Over the years several doctors told Garrick it was the worst knee injury they had ever seen. He underwent four operations that first year and four more would follow. He missed the following football season, then played a reserve role for a season at BYU — the only school that remained interested in him after the injury — before serving a two-year mission for the LDS Church. When he returned to Provo he switched positions to the offensive line, where his knees wouldn't be as exposed to blocks, and continued to play, but he was in constant pain and relied heavily on narcotics to get him from one practice to the next.

He started at guard for 2 1/2 seasons and served as a team captain during BYU's run to the national title in 1984. At 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, he was the fastest, strongest lineman on the team. But to continue to play was a journey through hell. After games, while his teammates celebrated, Garrick stayed at home to ice and elevate his knee. Before practice it was heat packs and extra stretching, and afterward more ice. In private, he was doing much more to treat the pain.

A few years after Garrick left BYU, the school's training room was put on probation for lax policies regarding the availability of narcotics to players. The nadir came in the mid-'80s when several players were arrested for narcotics prescription fraud and were sent to court and drug rehab, but undoubtedly there were others who went undetected.

One of them was Garrick. He began taking narcotics (Percodan), as well as anabolic steroids, during his sophomore year at BYU, the former for pain, the latter to add muscle.

"People suspected (steroids) — he was massive," says Whittingham, who graduated from BYU three years before his friend. "I'm not going to say I was completely unaware. But we never discussed it. When we were lifting together (before Garrick's mission), there was no steroid use, and we were about as close as two people can be."

Garrick's doctor-brother, David, was well aware of the drug use and confronted him about it.

"When Craig was in college I told him, 'Don't take these (steroids),' " says David. " 'The list of potential problems is many pages long. It will shorten your life, it will damage your organ systems and affect your psychology, and all for a short gain.' He said everybody's doing it, and I think everybody was. . . . I don't know if he was taking steroids (after he left BYU), but it wouldn't surprise me. His death was probably caused by the steroids more than anything. I told him when he was 30 that if he didn't stop he would never see 50.

"I think he started taking the narcotics because he wanted to play without the pain, but he didn't realize it develops into an addiction. After football was over, he continued to use narcotics and sedatives. He was very well connected. If I had a patient who was getting drugs, he could tell me where he was getting them."

Garrick thought he could quit the narcotics after he quit football, but he was wrong. When he stopped popping pills shortly after his playing days were finished, he had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.