Ryan Leaf

• San Diego Chargers (1998-2000)
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2001)
• Dallas Cowboys (2001)
• Seattle Seahawks (2002)

• All-American Team (1997)

Ryan David Leaf ( born May 15, 1976 in Great Falls, Montana ) is a former American professional American football player at the position of quarterback. He played for the San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League ( NFL). The 1.95 meters tall and known as the enfant terrible Leaf completed - although he was considered a great talent - only 26 NFL games.

Career

After a promising college career at Washington State University, where he was elected to the All-American team of the best college players in 1997, Leaf was considered together with Peyton Manning as one of the best young quarterbacks. Behind Leaf Manning was selected in the NFL Draft in 1998 by the San Diego Chargers at position two, where he became the first rookie starting quarterback since John Elway, who won his first two NFL games. But on Matchday 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs, he completed only one of his 15 throws, scored a space gain of only four yards and threw two interceptions, which he managed the " trick ", a quarterback rating of 0.0 for this game to reach.

Then Leaf lost with the Chargers five of the next six games in which he only a touchdown, but threw eleven interceptions and took only 45% of his throws at the man, which he recorded a historically low quarterback rating of 39.0 and a 22 years old negative record undercutting. After 11 Matchday he was banished to the bench. In this period, leaf fell against arrogant behavior by teammates and fans, abuse of journalists and frequent Undiszipliniertheiten on. Commentator and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason thought he had never seen such an arrogant and incorrigible rookie.

The following season, 1999, Leaf injured his shoulder and fell for the entire year. 2000 Leaf attempted a comeback, but was referred back to the bench after eleven moderate games ( eleven touchdowns, 18 interceptions, 56.2 quarterback rating ). Because leaf showed little self-criticism and often abstempelte teammates as scapegoats, he was booed by his own fans.

The following season 2001 Leaf hired at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Ex - Chargers teammate Rodney Harrison remarked ironically that leaf so that San Diego " proved a great service ." In Tampa Bay Leaf, was also due to a poorly healed hand injury, behind Brad Johnson, Shaun King and Joe Hamilton only the fourth quarterback, not made ​​it into the squad and was transfer benefits to the Dallas Cowboys. In Texas, Leaf completed four regular games ( a touchdown with three interceptions ), before he lost his place to Eddie LeBaron. In 2002 he was obliged by the Seattle Seahawks, and failed again Leaf and completed a single game. Leaf finished his NFL career, he played truant by the internal team meeting of the Seattle quarterbacks and went away without farewell.

With only 26 years left the former No. 2 draft pick Leaf the NFL, where he made only 26 games, a moderate quarterback rating of 50.0 -listed and won only four of his 21 games as a starting quarterback. The manager of the Indianapolis Colts, Bill Polian, the today's superstar quarterback Manning draftete in the 1998 NFL Draft instead of Leaf, said that Leaf had been " hyped mentally immature and too much " from the beginning. The ESPN called Leaf of the worst NFL draft pick of all time and the " man who destroyed the Chargers". In a later ESPN poll voted both experts and fans of the NFL Leaf "the greatest sporting flop of all time". This inglorious title he lost in the meantime to JaMarcus Russell, who indeed had a slightly better quarterback rating, due to his drug and weight problems as well as his behavior towards fellow players and fans of NFL.com as " the worst draft pick in the NFL history, even worse than Ryan Leaf " was called.

Private life

Leaf was married to his wife Nicole, before they divorced. After his ill-fated NFL career, he became a golf coach and quarterback coach at West Texas A & M University before he was fired on painkillers for illegal possession of about 1,000 tablets.

Leaf has two brothers. His mother Marcia said that a combination had brought from " exaggerated ambition, power with less talented youth team colleagues and misunderstood lone " her son on the straight and narrow.