Chicago Bears Hall of Famer Dick Butkus and Old Spice are teaming up Friday to host the "I Play Clean" rally. A nonprofit organization that Butkus and his son Matthew founded last year, "I Play Clean" seeks to educate students, parents and school administrators about the dangers of teen steroid use. And, they want to provide a solution for the growing problem.

According to a 2007 Mayo Clinic study, about 3 million people use anabolic steroids in the United States; one in four of these people started using steroids as a teenager, and one out of every ten users is a teenager.

The main event at the rally involves high school student athletes from the Chicago area and Indiana signing a giant pledge, promising their commitment to say no to steroids.

Q: How did you get involved with the nonprofit organization “I Play Clean”?

A: Well I met a fella [Don Hooton] from Texas whose son committed suicide coming off of steroids. And then I was talking to my cardiologist who did a study on these body builders – one a former Mr. Universe – and she was just shocked at the results, how this guy’s heart was about 30 years older than it should be. And so we came to think, wait a minute, this is more than just peers and what have you. This is a health issue with these kids.

So we’re trying to educate parents, coaches and athletes because, like Don says, If I would have known the signs, maybe [my son] Taylor would still be alive today.

Q: How many students are expected to come and pledge to “play clean” tomorrow?

A: Tomorrow we’re going to have maybe around 300 kids but a recent survey found there were 500,000 kids who admitted to trying steroids. If there’s 500,000 who admitted it, who knows who didn’t admit it.

Q: Do Chicago schools in particular have a problem with teens using steroids or is it a national problem?

It’s across the board. I’m not going to become a police officer on this stuff, but one of the questions that come up is what kids can afford it, so you’re talking suburban schools maybe more than inner city schools.

Q: What’s been your experience with steroid use? Have you ever been pressured to use steroids as a student athlete or in your professional career?

A: No, I think they were just starting to come in a few years after I left [football]. I think it’s because coaches started believing that maybe strength training could help football players, because it used to be taboo for baseball and all other sports. So, let’s get a strength coach – so where do we go, who do we get? We got to look at former professional weight lifters –they know! And that could have been the worst choice because training for weight lifting is a little bit different than just getting yourself strong to play a particular sport. So I think that’s when East Germans and Russians were fooling around with steroids and stuff like that, I think that’s how it filtered down to football and everything else.

Q: What has been the overall progress made toward preventing student athletes from using steroids, both technologically and from organizations like "I Play Clean"?

A: It’s just like anything else, the more you talk about it, the more people start to look at it. And I think we’ve made some inroads. For instance, there was a female cheerleader at a high school who decided she needed to get her abs better, or improve her six pack or whatever the hell they call it, so she contacted her friend on a high school team, a football player. And 250 bucks and a day later, she had steroids. She was on them for about a couple weeks, she gained about 8 pounds, and all of a sudden she was getting suicidal. And fortunately for her, she was able to communicate it to her mother and put an end to it, and it probably saved her life. That’s why it’s important for parents to know the signs and to talk about it.

We’ve got a tough road to hoe. It’s going to be very difficult to tell a kid you don’t need that shit. We’re trying to, and there’s other ways with the advancement of nutrition and strength training now, you can get some pretty damn good results without jeopardizing your health.

Q: What is the goal of the rally tomorrow?

A: Tomorrow we’ll, hopefully, convince these kids that we’re on the right track, and that they’re going to buy into it and take the pledge. Then those couple hundred kids go back, and talk to their peer groups and get other guys into it. And pretty soon you’ve got 400, and then 800, and then it spreads. And some kids might be interested to go on our Web site and take the pledge right there if they don’t want to do it in front of anybody else.

Q: What’s next for you and the “I Play Clean” campaign?

A: We’re partnering with Old Spice, so they’re going to send out educational kits this summer to about 10,000 high schools which would cover about 71 percent of high schools across the country. So we’ll be on our way with that. And then of course we’ve got the IPlayClean.org Web site where we want players, coaches and parents to take the pledge, play clean and help strengthen sports. And you know, we got a tough road because of peer pressure, and I can understand all that, but I think once the kids get educated and find out what they can really do to their bodies, we can put a stop to it before something tragic happens

Q: On an unrelated topic, what do you think of the Bears team this year?

A: Well defensively I think they’ll be fine. Offensively, they could be a little shaky. But there must be a reason they keep [quarterback Rex] Grossman around, so hopefully he’ll reach the potential that they must think he has. I think they’ve got their work cut out for them.