The story jumped off the front page of Saturday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It was based on a Washington Post report that detailed a lawsuit involving 1,800 players alleging NFL teams ignored federal drug laws for decades in prescribing players with powerful, addictive painkillers. A quote attributed to former Steelers center Jeff Hartings was especially horrifying. “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. … Your body feels like it’s crawling in its own skin. You were coming down because you were so drugged up on game days.
Ron Cook: Painkiller abuse a horrifying truth of the NFL
