Former NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski says he once broke running back Dave Meggett's finger on purpose, took steroids and human grown hormone and is suffering from the effects of as many as 20 concussions in a television report to be broadcast Sunday.
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Romanowski relates his story to Scott Pelley for a report on 60 Minutes. He's promoting an upcoming book on his 16 NFL seasons, Romo. My Life on the Edge.
Romanowski says he broke Meggett's finger during a playoff game against the New York Giants.
"I am pissed ... down there just trying to rip that ball out of his hands," says Romanowski. "All I could get was a finger and, at the time, I thought it was his, but whatever it was ... I just snapped it, and I could hear a scream at the bottom of the pile."
Romanowski says he had no regrets at the time because injuring Meggett meant diminishing the opposition's effectiveness. But looking back on it, he says, "That's awful."
He's not nearly as contrite about a hit on former Carolina Panthers quarterback Kerry Collins that broke Collins' jaw and drew a $20,000 fine.
"One of the best hits of my career," he tells Pelley. "It was a perfect hit."
There were many of those over his 271-game career, hits that not only injured his opponents but left Romanowski with as many as 20 "documented" concussions and brain damage that could be permanent. Today, the injured part of his brain shows profound slowing of cognitive function and doctors say progress is slow, but that he might improve with time.
"The concussions were racking up. Every time I would get a good hit on somebody, I’d be dazed, confused, my memory was starting to go,” he says.
He says the last good hit, in 2003, put him in the hospital and ended his career, something he's still troubled by.
"I think you have these illusions, dreams, nightmares that maybe you can still do it," he tells Pelley.
"I never cleaned out my locker in Oakland," Romanowski says while wiping away tears. "No, never dealt with it."
Romanowski says took illegal steroids from spring 2001 to fall 2003 and got them from Victor Conte, head of the infamous Bay Area Lab Cooperative that supplied dietary supplements, including steroids. He says he also took human growth hormone, also illegal, from Conte, but found it not as effective as other drugs.
