Ex-Steelers safety Mike Logan claims he wasn't informed of long-term risk of pain killers

Asked if he would do it all again, ex-Steelers safety Mike Logan says he would not.

That answer is a bit different than most, considering two things: 1.) the "it" in question is a pro football career including the use of narcotic-level pain medication just to be able to get back on the field, and 2.) most former players say they would do it again if they had the chance.

Over 500 of them recently filed a complaint in San Francisco District Court claiming the NFL did nothing to stop the mentality of "doing whatever it takes to get back on the field." The complaint states the NFL, "intentionally, recklessly and negligently created and maintained a culture of drug misuse, substituting players' health for profit," wrote Tribune Review reporter Mark Kaboly, who spoke with Logan as well as Ralph Cindrich, a Pittsburgh-based former player and current agent.

Logan feels he was over-prescribed pain medication during his tenure with the Steelers, from 2001-06. He began his career with the Jacksonville Jaguars, from 1997-2000. Pain medication for Steelers' players is prescribed by team doctor James Bradley, and has been for two decades.

"I took a lot of pain medications," Logan told Kaboly, who said he had eight football-related knee and ankle surgeries during his career. "My belief was that whatever was prescribed by the team doctors was in my best interest. I never thought about being over-prescribed. I believed in the medical staff."

Cindrich disagrees with the idea of Bradley over-prescribing medication, based on the interview he did with Kaboly for the same story.

"You go to a guy like James Farrior and ask him what he thinks of (Bradley), and it's ‘I love the man. He's a great guy and he watches out for you,' " Cindrich told Kaboly. Cindrich represented Farrior, as well as former Steelers Dermontti Dawson and Will Wolford. "His job is to get you out on the field, but he is not going to let you do things where you are going to do severe damage to yourself, and that's the difference."