Jeff Hartings: Steelers and Penn State both gave me painkillers to continue to play



… Steelers involved in drug controversy 

Former All-American and All-Pro Jeff Hartings offensive lineman Jeff Hartings is clear about his use of painkillers to continue to play football. He was using them even before he reached the National Football League.

“It was definitely overused and abused when I played, even going back to my days at Penn State. That was the first time I was exposed to it,” Hartings told the Post-Gazette. “By the time I got to the NFL, it was completely abused, but in a way it was all completely necessary to be able to go out there and play.”

The abuse of painkillers by players in the NFL has been a scandal that has been percolating beneath the surface, but it came to light last week when the Washington Post revealed that 1,800 former players have filed suit against the league for violating "federal laws governing prescription drugs, disregarding guidance from the Drug Enforcement Administration on how to store, track, transport and distribute controlled substances, and plied their players with powerful painkillers and anti-inflammatories.”

Toradol

Hartings is not part of the suit, but he explained to the Pittsburgh newspaper that he could not have continued playing without the use of Toradol. That is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that players use because it can deaden pain before a game. "You find out you can get a T-shot (Toradol) and it’ll take your pain away on game day. It definitely takes the pain away for that three, four or five hours on game day, but you pay for it the next day. And the pain is four to five times worse," Hartings told PG writer Ray Fittipaldo.

“From my own experience, the headaches and the issues I had on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays had to do with taking so many painkillers on game day. You have such a letdown in the following days because you’re on these drugs. Your body feels like it’s crawling in its own skin. You were coming down because you were so drugged up on game days.”

The Steelers' team doctor is named in the lawsuit in a number of areas. One is very controversial, indicating that trainers, not physicians, were prescribing these drugs in the league. "Anthony Yates, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ team doctor and past president of the NFL Physicians Society, testified in a deposition that 'a majority of clubs as of 2010 had trainers controlling and handling prescription medications and controlled substances when they should not have',” the Post story indicated.

Suit

The former NFL players have sued in a federal District Court in Northern California. They allege that they have suffered "long-term organ and joint damage, among other maladies, as a result of improper and deceptive drug distribution practices by NFL teams," according to the Post.

The court filing showed that the teams in the league issued tens of thousands of painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs. The Post story indicated, "In 2012, for example, the average team prescribed nearly 5,777 doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and 2,213 doses of controlled medications to its players, according to a March 2013 internal document from Lawrence Brown, the NFL-employed medical adviser who oversees its drug issues."

The Post story notes that those numbers would average out to six or seven painkiller pills or injections per week during the season.

Steelers' numbers

According to that data, the Steelers administered 7,442 doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs while the league average was 5,777, and the they gave out 2,123 doses of other control substances, according to the P-G.

One of the problems in the situation is that physicians really do not understand pharmaceuticals and other drugs. The league should have pharmacists and pharmacologists administering these programs.

The Steelers would not comment on the lawsuit or on Hartings' statements. They would not allow Yates to do interviews, and president Art Rooney II refused to discuss the matter.

Washington Post story

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/nfl-abuse-of-painkillers-and-other-drugs-described-in-court-filings/2017/03/09/be1a71d8-035a-11e7-ad5b-d22680e18d10_story.html?utm_term=.261f8669ddc9

Post-Gazette story

tp://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2017/03/11/NFL-painkiller-abuse-lawsuit-Anthony-Yates-Steelers-Dave-Pear-Jeff-Hartings-Ralph-Cindrich/stories/201703110064

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