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Lyle Alzado
Date of birth	April 3, 1949
Place of birth	Brooklyn, New York
Date of death	May 14, 1992
Position(s)	Defensive lineman, Linebacker
College	Yankton
NFL Draft	1971 / Round 4/ Pick 79
Career Highlights
Pro Bowls	2
Awards	1982 NFL Comeback Player of the Year
Stats
Statistics	Pro Football Reference DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1971-1978 1979-1981 1982-1985	Denver Broncos Cleveland Browns Los Angeles Raiders

Lyle Alzado (April 3, 1949 – May 14, 1992) was a NFL American football player most famous for his intense and intimidating style of play.

Contents 1 Early life, high school and college football 2 NFL career 2.1 Steroids 3 Outside of football 3.1 Learning the Ropes 4 See also 5 External links

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Italian-Spanish father and a Jewish mother. When he was 10 the family moved to Cedarhurst, Long Island. His father left when he was in Lawrence High School (New York). He played high school football, but was not a standout.

He played college football for Kilgore College, a junior college, for two years, and then Yankton College in South Dakota, where he was noticed by a Denver Broncos coach watching film. The Broncos drafted him in the fourth round, in 1971.

During his career he played defensive line for the Los Angeles Raiders, Cleveland Browns, and Denver Broncos during the 1970s and early 1980s. He was noted as a colorful and popular figure with each team.

He was a star with the Broncos for several seasons, leading the team in sacks five times and making the Pro Bowl in 1977 and 1978. In 1979 he had a contract dispute, and the Broncos traded him to the Cleveland Browns.

He played well with the Browns, leading the team in sacks in 1980 and 1981, but the Browns traded him to the Los Angeles Raiders in 1982 to reduce their salary burden.

He continued to perform well for the Raiders in the 1983 season, helping lead them to a Super Bowl that year. He also had an outstanding 1984 season, but was injured part way through 1985 and retired at the end of the year. He attempted a comeback in 1990, but injured a knee during training camp and was released. After this he retired for good.

He is probably most remembered today for being one of the first major U.S. sports figures to admit to abuse of steroids. In the last years of his life, as he battled against the brain cancer that eventually caused his death at the age of 42, Alzado asserted that his steroid abuse directly led to his final illness. This assertion has been disputed by many medical experts as there is no medical evidence steroids had anything to do with his condition and his own doctors denied the claim that they did.

Alzado pursued an acting career in both movies and television, appearing mostly in youth-oriented comedy and adventure roles. His most notable film roles include the bully construction worker in Ernest Goes to Camp and the unstoppable killer in Destroyer.

He appeared in Stop the Madness, a 1985 anti-drug music video sponsored by the Reagan administration.

He made a guest appearance on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show in 1989.

He was an amateur boxer, and once fought an exhibition match against Muhammad Ali.

Alzado starred in the sitcom Learning the Ropes where he played a high school principal moonlighting as a professional wrestler known as "The Masked Maniac." The show's premise was that Alzado's wrestler lifestyle was a secret alter ego. NWA Wrestling stars such as Ric Flair, Ronnie Garvin and The Road Warriors made guest appearances on the show.

• List of notable brain tumor patients

• ESPN Classic bio
• Article about Alzado's exhibition boxing match against Muhammad Ali
• Article about Alzado's strong man performance and steroid use
• Lyle Alzado at the Internet Movie Database

• Lyle Alzado's Gravesite

Preceded by Ken Anderson

NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award 1982

Succeeded by Billy Johnson