Scorecard

Saban is best known for his nearly 15 seasons in the NFL, during which he coached three teams. But since 1950 he also has coached eight college and two high school teams, to say nothing of a 19-day stint as athletic director at the University of Cincinnati and one year as president of the New York Yankees.

Will Saban cut and run after one or two seasons, as he has from his last three jobs? The Nomadic One says no: "I don't think there are any moves left for me to make. It's time I put down some roots."

WAS THE X FACTOR A FACTOR?

Right now, there's an X factor. You don't know what the X factor is, but you do know you re reaping the benefits.
—STEVE COURSON (SI, May 13, 1985)

With the story from which the above quotation was taken, Steve Courson became one of the first NFL players to acknowledge publicly that he used steroids. At the time, Courson had just stopped using anabolic steroids after a physical exam revealed that his standing heart rate was an alarming 150 beats per minute.

Then an offensive guard with the Tampa Bay Bucs, Courson was as unapologetic as he was frank in detailing how and why he had taken Dianabol, Anadrol-50, Anavar and Winstrol. "In order to compete in this business, you absolutely have to know the pluses and minuses that come along with using steroids," he said. "Maybe kidney and liver disease when you're older."

Maybe worse. Courson, who retired at the end of the 1985 season after nine years in the NFL, now has dilated cardiomyopathy, or, as his cardiologist, Richard Rosenbloom, says, "Steve's heart is stretched and dilated. It is flabby and baggy and doesn't pump as a normal heart should." This week, Courson was to undergo tests to determine whether he needs a heart transplant. "His long-term prognosis is better with a heart transplant than it is in his present condition," Rosenbloom told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week. Although Courson may take experimental drugs for his heart, Rosenbloom told SI that he thinks Courson will need a transplant.

Rosenbloom doesn't link Courson's heart disease to his use of anabolic steroids, but the cardiologist refuses to rule the drugs out as a contributing factor. "I'm more suspicious of a virus," says Rosenbloom, pointing out that steroid use usually results in "a thickening, hypertrophying of the heart"—the opposite of what has happened to Courson's heart. "But we don't know that Steve's condition is not the result of many years of heavy anabolic steroid use. We just don't know. There's not that much research."

A number of Courson's former teammates in Pittsburgh, where he played with the Steelers for the first seven years of his career, have set up a fund to help defray his medical expenses, which will be considerable if a heart transplant is necessary. "My support group—my folks, my friends, my girlfriend—has been unbelievable," says Courson. "I was pretty depressed for a while."

Before announcing his retirement at last week's NFL meetings, commissioner Pete Rozelle strengthened the league's antisteroid policy. Beginning at this summer's training camps, a player testing positive for steroids faces a suspension of 30 days for a first offense; for a second breach he will be out for the season. Heretofore, the NFL had no official policy for punishing steroid users.