I played five years of college ball at two separate schools and have spent the past three years playing professionally at the arena level. I would say I might be pretty knowledgeable on the subject. Also this isn't really an attack on you I just here this shit all the time and I have to get it off my chest.
Im no NFL player I was never good enough to get any real nfl looks, hell I dropped down from a mediocre DI school just to get some scholarship money. However a lot of my teammates have played in the NFL and even more have played in DI powerhouse schools. I get frustrated when people make statements or act like PEDs are a requirement to play sports at even the college level. It is a flat out lie.
Honestly the biggest drug in college football and really at any level is weed not steroids, if you have the size, the skill and the attitude its not that difficult to play college ball. The DI school I was at had maybe 6-7 guys a season who might have been using something and about half of those guys were just undersized walk-ons trying to get a leg up. The D2 school I transferred too had 2 guys that used steroids both of them never even saw the field. Most of the guys I know who went to powerhouse schools say the numbers are about what I found like 10-12 players max. Its a good percentage of players but its nowhere near a majority. This is still a problematic number and it is gonna get worse because the drug tests while more serious than one you would take for a job are still kind of a joke. At the level I play at maybe 2-3 guys use PEDs out of a 20 man roster. That is crazy low considering its an untested League and every player on the roster is desperate to move up, however its not really that surprising when you understand that PED use in college sports are grossly overestimated by outsiders.
Now lets get to the NFL. One of my best friends, a guy who I train with and live with for six months out of the year, has spent 2 and a half seasons on different NFL practice squads. My first season playing professionally my roommate was a guy who had been through 2 different NFL camps. I am positive that neither one of them have used PEDs. We talk about this shit constantly and I based my response to you mostly on what they told me. There are a lot of dudes using PEDs maybe almost half and that percentage goes way up when you look at the starting lineup and it goes even higher when you look at players over 30. However it isn't like the guys who play clean are this extreme exception there are plenty of dudes in the league who have never touched the stuff. Now this is changing and honestly with the way HGH has been handled(ignored) by the NFL we have probably already hit a tipping point where that percentage is gonna skyrocket but saying that every NFL player is using is still for the moment an exaggeration.
Steroids are like the opposite of Santa. At first everyone is convinced that everyone in there favorite sport is clean its the hallmark of a naïve fan. Then as you learn more about the sport you find out that some guys do use PED's and the first thing people do is overreact and act like everyone is using something just because they don't want to look like the stereotypical "oh it couldn't possibly be in cycling they are all tiny" Naïve fan. This is an overreaction and its not good especially when it creates this attitude that you NEED to take drugs in order to accomplish even the most mediocre achievements in a sport.
Rant off I hope I don't seem like a crazy person and again this isint directed directly at you I just don't like the additude that reddit has with PED and athletics.