Tony Casillas: Cowboys of 1990s used horse ointment from vet

Tony Casillas says deer antler spray is "nothing" compared to what players used to use. (US Presswire)

Former Dallas defensive linemen Tony Casillas, asked if PEDs were common when he played, said the Cowboys of the 1990s frequently used a horse medication.

“When I heard about deer antler spray, when I heard that, I said, ‘That's nothing,'” Casillas said on KRLD-FM 105.3.

“We used to use this stuff called DMSO. That's what veterinarians put on horses, on a muscle, so this is stuff that you can rub, and we used it in the locker room. We had a bottle and you'd take it. It goes straight to the bloodstream. And I'm not sure about this deer antler stuff, but, I mean, it was prevalent in our locker room. It's called DMSO.

“You get it from the veterinarian and it goes right to the bloodstream. It's an ointment that's like anti-inflammatory. You put it on your skin and you put it on a muscle, and I guarantee you, in about 30 minutes you'd feel it. It wasn't on the [banned] list. If you're going to talk about the deer antler stuff, we used DMSO and people knew it. Everyone knew about it.”

DMSO stands for dimethyl sulfoxide. Vets prescribe it for animals as an anti-inflammatory, and the FDA approves its use by people with a chronic bladder condition, according to Pro Football Talk. Then-Falcons quarterback June Jones argued in 1981 that DMSO should be legalized for human use.

A two-time Super Bowl champ, Casillas played for the Cowboys from 1991-93 and from 1996-97. He admitted in the radio interview that using DMSO was wrong.

“Let's put it this way: If you've got to get it from a veterinarian, it's probably -- it's kind of like getting Winstrol V, they've got to get it from a vet, but that's a steroid,” he said.

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