Tony Mandarich
Encyclopedia
Ante Josip "Tony" Mandarich (born September 23, 1966) is a former football offensive lineman of the NFL. He was the first round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers
in 1989
, second overall behind quarterback
Troy Aikman
, and ahead of the third selection, running back
Barry Sanders
, the fourth selection, linebacker
Derrick Thomas
, and the fifth selection, cornerback
Deion Sanders
. Mandarich is the only player of those five not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
. He is tied with Charles Rogers as the second highest drafted Michigan State
player ever (behind Bubba Smith
). He is also the highest-drafted Canadian-born player in NFL history. In 1989, Sports Illustrated
called him "the best offensive line prospect ever", but he is now considered one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
, Mandarich played in the 1988 Rose Bowl
, was named as a First-team All-American, an Outland Award finalist and a two-time Big Ten Lineman of the Year. Upon his entry into the 1989 NFL Draft
, both scouts and media (most notably Sports Illustrated, which did a cover story on him, nicknaming him "The Incredible Bulk") began trumpeting Mandarich as the best offensive line prospect ever, touting his "measurables", "He weighed 304, ran the 40 in 4.65 seconds, did a standing long jump of 10' 3", leaped vertically 30" and bench-pressed 225 pounds an unheard-of 39 times". He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice and was also a colorful character, illustrated by such instances as challenging then–Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson
to a fight, missing scheduled public appearances due to being drunk or hungover, his well-documented love of the band Guns N' Roses
(he had a dog named Axl
and also a tattoo of the cross-design from the cover of Appetite for Destruction
on his arm), and referring to Green Bay
as "a village".
Drafted as an offensive lineman, Mandarich never lived up to the very high expectations set for him, and spent most of his first year on the Packers on special teams after a lengthy holdout that only got settled the last week before the regular season. He was also known for having attitude issues. He was quoted "I am not like other players, I am Tony Mandarich, and they have to understand that. If they don't like it, that is just the way I am and they are going to learn to like it." After three seasons of lackluster performance on a four-year contract, Mandarich was cut in 1992 by the Packers citing a non-football injury. Mandarich is often referred to as one of the top 5 bust NFL draft picks of all time, having been drafted second overall and ahead of such to-be NFL stars as Barry Sanders
, Derrick Thomas
, Deion Sanders
, Steve Atwater
, Eric Metcalf
, and Andre Rison
. The September 28, 1992, cover of Sports Illustrated featuring Mandarich labelled him "The NFL's Incredible Bust."
The question of steroid
use has been discussed as a possible factor in Mandarich's spectacular failure. This accusation is one that Mandarich only admitted in 2008. Until then, he publicly blamed his work ethic—in a 2003 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article: "I wanted to create as much hype as I could for many different reasons—exposure, negotiation leverage, you name it. And it all worked, except the performance wasn't there when it was time to play football."
After getting cut by the packers, he went to Traverse City, Michigan
for two years addicted to drugs and alcohol. His family checked him into a rehabilitation clinic on March 23, 1995 and he became sober. Mandarich returned to football for three years between 1996 and 1998 with the Indianapolis Colts
. He had a more successful, if not particularly noteworthy, career with the Colts before retiring from football in 1998 due to a shoulder injury. He claims that in his tenure with the Colts he was "clean", stating he did not take steroids during this time.
.
He now runs a photography studio; he began doing nature photography as a hobby in 1990. Mandarich has expanded his business, named Mandarich Media Group, to include photography, video production, web design, search engine optimization
, and Internet marketing.
In September 2008, Mandarich admitted to using steroids at Michigan State and faking a drug test before the 1988 Rose Bowl. Mandarich denied using steroids in the NFL but was addicted to alcohol and painkillers.
Tony had an older brother, John, who was instrumental in his development as an athlete, including sponsoring his younger brother's transfer to a stateside high school before Tony's senior year. John made his own reputation in professional football in the Canadian Football League
. John Mandarich's early death from skin cancer is documented in Tony's memoir.
In the March 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated he tells about his use and addiction and about his new book called My Dirty Little Secrets—Steroids, Alcohol & God. In that book, Mandarich ascribes his underwhelming performance with the Green Bay Packers to his painkiller addiction, which buffeted his drive and work ethic. His addiction was so powerful he kept syringes in his athletic supporter to have his narcotics supply close at hand. He also said that steroid use was rampant among his teammates at Michigan State, substantiating allegations made against the 1988 Rose Bowl team two decades earlier. Mandarich goes on to describe his traumatic and triumphant stint in rehab, and his subsequent return to the NFL. "I didn't write the book for forgiveness," Mandarich said. "I wrote the book for explanation and for, hopefully, helping somebody see the light that there is hope for addiction or alcoholism and that you can change and save your life."
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
in 1989
1989 NFL Draft
The 1989 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 23–24 , 1989...
, second overall behind quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
Troy Aikman
Troy Aikman
Troy Kenneth Aikman is a former American football quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League. The number one overall draft pick in 1989, Aikman played twelve consecutive seasons as quarterback with the Cowboys...
, and ahead of the third selection, running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...
Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders is a former American football running back who spent all of his professional career with the Detroit Lions in the NFL. Sanders left the game just short of the all-time rushing record...
, the fourth selection, linebacker
Linebacker
A linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen...
Derrick Thomas
Derrick Thomas
Derrick Vincent Thomas , nicknamed D.T., was an American football linebacker and defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League . He played his entire 11-year career for the Chiefs after being drafted fourth overall in the 1989 NFL Draft...
, and the fifth selection, cornerback
Cornerback
A cornerback is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in American and Canadian football. Cornerbacks cover receivers, to defend against pass offenses and make tackles. Other members of the defensive backfield include the safeties and occasionally linebackers. The cornerback position...
Deion Sanders
Deion Sanders
Deion Luwynn Sanders , nicknamed "Prime Time" and "Neon Deion", is a former National Football League cornerback and Major League Baseball outfielder who currently works as an NFL Network analyst...
. Mandarich is the only player of those five not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
. He is tied with Charles Rogers as the second highest drafted Michigan State
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
player ever (behind Bubba Smith
Bubba Smith
Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith was an American professional football player who became an actor after his retirement from the sport. He first came into prominence at Michigan State University, where he twice earned All-American honors as a defensive end on the Spartans football team...
). He is also the highest-drafted Canadian-born player in NFL history. In 1989, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
called him "the best offensive line prospect ever", but he is now considered one of the biggest busts in NFL history.
Football career
Playing at Michigan State UniversityMichigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
, Mandarich played in the 1988 Rose Bowl
1988 Rose Bowl
The 1988 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 1988. It was the 74th Rose Bowl Game. The Michigan State Spartans defeated the USC Trojans 20-17. Michigan State Linebacker Percy Snow was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game. This was the last Rose Bowl game to air on NBC...
, was named as a First-team All-American, an Outland Award finalist and a two-time Big Ten Lineman of the Year. Upon his entry into the 1989 NFL Draft
1989 NFL Draft
The 1989 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 23–24 , 1989...
, both scouts and media (most notably Sports Illustrated, which did a cover story on him, nicknaming him "The Incredible Bulk") began trumpeting Mandarich as the best offensive line prospect ever, touting his "measurables", "He weighed 304, ran the 40 in 4.65 seconds, did a standing long jump of 10' 3", leaped vertically 30" and bench-pressed 225 pounds an unheard-of 39 times". He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice and was also a colorful character, illustrated by such instances as challenging then–Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
to a fight, missing scheduled public appearances due to being drunk or hungover, his well-documented love of the band Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
(he had a dog named Axl
Axl Rose
W. Axl Rose is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist and only remaining original member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he enjoyed great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before disappearing from the public eye for several years...
and also a tattoo of the cross-design from the cover of Appetite for Destruction
Appetite for Destruction
Appetite for Destruction is the debut studio album by American rock band Guns N' Roses, released in July 1987 on Geffen Records. It was well-received by critics and topped the American Billboard 200 chart...
on his arm), and referring to Green Bay
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
as "a village".
Drafted as an offensive lineman, Mandarich never lived up to the very high expectations set for him, and spent most of his first year on the Packers on special teams after a lengthy holdout that only got settled the last week before the regular season. He was also known for having attitude issues. He was quoted "I am not like other players, I am Tony Mandarich, and they have to understand that. If they don't like it, that is just the way I am and they are going to learn to like it." After three seasons of lackluster performance on a four-year contract, Mandarich was cut in 1992 by the Packers citing a non-football injury. Mandarich is often referred to as one of the top 5 bust NFL draft picks of all time, having been drafted second overall and ahead of such to-be NFL stars as Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders is a former American football running back who spent all of his professional career with the Detroit Lions in the NFL. Sanders left the game just short of the all-time rushing record...
, Derrick Thomas
Derrick Thomas
Derrick Vincent Thomas , nicknamed D.T., was an American football linebacker and defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League . He played his entire 11-year career for the Chiefs after being drafted fourth overall in the 1989 NFL Draft...
, Deion Sanders
Deion Sanders
Deion Luwynn Sanders , nicknamed "Prime Time" and "Neon Deion", is a former National Football League cornerback and Major League Baseball outfielder who currently works as an NFL Network analyst...
, Steve Atwater
Steve Atwater
Stephen Dennis "Smiling Assassin" Atwater is a former American football player who spent most of his career playing free safety for the Denver Broncos of the NFL. Atwater and Dennis Smith made up a Broncos secondary that was known for their ferocious hits on opposing players...
, Eric Metcalf
Eric Metcalf
Eric Quinn Metcalf is a former American football running back and wide receiver in the National Football League who played for the Browns, Falcons, Chargers, Cardinals, Panthers, Redskins and Packers...
, and Andre Rison
Andre Rison
Andre Previn Rison is a retired American football wide receiver who played professionally for the National Football League's Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, and the Canadian Football League's...
. The September 28, 1992, cover of Sports Illustrated featuring Mandarich labelled him "The NFL's Incredible Bust."
The question of steroid
Anabolic steroid
Anabolic steroids, technically known as anabolic-androgen steroids or colloquially simply as "steroids", are drugs that mimic the effects of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone in the body. They increase protein synthesis within cells, which results in the buildup of cellular tissue ,...
use has been discussed as a possible factor in Mandarich's spectacular failure. This accusation is one that Mandarich only admitted in 2008. Until then, he publicly blamed his work ethic—in a 2003 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article: "I wanted to create as much hype as I could for many different reasons—exposure, negotiation leverage, you name it. And it all worked, except the performance wasn't there when it was time to play football."
After getting cut by the packers, he went to Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was 14,674 at the 2010 census, with 143,372 in the Traverse...
for two years addicted to drugs and alcohol. His family checked him into a rehabilitation clinic on March 23, 1995 and he became sober. Mandarich returned to football for three years between 1996 and 1998 with the Indianapolis Colts
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
. He had a more successful, if not particularly noteworthy, career with the Colts before retiring from football in 1998 due to a shoulder injury. He claims that in his tenure with the Colts he was "clean", stating he did not take steroids during this time.
Post-football career
After his career was over, he moved back to Canada; he owned a golf course and remarried his wife Char in 2004. From September 2004 until September 2005, Mandarich served as an NFL analyst for The Score TV sports network in Canada. He quit in October 2005 and moved to ArizonaArizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
.
He now runs a photography studio; he began doing nature photography as a hobby in 1990. Mandarich has expanded his business, named Mandarich Media Group, to include photography, video production, web design, search engine optimization
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid search results...
, and Internet marketing.
In September 2008, Mandarich admitted to using steroids at Michigan State and faking a drug test before the 1988 Rose Bowl. Mandarich denied using steroids in the NFL but was addicted to alcohol and painkillers.
Tony had an older brother, John, who was instrumental in his development as an athlete, including sponsoring his younger brother's transfer to a stateside high school before Tony's senior year. John made his own reputation in professional football in the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
. John Mandarich's early death from skin cancer is documented in Tony's memoir.
In the March 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated he tells about his use and addiction and about his new book called My Dirty Little Secrets—Steroids, Alcohol & God. In that book, Mandarich ascribes his underwhelming performance with the Green Bay Packers to his painkiller addiction, which buffeted his drive and work ethic. His addiction was so powerful he kept syringes in his athletic supporter to have his narcotics supply close at hand. He also said that steroid use was rampant among his teammates at Michigan State, substantiating allegations made against the 1988 Rose Bowl team two decades earlier. Mandarich goes on to describe his traumatic and triumphant stint in rehab, and his subsequent return to the NFL. "I didn't write the book for forgiveness," Mandarich said. "I wrote the book for explanation and for, hopefully, helping somebody see the light that there is hope for addiction or alcoholism and that you can change and save your life."
External links
- Tony Mandarich Website
- Commercial Photography
- Boudoir Photography
- SEO Management
- 1989 SI Article
- 20 Years Later: Tony Mandarich (SI Updates its 1989 Article)
- Interview with Dan Patrick: Tony Mandarich explains why he stopped taking steroids in NFL
- Steroids fueled spectacular rise and fall (Mandarich interviewed by Kory Kozak, published April 17, 2009)
- MuscleSport Radio interview with Joe Pietaro, 5/5/09
- "Quarterbacks & Weightlifting" article written by Tony Mandarich in MuscleSport Magazine, Volume 1, Number 1 - Fall 2009