13:46with 50 organizations
13:48here in Denver
13:49and gave 150%
13:50of himself
13:51to every single one.
13:52They think it was unusual
13:53for someone to give
13:54that much time
13:55and that much energy
13:56and all positive
13:57to the kids.
13:58Merry Christmas!
14:01He would rent
14:02a big huge U-Haul truck
14:03and go buy
14:04a bunch of Christmas trees
14:05and take them
14:05to the poor.
14:06I remember him
14:07going to pick up
14:07homeless guys
14:08off the street
14:09just to take them
14:10over to the house
14:10for dinner.
14:11It fulfilled something
14:12in him.
14:13That emptiness
14:14that was inside him.
14:16What Lyle needed
14:18he had to be accepted
14:19constantly
14:20by everybody
14:21every second
14:22every day.
14:24In the summer
14:25of 1979
14:26Alzado became
14:27entangled
14:28in a contract
14:28to speak
14:29with the Broncos
14:30and flirted
14:31with a boxing career
14:32by going eight rounds
14:33in an exhibition match
14:34with Muhammad Ali.
14:35Denver management
14:36called his bluff.
14:39He had an amateur
14:40boxing trade
14:41in him at that time
14:41to purgatory
14:42which was Cleveland.
14:43That just killed
14:44his ego.
14:46So, you know,
14:47in Cleveland
14:47he wanted to prove
14:48to be the best
14:48he wanted to be all pro
14:49when he was in Cleveland
14:50so I think that his
14:52steroid abuse
14:52escalated then.
14:57Lyle was extremely
14:58temperamental
14:59and moody
15:00and quite honestly
15:01hard to be around.
15:04One day he would come in
15:06and he would be
15:07really soft
15:07and he'd go,
15:08Jerry,
15:09what did you do
15:10last night?
15:11What did you watch
15:12on TV last night?
15:13We'd talk a little bit
15:14and then the very next day
15:16and maybe three or four
15:17days in a row
15:18he'd come in
15:18and I'd go,
15:19hi Lyle
15:19and he would get
15:20all red
15:21in Tanzania
15:21and he'd go,
15:22you get away
15:22from me.
15:24What?
15:25He was volatile.
15:26We called him
15:26Three Mile Lyle
15:27because he was like
15:28Three Mile Island.
15:29You never knew
15:30when he was gonna
15:31just go.
15:33Lyle was the poster child
15:35for Roy Rageous.
15:36Somebody cut him
15:38off in a car.
15:39He would follow
15:39the person
15:40and grab him
15:40out of the car
15:40and beat them senseless.
15:42We had some pretty
15:43good battles,
15:44he and I.
15:46We had the police
15:47in Manhattan Beach
15:48a couple of times.
15:49It was really frightening.
15:51I never filed
15:52a domestic
15:53because it would
15:54have ruined
15:54his image.
15:58Alzado's first
15:59three marriages
16:00ended in divorce.
16:03You don't want
16:03to take so much.
16:05You know,
16:05you can love somebody
16:06but you can't live
16:06with them I think
16:07and so he was
16:09constantly being left.
16:10We still loved
16:11each other
16:11when we got divorced
16:12but we just didn't
16:13want the same things
16:14in life anymore.
16:15He wanted
16:16more fame,
16:17more fortune,
16:18more this,
16:19more that,
16:19more women.
16:20I mean,
16:21he always said
16:21that, you know,
16:22these affairs mean
16:23nothing to me.
16:24You know,
16:24I still love you
16:25but, you know,
16:26it just wasn't
16:27meant to be.
16:28He was always
16:29a cat on a hot tin roof.
16:31He was always
16:32on edge.
16:34He couldn't relax.
16:35He always asked me,
16:36how do you do it?
16:38How could you be
16:39married so long?
16:40How could you be this?
16:41How could you do that?
16:42And he couldn't
16:43find the peace,
16:46the inner peace
16:47that lots of people
16:49can find.
17:01I give you number 77,
17:04Darth Raider himself,
17:06Lyle Alzado.
17:09Lyle Alzado was traded
17:11for an 8th round
17:12draft pick
17:13to the Raiders
17:14in 1982.
17:15Bow!
17:16Bow!
17:17That year,
17:18he fathered
17:19his only child,
17:20Justin,
17:21and was himself
17:22reborn as
17:23comeback player
17:23of the year.
17:24In 1986,
17:26two years after
17:27helping Los Angeles
17:28route Washington
17:29in Super Bowl XVIII,
17:30Alzado,
17:31at 36,
17:33made a painful decision.
17:35I'm at the power
17:36I once was,
17:37and I don't ever
17:38want to be
17:38second best.
17:39And I am now.
17:41So,
17:43it's time.
17:45He loved the accolades.
17:47He loved 80,000 people
17:49screaming his name.
17:51That's a tough act
17:52to follow.
17:53Where do you go
17:53after that?
17:55People talk about
17:58aging in this position,
18:00aging in that position.
18:02Aging at
18:03a defensive
18:04end or tackle,
18:08that's pretty hard
18:08to do.
18:11You have to keep
18:12putting up the numbers.
18:27When he wasn't playing,
18:28he was trying
18:29to be a celebrity.
18:30But he was,
18:31he really wasn't.
18:31He wasn't an athlete anymore.
18:32He wasn't a movie star.
18:35Four years after
18:37his retirement,
18:38Alzado attempted
18:39to relight
18:40the fires of his game.
18:41with steroids
18:43by the NFL,
18:44he resorted
18:45to bizarre
18:46training methods
18:47and performance
18:47enhancers.
18:50He called me
18:51and said,
18:52oh,
18:52Sharon,
18:53you'll believe
18:53this new thing.
18:53It's like a human
18:54growth hormone
18:55and you inject it
18:56and it's like
18:56an anti-aging drug.
18:58It turned out
18:58he was bringing in
18:59that human growth hormone
19:00from Europe
19:01and it wasn't the,
19:02it was the kind
19:02that still came
19:03from cadavers.
19:04It wasn't the synthetic kind.
19:05Human growth hormone
19:06has a problem to it
19:08and that is
19:09it stimulates
19:10all the organs
19:11of the body.
19:11We don't know
19:12how safe it is.
19:13We don't know
19:13how much you should take
19:14or how long you should take it.
19:15It's a total unknown question.
19:18But in the August heat
19:19of the 1990 preseason,
19:21it became clear
19:22that the power
19:23of the 41-year-old
19:24Alzado was gone
19:26and with it
19:27in his dream
19:27of a comeback.
19:29Then,
19:29seven months later,
19:30his shadow
19:31of a dark destiny
19:32fell over him
19:33during the marriage ceremony
19:34to his fourth wife,
19:36Catherine.
19:39God's sake, huh?
19:40It was walking
19:41down the aisle
19:42at his wedding
19:42that he noticed
19:43he really couldn't
19:44walk the straight line.
19:45He kept veering off
19:46to one side
19:47and it was based on that
19:48that we initiated
19:49a workup
19:50that found his brain
19:51riddled with
19:52cannonball masses.
19:54Well,
19:55how do you know
19:56that steroids
19:58cause this?
19:59Because as you do know,
20:00many cancer experts,
20:01CNN's medical unit
20:03has asked a lot
20:04of people
20:05and they all tell him
20:06there's no medical evidence
20:07between cancer,
20:09the brain
20:09and the use of steroids.
20:11I lived healthy.
20:13I went to bed early.
20:14I ate right.
20:15I did right.
20:16And I still got sick.
20:17So what is it linked to?
20:19He seemed to be
20:20on some kind of crusade
20:21to make that connection.
20:24But that was Lyle
20:25right to the end.
20:28It's pure speculation
20:29whether or not
20:30the drugs caused
20:31Lyle's cancer.
20:33There's never really
20:34been any proof of that.
20:35You'd still have to
20:36wonder in somebody
20:37who, you know,
20:38has some sort of effect.
20:48The angry,
20:49frustrated Lyle
20:50that he was.
20:51That year that he was sick,
20:52he was calm,
20:53collected,
20:54and, you know,
20:55apologized for anything
20:56he did wrong,
20:57talked about everybody
20:58he loved.
21:01He did a lot of soul-searching
21:02during that time
21:03and I think that brought
21:04him a lot of peace.
21:05The anger that he used
21:06to hold in his heart,
21:08he released a lot of that.
21:09He just let it go.
21:11He came to the game.
21:15And you can tell
21:16he wasn't Lyle.
21:18He was trying to cover up.
21:22That's not Lyle.
21:24But he came right
21:25to the bench.
21:26And he came right
21:27to me.
21:30It's kind of a redundant
21:31question,
21:31but you ask the guy
21:32how you doing.
21:35And he said,
21:36I'm good, Greg.
21:37How you doing?
21:41And he just thought
21:43it was something
21:43he was going to beat.
21:46And that stuff
21:47just took over.
21:48It just took over.
21:55I tried to love everybody.
21:58That's what I tried to do.
22:00To be honest.
22:02With the strength he had,
22:04he just pulled my arm down
22:06and gave me a kiss
22:07a couple of days
22:08before he passed away.
22:09And I knew that was
22:10his goodbye kiss.
22:14On May 14, 1992,
22:17Alzado succumbed
22:18to brain cancer.
22:20He was 43.
22:23Not the biggest,
22:25not the best.
22:26Sometimes lion,
22:28sometimes lamb.
22:30Lyle Alzado raged
22:31and loved and lied
22:33and could never fill
22:34the hole inside himself.
22:36He left behind
22:37no NFL records,
22:39but instead,
22:40a bright and burning memory
22:41in everyone he touched.
22:46He wanted more than anything
22:48in his life,
22:49besides all the successes
22:50that he had,
22:51was to have a happy life.
22:53But he just wasn't sure
22:55how to achieve that.
22:57In a certain sense,
22:58he was kind of a shooting star.
23:00It was bright,
23:02it was at some points
23:04blinding,
23:05and then it fizzled off
23:08into the night sky.
23:16Part of Lyle Alzado's charm
23:18was his unpredictable nature.
23:20Early in the morning
23:21after the Broncos
23:22won the 1977 season's
23:24AFC Championship
23:25to gain their first
23:26Super Bowl berth,
23:27Alzado and a friend
23:28hit the club section of...
23:31to collect money
23:33for charity,
23:34which eventually amounted
23:35to $10,000
23:36from the revelers
23:37leaving the bars
23:38and discos.
23:38For SportsCentury,
23:40I'm Chris Fowler.
23:46Whoop.
23:46Whoop.
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