According to Vice Sports, back in 1986 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used truth serum on..."/> According to Vice Sports, back in 1986 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used truth serum on..."/>

Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Doctors Once Used Truth Serum On Injured Player

By Vinnie Criscenzo | Dec 3, 2014

Nov 9, 2014; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers helmet lays on the field prior to the game against the Atlanta Falcons at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

**According to Vice Sports*, back in 1986 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used truth serum on an injured player to find out the truth about his injury.***

Joe McCall was drafted in the third round of the 1984 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Raiders. However, a lingering knee injury would keep him mostly on the sidelines, and with the Raiders already stocked up at running back, they saw no point in keeping McCall on the roster and released him the following season. He was then claimed off waivers by the Indianapolis Colts, but the injury still kept him off the field and he was once again released.

McCall took an entire year off to rehabilitate his knee before giving it one last try with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa knew what they were getting with McCall’s injury issues, but they hoped that he could stay healthy enough to contribute at least a little bit.

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After grueling two-a-days and preseason, McCall’s knee wore down again and he was unable to play. The Buccaneers were now stuck with McCall on the roster. The NFL labor laws restricted a team from releasing an injured player. Tampa didn’t want to pay out his contract (which was only for about league minimum) or spend the money for his treatments.

So, the Buccaneers tried to find a loophole out of paying him. This loophole involved truth serum.

Their idea was to get McCall talking enough to say something that would help prove the fact that he was faking his injury. If they could prove that, they could release McCall and his contract with no penalty.

McCall was brought into the examination room thinking he was just going to be examined by team doctors, instead they gave him sodium pentothol, better known as truth serum. Sodium pentothal is good for getting people talking, but it is not necessarily truthful all the time. The doctors started asking McCall about his knee. ‘Where does it hurt? Does it hurt when I do this? What about that? When did you get hurt? How long have you been hurt?’

“Once you push the sodium pentothal, you don’t feel anything,” McCall says. “But [the knee pain] was still that bad, that I still felt a little bit.”

The Doctors tried to trip him up, but McCall wasn’t faking about the injury. “Once you push the sodium pentothal, you don’t feel anything,” McCall says. “But [the knee pain] was still that bad, that I still felt a little bit.”

After McCall told the Buccaneers everything they didn’t want to hear, they went and released him anyway. McCall’s feelings toward the situation are still a bit raw, saying “That is no way to treat a human being” and recalling the doctor who administered the treatment, Dr. Joseph Diaco.

McCall added that he had learned later that the Buccaneers had installed hidden cameras in his hotel room and hired people to follow him in an attempt to find out if he was faking his injury. That seems way too overboard, and way too expensive, to simply try to get a player who was making league minimum off the roster.

McCall added that if they had gone through all of that just for him, then he certainly was not the only player that was treated this way.

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