European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 31, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday july 31, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 25commentarygame must shoulder some blame the game is basically about intimidation. Forget about the whippets catching passes out in the open. They re Only out there because some very Large men Are knocking Down some other very Large men at the line of scrimmage. A son wed like you to come in a Little heavier next  football players Start hearing this during Junior High school. That mythic figure known As coach would like them to have just a bit More bulk on their frames in order to win the Nasty Little wars that make up a football game. Football players will do almost anything to please coach. They will play with pain and injuries the Way Mark Bavaro did foolishly assuming the new York giants would keep him around or pay him for an extra year when his body broke Down. In Case you Hadnot heard the giants Cut Bavaro a few weeks ago. He seemed surprised. Many players will take chemicals to build up their Muscles to win a lace on the team. Terry Long of the Pittsburgh Steeles who raised his weight from 160 pounds in High school to 278 As a professional guard apparently flunked a league steroids test recently at a time when he was injured and being phased out by his team. His despair at possibly losing his starting Job and seeing his career jeopardized by a potential four game suspension was so great he apparently tried to kill himself last week first with Carbon monoxide from his car later with rat Poison from his closet. Thank goodness he failed. The National football league will surely claim that it is no More responsible for impulsive acts by its employees than any other Industry is. The league has recently gotten a around to testing for steroids a decade after evidence started to mount that football was leaving a human chernobyl ticking away in players bodies. We might As Well acknowledge that Only football of All the team sports asks its participants to seriously alter their shapes and their dispositions. Basketball has not found a Way to stretch its players hockey players have to skate and handle a stick baseball players who mess with steroids can usually be spotted in Spring training clumsily trying to flick their wrists at an inside Slider. But a lot of football players need to overpower Pittsburgh st Clur guard Terry Long shown in 1984 photo faithfully a got  somebody else for a few spasmodic seconds a very specific act requiring bulk and aggression. Hence the stretch Marks the an the snood swings the telltale signs of steroids. A a size is a very big word in the masculine dictionary. Check Freud. Some things men can do nothing about but Muscles can be enlarged with chemicals and weight lifting. A Star quarterback in the modest football program at Hofstra University said he took steroids to look Good at the Beach during Spring break More than a year ago. Maybe that was the truth maybe it Wasny to. Either Way he wound up missing the biggest playoff game of his career because of the no aah a testing for championship events. But maybe the testing saved his health or even his life. Lyle Alzado is now blaming last years new and improved round of steroids for the brain tumor that is threatening his life although some doctors insist there is no connection Between steroids and brain cancer. Perhaps Alzadon a reasoning is the Only Way to make sense of the unfathomable. The dreadful diagnosis has been like a truth serum. He took steroids he is saying and so did Many of his teammates. Everybody knew. Nobody Ever made a morality Case out of Terry Long until the ambulance rolled up to his Home. At s feet 11 inches Long is the shortest Ard in the league. He made up for is Lack of height by nearly doubling his weight from the time he was 16 to the time he was 32. Young men done to think about getting caught or getting old when they Are 16. All they know is that coach wants them to come in a Little bit big her next season. Given the snooping y some doctors and journalists Ana sports officials the players also learn very quickly that coach does not want to know How they get bulkier. Somebody will know. There is a cottage Industry out there with unofficial medical literature second opinions steroid gurus masking experts chemical wizards. Occasionally a Star player with a mind of his own a Fred dryer or an Alan Page will insist he can play defensive line with the Large agile Frame nature handed out. Those two had the intelligence and the Independence that would make them a successful actor and a successful lawyer respectively but theirs arc old stories now. Most players do not have that sense of self. Coach wants them bigger. That Sall they know. And somebody out there is a steroid Pusher. Ask Lyle Alzado. Or Terry Long when he recovers. Tha new Ywuc Slmaa suns Johnson dishes Sacramento Calif. A professional basketball player Kevin Johnson is building an Academy for underprivileged youngsters in the Oak Park Community where he grew up. Johnson a st. Hope Academy is taking shape at what was once a litter strewn lot across from Christian Brothers High school. A foundation has been Laid and Walls Are standing. In september 1989, the Sacramento High school graduate who is now a Star Point guard for the Phoenix suns bought the plot at 16th Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard for $40,000. Johnson says the $1 million 7,000-Square-foot project  have taken form without the interest of individuals businesses and corporations in the Community. Work May be completed by november and a grand opening is scheduled for january he said. Johnson 25, has received National attention including designation by president Bush As one of the country so thousand Points of Light a for his Volunteer work in the program. St. Hope Academy stresses structured tutoring and mentoring a not sports. A we want to take some youngsters who Are disadvantaged and put them in an environment where they have a fair shot where they have the nurturing that Many of us had a Johnson said. A kids have enough Access to sports and recreation programs. I think sports is great and if you want to use it As a tool Fine a said Johnlson a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. A but if you want to be a student athlete the a students comes  during the last two years the 20 students ranging from elementary to High school selected first for the program have been meeting at Sacramento High. When the new building opens As Many As 54 youngsters will be involved. Johnson serves As a role Model and Mentor and he gets involved in discussions with the kids. A we Are going to create a situation now. To make them Good contributing citizens a said Johnson. Johnson said his commitment to Community was instilled by his parents and grandparents. I a if you want to define Kevin Johnson out Hope you have to go Back to his parents and grandparents a Johnson said. A what they taught me is that you want to be Happy and to help others out a you Are obligated to do that. A a it a exciting to help people you get real Joy in that. Always try you done to have to win but always try. Its a Way of  Patricia Burks st. Hope Academy administrator said the program stresses the importance of family. A we Are trying to show them How a functional family operates so when they Start their own families they will be Able to teach their kids a she said. Thea Stidum former principal of Sacramento High and a member of the st. Hope Academy advisory committee has seen changes in some of the students in the program. A a in be noticed in those youngsters a kind of a poise an ease with people Quot Stidum said. A a in a not sure that Sall from st. Hope but in a sure a part of it is. They have been introduced to a lot of people organizations and businesses in the Community so they Are gathering a sense of Community too. That a also  Kevin Johnson. A a obligated to help