What became of Ryan Leaf?

[mraynrand]

Anyone know? I was thinking about all the carping about McNabb and wondered what happens to QBs, like a Rich Campbell, who are expected to be very good and then turn out to be total busts. Leaf was much worse than Campbell, because in addition to sucking, he was a wimpy, weepy, prima donna. What happened to him? I sometimes wonder if he walks into a room, people say 'hey isn't that Cryin' Leaf?' and just laugh.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I heard him in a radio interview recently. He's coaching high school or small college football somewhere. He seems to have matured. He blamed much of his failures on himself--although he stated the situation wasn't ideal for him. I think that's fair.

[MTPackerfan]

I believe he is coaching at a small college in Texas (for free). At least that is the last I heard and remember from the local papers.

[oregonpackfan]

I don't know the whereabouts of Ryan Leaf, but his younger brother, Brady Leaf, if the backup QB for the Oregon Ducks.

When Brady gets into away games and is introduced over the PA system, he gets routinely booed! :(

This relationship to his older brother is unfortunate for Brady as he is well-respected by his coaches, teammates, and Duck fans for his positive mindset and work ethic.

Brady is not as physcially talented at the college level as his older brother was but he is a mature, very likable young man unlike his older brother.

[Badgerinmaine]

He earned his degree from Washington State and is now QBs coach at West Texas A&M:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2330897

I thought he was a prima donna who handled the pressures he was under poorly with the Chargers, but I'm happy for him that he's seemingly turned things around.

[Carolina_Packer]

As for Rich Campbell, who was asked about in the original post, here is an article I found from 2004.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/30/SPG8AA3KUC1.DTL

Seems like he found life after football.

I think a hard lesson for some of these elite high school and college athletes who have nothing but success from their first experiences in football all the way through college is how to deal with failure. Getting to the pros and failing after succeeding at every level up until that point is humbling I'm sure, or confusing for those who don't know to deal with it and the reactions to failure are varied as we see. How do you prepare someone to handle failure?

[KYPack]

As the #2 pick in the draft, he made enuff jack to be financially secure for the rest of his life.

Good to see the guy is coaching for free. Now he can help some other guy make it.

I'm sure he's more mature now, he was so freakin' immature at SD, he had to grow up someday.

[Scott Campbell]

So whatever became of Bobby Beathard? Didn't he draft Leaf?

[KYPack]

So whatever became of Bobby Beathard? Didn't he draft Leaf?

Beathard retired in '99.

It's too bad that the Leaf deal will be a blot on his stellar record as an NFL GM.

It was a bad deal. SD traded 2 #1's, a #2, and two vets including star return man Eric Metcalf to the Cards to move up ONE spot in the draft to select one of the "Big Two" QB's that year. When Peyton Manning went to Indy, SD selected Leaf with their pick. And man, what a disaster he was.

The much hated ESPN named Leaf the biggest bust of all time in a Poll.

Many observers felt Beathard quit because the FA era in the NFL cramped his style in finding star talent.

[PackerBlues]

I saw Leaf on a tv show about a year ago. He was either coaching or helping coach some young kids.

I think he would have gotten another chance elsewhere, except for his wrist injury. He was showing it off on that show I watched. It was freakin gross the way he could move it around. Like double jointed or something........but grosser. Not to many teams interested in a guy with a throwing hand like that.

[KYPack]

No discussion of Leaf is complete without a mention of Mel (Dippity-Doo) Kiper. He was on the tube prior to that draft raving about how great Leaf was and how he would be the first pick over Peyton Manning.

I can never look at Kiper, his face and stupid hair without thinking of his "Leaf Rant".

[Little Whiskey]

what a "tale of two cities" leaf and manning.

if indy decides to take leaf #1 and manning goes to the chargers?