A steroid nightmare

Bob Hazelton spent the days before Christmas in a Minneapolis hospital. He had fallen trying to get into a building not accessible to the handicapped, and doctors had to reflap the bone over the muscle above his left knee.

“They had to cut the bone a little bit and repad it with the major muscle in the thigh … so if I damage it again it won’t hit pure bone,” Hazelton said. “The bone is soft, and because the bone is soft you have to be real careful that you don’t fall or cause any major trauma.”

Hazelton knows all about major trauma. His life has been one major trauma.

Hazelton rested in his hospital bed, each of his legs amputated above the knee. He says his condition is the result of abusing steroids when he was a heavyweight fighter.

That is why he got angry when he saw athletes like Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield and Shane Mosley smiling after they testified before a San Francisco grand jury investigating the illegal production and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs — the fancy name for what generally are referred to as steroids.

“It is a synthetic sporting world. From hitting the home run to running for touchdowns, it is all drugs,” said Hazelton, 55. “Any record that has been broken in the last 10 years in the world of sports, steroids has played a part in it.”

Two former NFL players, Steve Courson of the Steelers and the late Lyle Alzado of the Raiders, often are held up as poster boys for the pitfalls of using illegal performance-enhancing substances. Alzado died of a brain tumor that he believed was caused by years of steroid abuse. Courson suffered heart damage he attributed to steroid use.

But perhaps the most disturbing and compelling example of the dangers of steroid use is Hazelton, one of the pioneers of the trend.

The 6-foot-6 Hazelton was a star in high school in the 1960s in Orlando, Fla., a standout in football, basketball and baseball. He grew up a Redskins fan and dreamed of one day playing in the NFL, dreams that still haunt him.

“To this day, I have a hard time watching football because I think of what could have been,” Hazelton said.

Family problems prompted him to join the Navy, which eventually discharged him because of a heart murmur. Hazelton wound up looking for work in Philadelphia, where he was born. He had tinkered with some amateur fighting and one day visited a South Philly gym at which heavyweights like Joe Frazier and Theotis Martin trained.

“I was a big fan of Muhammad Ali’s,” Hazelton said. “He made the sport look so glamorous. … I had the ability to do it. I had speed and great hands, but I didn’t like hitting or getting hit. I liked hitting in football, but not boxing.”

He had the skills to compete, though, and his height made him an intriguing fighter. He had a 7-2 record when he went to Las Vegas in December 1969 to fight the heavyweight division’s rising star, George Foreman. Hazelton was knocked out at 1:22 in the first round, but he lost the fight before he ever got in the ring. Hazelton weighed 183 pounds, giving up at least 40 to Foreman.

“When I saw Foreman, I knew it would be rough, but you try to catch lightning in a bottle,” Hazelton said. “The fight was stopped in the first round. I was hurt, but I wasn’t really hurt. I was cut, a nice gash inside my mouth, and I was sucking down some blood. But I knew what was going on. I had been knocked down twice, and the referee called it. I was overpowered.”

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