Ex-Steelers Doc To Serve 10 Years For Dealing Opioids, Steroids

PITTSBURGH, PA - Former Pittsburgh Steelers physician Richard Rydze has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally distributing anabolic steroids, human growth hormones and opioid painkillers.

U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti also sentenced Rydze to pay $32,390 in restitution and $18,300 in special assessments.

Rydze, 68, a Downtown Pittsburgh resident, was convicted of all 180 criminal counts against him. The sentencing announcement was made by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland, which prosecuted Rydze because he also had been the doctor for the FBI in Pittsburgh.

“Rydze violated his legal, professional and ethical obligations,“ Cleveland U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herman said in a statement. “He flooded Pennsylvania with dangerous painkillers and prescribed steroids to enrich himself.”

Rydze, a former diver who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal while obtaining his medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh, was one of the Steelers team doctors from 1985 until 2007.

Rydze, who owned Optimal Health Center in Downtown Pittsburgh, was convicted of conspiring with two other men to distribute drugs. One of the men also was convicted of facilitating a kickback scheme in which Rydze benefitted.

Rydze conspired to distribute Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Oxycontin and Opana, according to court documents.

From 2005 to 2011, Rydze called in more than 200 prescriptions for more than 21,000 Vicodin pills to Pittsburgh-area pharmacies, using another physician’s DEA registration number, court documents and
testimony indicated.

Rydze and the others also distributed anabolic steroids, including Stanozolol, Nandrolone Decanoate, Testosterone Enanthate, Testosterone Cypionate, Oxandrolone and testosterone. According to trial testimony and court documents, Rydze prescribed the drugs for unauthorized uses that included bodybuilding and athletic performance enhancement.

The steroid-related charges Rydze was convicted of included multiple counts of distribution of anabolic steroids, conspiracy to distribute human growth hormone, distribution of human growth hormone, distribution of controlled substances and obstruction of justice.

Rydze also was convicted of obstruction of justice for asking his brother to lie to federal law enforcement agents and say that some of the opioid prescriptions were written for the sibling. The brother refused to lie, and testified against Rydze at the trial.

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