Wednesday, December 20, 2017

"In a decade, Owen Hanson went from playing football and volleyball at USC to being the subject of a major FBI investigation into drug-trafficking, money-laundering, and illegal gambling"

Vice:
Here's how Owen Hanson's football career started: Toward the end of his sophomore year at USC, Hanson said he was in the weight room with some of his volleyball teammates when a football assistant walked by. That particular day, as the football assistant stood and watched, Hanson benched 25 reps of 225 pounds—three more reps than his future teammate Clay Matthews would put up at the 2009 NFL combine. Afterward, the assistant approached Hanson and asked if he would consider trying out for football.

At the time, USC football was on its meteoric rise under Pete Carroll.

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"Between tenth and eleventh grade, Owen Hanson went from a tall skinny kid to looking like a WWE wrestler," one classmate said.

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Hanson told me he began to use steroids early in college, and that he was juiced when the football coach saw him that day in the weight room. After he made the football team, he timed his steroid use for summers, when the NCAA wasn't testing.