Стив Курсон: Американ футболшысының өмірі мен трагедиясы

American football player (1955–2005)

Stephen Paul "Steve" Courson (October 1, 1955November 10, 2005) was an American football guard for the National Football League (NFL)'s Pittsburgh Steelers.

Steve Courson grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts and went to Longmeadow High School He played on the offense and defense lines and graduated in 1973 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His #71 was retired, and he is the only football player in Gettysburg High School history to receive such an honor. After graduating from Gettysburg, Courson went on to play on the offensive line at the University of South Carolina.

Courson lived near Pittsburgh for the rest of his life. In November 2005, he died in an accident at his home in Farmington, Pennsylvania. Courson had been cutting down a 44 feet (13 m) tree on his property, but a gust of wind changed the direction of its fall, and he moved into its path while attempting to prevent his dog from being struck. The dog, a black Labrador retriever, was found alive guarding Courson's body when the tree was removed. In the months before his death in 2005, Courson wrote a 5,000 word letter expressing disappointment that more players weren't open about their steroid use and saying the league's enormous popularity relies on a "myth" of its players as drug free heroes. "I believe the NFL is a prisoner to their own public relations myth," Courson said in the letter, which was found on the computer of his western Pennsylvania home after his death. "The level of deception and exploitation that the NFL requires to do business still amazes me." Courson, who became one of professional sports' first steroids whistleblowers by detailing his use in a 1985 Sports Illustrated interview, wrote the letter to a former Pittsburgh Steelers teammate he played with on Super Bowl winning teams in 1978 and 1979. Courson is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.