HERKIMER, N.Y. (AP) – Toxicology results revealed former NFL player Justin Strzelczyk didn’t have alcohol or drugs in his system when he died after leading police on a chase on the New York State Thruway, authorities said.

State police confirmed the test results Thursday.

Strzelczyk, a 36-year-old former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman, died on the morning of Sept. 30 after his pickup truck slammed into a tanker truck and exploded after a 90-mph chase along a 40-mile stretch of the Thruway in central New York.

State police initially believed Strzelczyk was intoxicated, saying he threw a beer bottle out the window during the pursuit. State police investigator James Hunt said Thursday troopers have since confirmed it was a plastic soda bottle.

State police are testing the liquid found inside but it appears that Strzelczyk had been chewing tobacco and was using the bottle as a spittoon.

“That would explain why the trooper kept seeing him raise the bottle to his mouth,” Hunt said. “All the trooper could see was a clear container filled with an amber liquid. With the way the suspect was driving, the trooper made an assumption.”

Friends and relatives of the West Seneca native have said they believe Strzelczyk was having a mental breakdown in the months before the crash.

Dan Horan, a Buffalo police officer who was Strzelczyk’s best friend, told The Buffalo News that Strzelczyk told him months earlier that he had quit drinking and smoking marijuana. “Right to the end, he was truthful,” Horan said. “You have to love him even more. He was positive he cleared his body of marijuana and alcohol.”

Authorities said Strzelczyk’s pickup had been involved in a minor hit-and-run accident near Syracuse less than an hour before the crash.

Troopers said he drove some 15 miles on three tires after one of his tires was punctured by steel spikes police placed in the road. The chase ended in a fiery crash when his vehicle collided with a tanker near the Herkimer exit.

AP-ES-10-28-04 0903EDT