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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."

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.