Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images file

Guard Matt Lehr, who played for Tampa Bay in 2007, was suspended for four games during 2006 while with Atlanta for using banned substances.

updated 5:03 p.m. ET April 27, 2008

DALLAS - A convicted steroids dealer claims he sold steroids and human growth hormone to NFL offensive lineman Matt Lehr, according to a published report.

David Jacobs also told The Dallas Morning News that Lehr, who played four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys before moving on to Atlanta, Tampa Bay and now the New Orleans Saints, used a hair loss prevention drug that can mask steroid use.

Lehr’s attorney told The Associated Press on Sunday that the player hasn’t used banned substances since he was suspended for four games during the 2006 season while playing for Atlanta, and has passed NFL drug tests.

“Mr. Jacobs has peddled these tales to the government unsuccessfully,” said Lehr’s lawyer, Paul Coggins. “He is a confessed felon awaiting sentencing, and is desperate to implicate others to shorten his sentence.”

Coggins said Jacobs has threatened to end Lehr’s career because Lehr, who recently signed with the Saints, wouldn’t pay Jacobs’ legal fees.

Authorities are investigating allegations that Lehr distributed steroids, possibly to other players, but he has not been charged with a crime.

Jacobs pleaded guilty last year in federal court to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute anabolic steroids. He agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for probation, and has given investigators the names of several current and former Cowboys whom he claims to have supplied with steroids.

Coggins said last week he had been told by prosecutors that Lehr would not be indicted in the case, but the U.S. attorney’s office wouldn’t comment.

Jacobs told the Morning News that federal investigators confiscated a bottle he got from Lehr that contained a hair loss prevention drug that can hide steroid use. He said the bottle had an NFL team logo and Lehr’s name.

An NFL spokesman said the league has reviewed the drug, finasteride, but hasn’t banned its use. It is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees the Olympics and other international competitions.

Jacobs said he sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of performance-enhancing drugs to Lehr in 2006 and 2007 — more than needed for personal use. He said Lehr agreed to have boxes of raw steroid powder from China shipped to his house because U.S. Customs officials were seizing packages addressed to Jacobs’ home.

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