'Romo' Comes Clean

Bill Romanowski Talks To Scott Pelley About Deliberate Violence And Steroid Use.

(CBS) 
Romanowski says his son heard about the drugs at school. “I gave him the best answer I knew how to give him at the time. And I said, ‘Dalton, Daddy did a lot of things to deal with the pain of the game.’”

“The pain of the game” finally caught up with him. He likens his hits to car crashes and Romanowski was suffering — and hiding — severe concussions throughout his entire career.

He recalled a collision with Curtis Martin that injured his brain so badly that he went to the sideline and sat on quarterback John Elway’s lap.

“The end was getting near. And it scared me,” says Romanowski, admitting that he told no one. “The concussions were racking up. Every time I would get a good hit on somebody I would be dazed, confused. My memory was starting to go.”

Romanowski estimates he suffered between eight and 20 concussion over the years.

The last concussion came during a game against Denver in 2003, the last game in the career he so violently defended.

Julie Romanowski, his wife of 12 years, was in the stadium. "Then when the team doctor came out and said 'We want to admit Bill immediately to the hospital,' and he came out and he said, 'Julie, please just take me home. I don't want to go.' And at that moment, I saw somebody who was normally larger than life turn to me in almost a boyish way asking for help."

Romanowski couldn't see straight or balance. He had headaches and nausea. Now, two years later, doctors say he shows profound slowing in cognitive function, which may get better with time.

"And you know, I think you have these illusions, dreams, nightmares, that maybe you can still do it," says Romanowski, admitting that he never cleaned out his locker in Oakland.

For the longest moment he seemed back in some stadium watching the clock run out on his 16 years.

Since he was 10 years old, Romanowski's universe has existed inside 100 yards. Now his Sundays are on the sideline at his son’s soccer games with his wife Julie and daughter Alexandra.

And the only thing he is hitting is the surf in northern California. In a few years, he will be eligible for the Hall of Fame but the sports writers who vote will have to balance Romanowski's winning record against the confessions in the book and interview of an NFL hit man.