Background and career
Ryan David Leaf (born May 15, 1976) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for four seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys between 1998 and 2001. Leaf played college football with the Washington State Cougars, finishing as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy after his junior year. He was selected as the second overall pick by the Chargers in the 1998 NFL draft after Peyton Manning, but his career was shortened due to poor play, bad behavior, injuries, and struggles with his work ethic. He was released by the Chargers after three seasons, compiling a 4–14 record as the team's starting quarterback and notably missing the entire 1999 season due to injury. After an offseason stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Leaf played in four regular season games with the Dallas Cowboys in 2001. He signed with the Seattle Seahawks during the 2002 offseason, but abruptly retired before the season began. After his NFL career ended, Leaf completed his degree at Washington State. He had legal troubles involving drugs beginning in 2010 when a Texas judge sentenced him to 10 years’ probation. From 2012 to 2014, Leaf served time in Montana state prison after pleading guilty to felony burglary and drug possession, a sentence that simultaneously counted towards time served for a probation violation in Texas. In 2020, he pled guilty to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in California and was sentenced to probation. Leaf has worked as a Program Ambassador for Transcend Recovery Community, a group of sober living houses in Los Angeles, Houston, and New York. He also hosts a radio show and works as a college football analyst on television.
Ryan David Leaf was born on May 15, 1976, in Great Falls, Montana. He grew up admiring Terry Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and played high school football at Charles M. Russell High School in Great Falls, where he led the team to a state championship as a junior.
After leading Charles M. Russell High School to the 1992 Montana state title, he was told that his build and athleticism was good for a tight end, or maybe a linebacker by the head coach of the time, Dennis Erickson, at the University of Miami. He chose to be a quarterback for the Washington State Cougars instead after head coach Mike Price, who had coached longtime New England Patriots starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe, called him on the phone while Leaf was watching the Rose Bowl, and told him "If you come here, we're going there". Leaf did not know that Washington State had not reached the Rose Bowl since 1931, but later told Sports Illustrated that he immediately knew he wanted to accept a scholarship and play for Price. Leaf played in 32 games for Washington State, starting 24 of them. In his junior year, he averaged 330.6 yards passing per game and threw for a then Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) record 33 touchdowns. He also led the Cougars to their first Pac-10 championship in school history. Despite his strong early showing in the 1998 Rose Bowl, Washington State was defeated 21–16 by the eventual Associated Press national champion Michigan Wolverines. Leaf was a finalist in balloting for the Heisman Trophy that year, which is given annually to the "most outstanding" player in American college football voted in by media figures and former players. He finished third behind the winner, defensive back Charles Woodson of Michigan, and fellow quarterback Peyton Manning of Tennessee. He was named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and was part of the All-Conference team. Leaf was also named first-team All-America by The Sporting News while finishing second in the nation in passer rating. The Rose Bowl helped make him a possible first overall selection in the NFL draft, and Leaf decided to forgo his senior year at Washington State and enter the 1998 draft.
Peyton Manning and Leaf were widely considered to be the two best players available in the 1998 NFL draft, and scouts and analysts debated who should be selected first. Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Tony Dungy recalled that although his team did not need a quarterback, "Manning-Leaf was really split when you talked to people". Many, including 14 of 20 NFL coaches and executives in a survey, favored Leaf's stronger arm and greater potential. Others preferred Manning as the more mature player and safer pick. Most observers believed that it would not greatly matter whether Manning or Leaf was drafted first because either would greatly benefit his team. The Indianapolis Colts owned the first draft pick that year. Team scouts favored Leaf, but Colts president Bill Polian and coaching staff preferred Manning, especially after discovering during individual workouts that he could throw harder than Leaf. Manning also impressed the team during his interview, while Leaf missed his with Colts head coach Jim E. Mora. Leaf had missed this meeting due to receiving an MRI, but his absence upset Mora, and as a result no members of the Colts organization came to Leaf's pro day he later held at Martin Stadium. Leaf's draft prospect profile described the player as "self-confident to the point where some people view him as being arrogant and almost obnoxious". Leaf gained about 20 pounds between the end of his junior season and the NFL Combine in February, which Jerry Angelo, one of six experts Sports Illustrated consulted on the choice, described as "a [negative] signal" about his self-discipline. All six believed that Manning was the better choice, but the magazine concluded "What does seem reasonably certain is that ... both Manning and Leaf should develop into at least good NFL starters". The San Diego Chargers had the third overall pick. Polian told Chargers general manager Bobby Beathard that he would not trade the Colts' pick. Beathard later said that he would have taken Manning with the first pick because he knew his father Archie Manning, "but that didn't mean there was anything bad that way with Ryan at the time". His team needed a new quarterback after having scored the fewest touchdowns in the league in the previous season. To obtain the second draft pick from the Arizona Cardinals, San Diego traded that year's first- and second-round picks, their next year's first-round pick, linebacker Patrick Sapp, and three-time Pro Bowler wideout returnman Eric Metcalf, guaranteeing the right to draft whichever of the two quarterbacks Indianapolis did not take first. Ultimately, Manning was drafted first by the Colts and Leaf second by the Chargers, who signed him to a four-year contract worth $31.25 million, including a guaranteed $11.25 million signing bonus, the largest ever paid to a rookie at the time. After being drafted, Leaf would say, "I'm looking forward to a 15-year career, a couple of trips to the Super Bowl, and a parade through downtown San Diego." The night after the draft, Leaf flew to Las Vegas, Nevada on the jet of Chargers owner Alex Spanos and partied all night; the following day Leaf yawned during his first news conference.
San Diego's high hopes for Leaf were soon dashed as his rookie season was marred by poor behavior, starting with his skipping the final day of a symposium mandatory for all NFL draftees and incurring a $10,000 fine. Leaf nonetheless did well in the preseason and at the start of the regular season, as the Chargers won their first two games. They won their season opener on September 6 over the Buffalo Bills 16–14 despite mistakes from Leaf, such as fumbling his first snap and throwing two interceptions; Buffalo penalties voided two would-be interceptions. Leaf completed 16 of 31 passes for 192 yards in the opener and 13 of 24 passes for 179 yards (with 31 rushing yards in 7 carries) in the second game, a 13–7 victory over the Tennessee Oilers. Three days before the Chargers' September 20 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Leaf was hospitalized for a viral infection that he attributed to an improperly cleaned artificial-turf burn. In the game, he completed one of 15 passes for four yards and committed five turnovers (two interceptions and three lost fumbles) in a 23–7 loss. The next day, Leaf was caught on camera shouting at San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Jay Posner during a locker-room interview and was led away by Junior Seau and a team executive. He later apologized to Posner for the incident. After Leaf had four first-half passes intercepted by the New York Giants in Week 4 (September 28), head coach Kevin Gilbride benched him in favor of former sixth-round pick Craig Whelihan. He started the following game on October 4, a 17–12 loss to the Indianapolis Colts and top pick Peyton Manning. Both quarterbacks completed 12 of 23 passes and threw one interception, with Leaf having 23 more passing yards (160) than Manning. However, Manning threw the game's only touchdown and was never sacked, while Leaf was downed four times. Inside the final two minutes and with San Diego down 14–6, Leaf's 56-yard pass to Charlie Jones set up a one-yard Natrone Means touchdown run, but Leaf's potential tying two-point conversion pass to Webster Slaughter was incomplete. During the Chargers’ bye week, Leaf again found himself in the headlines after visiting Pullman, Washington, where he had played college football at Washington State. Initially returning to Pullman to make a charitable donation and appearance, Leaf would be banned from a college bar for splashing a group of students with a pitcher of beer, and was subsequently banned from another bar and convenience store that he visited later that night. News of the incident reached San Diego, and the organization seriously took Leaf's behavior into consideration. The next week, Leaf permanently lost his starting job to Whelihan following a 4-of-15, 23-yard performance with an interception against the Denver Broncos on November 8. Leaf finished the season with 111 completions on 245 attempts (45% completion percentage) with 1,289 passing yards in ten games and only two touchdowns against fifteen interceptions, earning him an abysmal passer rating of 39.0, the lowest passer rating by a qualified quarterback since Gary Marangi posted a 30.9 rating in 1976. Leaf related poorly to both the media and his teammates, whom he tended to blame for his poor play, and developed a reputation for a poor work ethic, such as playing golf while other quarterbacks were studying film. His poor play particularly frustrated the members of the Chargers defense, who led the league in efficiency that year yet had to be paired with an inefficient offense. Beathard said, "Guys can be jerks, but I've never seen a guy that worked harder at alienating his teammates. Junior Seau, Rodney Harrison, they came to me and said, 'Bobby, this guy is killing me.'" Harrison described the 1998 season as "a nightmare" due to Leaf's immaturity and Whelihan's inefficiency: "If I had to go through another year like that, I'd probably quit playing." During the offseason, the team's defensive veterans called on management to sign a veteran quarterback and demote Leaf to backup, claiming his shortcomings undercut their league-leading performance. Seau, for instance, urged management to "get a guy in here not to babysit, but to win" and give Leaf time to develop.
Leaf suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder 20 minutes into the Chargers' opening training camp workout on July 23, 1999. One month later, a fan heckled Leaf by singing lyrics from the Little River Band song "Lonesome Loser" and comparing him to failed NFL quarterback Heath Shuler. Leaf, accompanied by a coach and security guards, went to confront the fan but was restrained by two coaches, with another Chargers employee saying, "No, don't do it, Ryan. Don't do it." Leaf later explained the incident: "...what I wanted to do was say, 'Hey, look, I've grown up, I'm calm about it, I would like to understand why you would say that about me.'" Leaf underwent surgery to fix a labral tear in his shoulder and missed the 1999 season. He was placed on injured reserve but made headlines in early November when he got into a shouting match with Beathard and a coach, resulting in a fine, a suspension without pay, and an apology from Leaf four weeks later. During his suspension, he was caught on video playing flag football at a San Diego park, a violation of his contract according to team management. A sportswriter who covered Leaf during this period would later reveal that the quarterback privately told him that after losing the respect of his teammates and fans during his rookie year, and dealing with shoulder surgery and suspension during his second, he was already considering retirement after only two seasons in the NFL.
