Lyle Alzado

Alzado was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York, to an Italian-Spanish father, Maurice, and a Jewish mother with a Russian family background, Martha Sokolow Alzado, and was himself Jewish.[3][4][5][6][7] When he was 10, the family moved to Cedarhurst, Long Island. His father, whom Alzado later described as "a drinker and street fighter," left the family during Alzado's sophomore year at Lawrence High School.[8] He played high school football for three years.[7]

Upon not receiving a college scholarship offer, Alzado played for Kilgore College, a community college in Kilgore, Texas. After two years he was asked to leave the team, he later contended for befriending a black teammate.[8] From Texas, Alzado moved on to Yankton College in South Dakota.[1][7][9] Though playing in relative obscurity in the NAIA, Alzado nonetheless gained notice by the NFL when Denver Broncos' coach and scout Stan Jones having been taken off the road by automobile trouble, decided to pass the time at nearby Montana Tech, one of Yankton's opponents.[7][10] Montana Tech's coaches were showing him films of their star running back Don Heater, but Jones was impressed with the unknown defensive lineman Alzado squaring off against Montana Tech's offense and passed back a favorable report to his team.[10][8] The Broncos ultimately drafted Alzado in the fourth round of the 1971 draft.[7][10] Alzado went back to Yankton after his rookie season to get his college degree. He received a B.A. in physical education with an emphasis in secondary education. During his college years, Alzado participated in amateur boxing, and made it to the semi-finals of the 1969 Midwest Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament, held in Omaha.

The man whom ESPN would later label a "...violent, combative player known for his short temper", inspired the league rule against throwing a helmet after having done so to an opponent's helmet.[8] Peter Alzado, Lyle's brother, later identified the years of their youth – marked by an absent, alcoholic father and an over-worked mother — as the crucible for Alzado's unremittingly fierce style of play. "That violence that you saw on the field was not real stuff," his brother held. "Lyle used football as a way of expressing his anger at the world and at the way he grew up."[8] Defensive end Greg Townsend, a teammate on the Raiders, contended that the savagery for which Alzado became noted represented part of a "split personality." "Off the field," remembered Townsend, "he was the gentle giant: so caring, so warm, so giving."[8]

Alzado was an amateur boxer and, in 1979, fought an exhibition match against Muhammad Ali.[14]

Alzado was involved in "countless youth organizations", receiving the Byron "Whizzer" White award for community service in 1977.[15] He appeared in Stop the Madness, a 1985 anti-drug music video sponsored by the Reagan administration.

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 also appeared in Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All as a notorious bodyguard and rifleman. He played prison staff member Brawn in the 1990 film Club Fed, and co-starred in the film Neon City.

On television, Alzado appeared in a number of mid-1980s commercials for Sports Illustrated with "Jack", who tries to help him perform the commercial correctly. He played himself, wearing his Raiders uniform, in the Amazing Stories episode "Remote Control Man"[16] He also played himself in a 1988 episode of Small Wonder, and made a guest appearance on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show in 1989. Alzado starred in the sitcom Learning the Ropes as a high school teacher whose secret alter ego is a professional wrestler known as "The Masked Maniac," alongside numerous NWA Wrestling stars. Alzado appeared in the series premiere of the short-lived 1991 sitcom Good Sports with Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett, and in episodes of It's Garry Shandling's Show and MacGyver.

Alzado was one of the first major US sports figures to admit to using anabolic steroids. In the last year of his life, as he battled against the brain tumor that eventually caused his death, Alzado asserted that his steroid abuse directly led to his fatal illness.[17] Alzado recounted his steroid abuse in an article in Sports Illustrated,

I started taking anabolic steroids in 1969 and never stopped.... Now I'm sick, and I'm scared.... It was addicting, mentally addicting. Ninety percent of the athletes I know are on the stuff. We're not born to be...300 pounds [140 kg] or jump 30 feet [9.1 m].... I became very violent on the field. Off it, too. I did things only crazy people do. Once in 1979 in Denver a guy side-swiped my car, and I chased him up and down hills through the neighborhoods. I did that a lot. I'd chase a guy, pull him out of his car, beat the hell out of him.... But look at me now. I wobble when I walk and sometimes have to hold on to somebody. You have to give me time to answer questions, because I have trouble remembering things.[18]

The role that anabolic steroids may have played in Alzado's death has been the subject of controversy. The lymphoma of the brain that took his life has not been associated clinically with steroid use. The claim was denounced as a myth in the 2008 documentary about steroid use, Bigger, Stronger, Faster.

Lyle Alzado died on May 14, 1992, at age 43 after a battle with brain cancer. He was buried at River View Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.[19]

Alzado was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.[20]

• List of notable brain tumor patients
• List of doping cases in sport
• List of select Jewish football players

• ESPN Classic bio
• Lyle Alzado at Raiders Online.Com
• Lyle Alzado at IMDb
• Lyle Alzado at AllMovie
• Lyle Alzado at Find a Grave