Bill Romanowski: A Lot Of Guys Are Taking HGH
June 8, 2009 – 8:00 am by Tas Melas
Bill Romanowski has been labeled as a cheater based on the supplements he took and also the way he played. When he wore his uniform, he had absolutely no filter and crossed the line on several occasions, so people associated him with typical juice-monkey traits: hot-headed, quick tempered, and violent. When he explains his motivations, he outlines what we know to be the typical drives of an athlete: fear of demotion, poor performance, etcetera. He says he only took enhancers that would help him improve but weren’t on the NFL’s banned list – some people may not approve, but some would say he did nothing wrong. Romanowski joined XTRA 910 in Phoenix to discuss whether or not current NFL players are using HGH, if he would have used it, that he took 100 to 200 pills a day, and what determined right from wrong in his mind.
Are there a lot of players in today’s NFL taking HGH?
“I think there’s a lot of guys taking it because of the healing properties. I mean at the end of the day, I got beat up, I had four operations, I wanted quality of life, I wanted my joints to feel better, I wanted to heal from injuries faster. I experimented with it, but to be honest with you, I never really noticed any difference. I always healed when the trainers told me I would. I was obsessed with making sure I was able to be out on that field because I was afraid of people taking my job.”
If you were playing in today’s NFL would you take HGH?
“If I got hurt and there was no test for it, and I knew I would not put myself in jeopardy and I could help myself be better, you know what, I probably would.”
On how he judged right from wrong in terms of enhancers he put in his body:
“I was taking things that they couldn’t test for and you call them pro-hormones, designer steroids, it’s a very slippery line, ’cause there’s things that you can get at High Health and GNC that are very close to a testosterone molecule. Those are things that I always tried to take and soon as you couldn’t test for them, I stopped taking them. The letter of the law for me was the NFL testing list… For 16 years I was never suspended or never tested positive for anything.”
What did you take during your playing days?
“I had a lot of nutritional supplements. I took anywhere from 100 to 200 pills a day. From Vitamin C, to amino acids, to magnesium, and zinc, and DHA, and DHEA, you name it, I had things for it. I had a whole tackle box that was just in case I got sick, that was all Chinese herbs. I got to where I would acupuncture myself. I’d be sticking needles in the top of my head, acupuncture needles, because I’d been acupunctured three to four times a week for five years, you start to learn where they put the needles. I got to where I knew my body very well.”
On what drove him:
“If my body felt good, I knew I had a better chance of playing good, and playing well, and keeping my job. The sideline represented failure to me. I did not wanna be on the sideline, I wanted my dream to stay alive for as long as I possibly could. Playing in the NFL was my dream, it was a fantasy, it was a dream come true, it was a privilege, and an honor. And, I tried to be the absolute best I could be.”
Listen to Bill Romanowski with Bickley and MJon XTRA 910 in Phoenix
Tags: Bill Romanowski, Football, NFL, Performance Enhancing Drugs, steroids
