It was Manning who went first in the 1998 draft, and Leaf went to the San Diego Chargers at No. 2.
The 6-foot-5 Leaf got a four-year contract worth more than $31 million. His dream of playing NFL football was coming true.
"I was hungry," he said. "I wanted to be good."
And he was - for the first two games his rookie season. Then came the game he calls "the root of all evil." He was 1 of 15 for 4 yards, lost three fumbles and threw two interceptions in a 23-7 loss at Kansas City.
The media pulled no punches. Leaf didn't either, unleashing profanities toward one reporter in the locker room the next day.
"I was fighting a war on two fronts. I was fighting the best defenses in professional football and I was fighting the media," he said. "At that level you just cannot do that. You just cannot do it. I couldn't stop it, and I didn't try to stop it."
He understood fans' high expectations. He had them, too.
"You go from being the most loved player in the country to two weeks later being one of the most hated. I just couldn't believe how quickly and out of control it got and how poorly I handled it," he said. "And it's been my identity ever since - as a flop-type of thing."
Wow. My heart really goes out to him.
"Ah fuck. You are right." KYJelly, 11/6/12
"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." Barack Obama, 9/25/12
The way he treated so many while he was in the state, and then after he left for college and then the NFL.....I wish him no harm, but I wouldn't be shaking his hand or talking to him or picking him up if he had car trouble on the side of the road....
He burned every bridge he ever saw.
"What I'm saying is: You might have taken care of your wolf problem, but everyone around town is going to think of you as the crazy son of a bitch who bought land mines to get rid of wolves."
The first time I had ever heard of Leaf, a bunch of friends and I were sitting around shortly after Dickenson left Montana. I mentioned if there would ever be another great football player from Montana and a friend of mine mentioned Leaf and said that he had the makings to be even better than Dickenson. He may have had the tendencies to be better but I'd still take Dickenson over Leaf.
You know, he was quite the jerk on the court when we played them in h.s. hoops (i think it was my freshman or soph year). But I met him a couple years later (my dad and his mom were classmates, i think) and he was not bad at all. I'm not going to defend all his actions, but I'm going to let some of the stuff about how he left the state slide...chalk it up to the stupidity of youth (coupled with a big ego).
I think he has learned quite a few life lessons along the way....hopefully he can heal some of the issues he caused with other montanans.
JALMOND wrote:The first time I had ever heard of Leaf, a bunch of friends and I were sitting around shortly after Dickenson left Montana. I mentioned if there would ever be another great football player from Montana and a friend of mine mentioned Leaf and said that he had the makings to be even better than Dickenson. He may have had the tendencies to be better but I'd still take Dickenson over Leaf.
Oh, any day of the week. As a football player, and most DEFINITELY as a person.
I figured you were being sarcastic, AZ. From what I've heard, Montana's "true" favorite son has got to be DD, Ah Yat, Biermann, or Carp.
SuperHornet's Athletics Hall of Fame includes Jacksonville State kicker Ashley Martin, the first girl to score in a Division I football game. She kicked 3 PATs in a 2001 game for J-State.
