Steeler Reportedly Attempts Suicide After Failing Steroid Test

PITTSBURGH - Guard Terry Long of the Pittsburgh Steelers was treated in a hospital for an apparent suicide attempt after learning he had tested positive for steroid use, according to newspaper reports.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said today that Long, 32, a seven-year starter, was admitted to the emergency room at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh after ingesting what a law enforcement source described as rat poison.

The source, who wasn't identified by the newspaper, had police reports about Long and said, "I don't think there's any doubt whatsoever Mr. Long made an attempt on his life."

The Pittsburgh Press reported that Long had started a car in a closed garage at his home Wednesday afternoon before being confronted by his girlfriend. While she called for help, he went to another part of the house and swallowed the poison, The Press said.

Long didn't appear to be in a life-threatening situation at the hospital, the newspapers said.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that paramedics and police were called to Long's home in Franklin Park, a Pittsburgh suburb, late Wednesday.

The Journal-Constitution, Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh television stations KDKA and WPXI reported Long had failed the test for anabolic steroids.

Some of Long's teammates told The Associated Press that he discussed the positive test results with them Tuesday. The Steelers and an NFL spokesman declined to discuss Long's drug test.

Allegheny General said it wasn't releasing information about Long's condition. The Steelers, through spokesman Dan Edwards, also had no comment.

Long didn't accompany the Steelers to Carlisle, Pa., for a scrimmage with the Washington Redskins Wednesday night because of a pulled hamstring.

According to NFL guidelines, a first-time offense for steroid use would result in suspension from practices for two weeks and a ban from playing in the first four regular-season games, in addition to undergoing treatment. The offender would have to pass another steroids test before rejoining the team.

Long, a native of Columbia, S.C., was a fourth-round draft pick from East Carolina in 1984. His weight increased from 160 pounds in high school to his present 278, according to the Steelers' media guide.

Jon Kolb, the Steelers' conditioning coach, said he had warned almost all the Steeler linemen about the dangers of steroids, but wouldn't single out Long or anybody else because it would hurt the players and damage his role as confidante-counselor.

"I tell them the very eminent risk, and I tell them the long-term risk," Kolb said.

"Our present dangers are the tendency to have muscle pulls and ligament and tendon tears. Guys say, `Something with the heart or cancer or liver, that's down the road. I want to play now. I want to just make the team and then after I make the team, I don't have to do it.' But the chances you'll pull a muscle is so much greater. . . .

"I don't think we've ever cut somebody because he couldn't bench press enough. But a lot of guys have not made the team because they pulled muscles and by the time they got well, their opportunity had passed."