Wednesday, September 25, 1996

NFL and players need to address drug problem, Staubach says
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press
(Sept. 25, 1996)

HOUSTON - The National Football League and the NFL Players Association need a strong cooperative effort to halt alcohol and drug dependency among players, Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach said Tuesday.

But Staubach, who led the Dallas Cowboys to their first two Super Bowl victories, was not optimistic. He said it was much easier to deal with such problems when he played two decades ago, because the sports and legal environment today is more difficult.

"You've got agents, you've got lawsuits, all kinds of things," Staubach said after addressing a group of Houston business leaders. "Plus an owner might not want to deal with it.

"The reason might not be just the owner or the league or the players association. With all the money in sports today you're seeing a lot of elements that are very negative elements as far as human beings hanging around players, people that take advantage of players, putting up with their behavioral patterns.

"It's a different ballgame today and it can't be addressed the same way today," he added.

Staubach compared the drug problems of Michael Irvin of today's Dallas Cowboys with the similar problems of admitted drug user Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, a star linebacker on his championship teams.

Irvin was ordered to perform 800 hours of community service after pleading no contest in July to felony cocaine possession. The NFL suspended him for five games.
The Cowboys dismissed Henderson.

"It's not dealt with now," Staubach said. "You have to deal with it. Thomas was dealt with when he went too far. He was cut from our football team."

Staubach, who acknowledged he was stunned to learn of Irvin's drug involvement - "It's like he's two people," he said - favors random drug testing on a scale much greater than what is now conducted.

'It's very difficult now to test a player unless there's a significant reason to," he noted. "I think there's a lot of players now could be on the bubble and could be protected from becoming dependent if there was a stronger random testing policy. That's where the players association and the league have got to face the seriousness of alcohol and drug dependency.

"I think the league definitely has to deal with the issue, but it's also the players association that has got to come to grips with what is a very serious problem."

On other matters, Staubach, who runs a growing commercial real estate company based in Dallas, said money-seeking owners who take their teams from city to city and players who shop their services result in fans turning off the game.

"If someone moved the Cowboys, I'd lose interest, too," he said.

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