The Indianapolis Colts had the 1st pick in the Draft, and they chose Manning. The San Diego Chargers had the 2nd pick, and they chose Leaf.
Manning played 13 seasons for the Colts. The 1st was rough, 3-13. But after that, he got them to the Playoffs 11 times, winning 8 Division titles, 2 AFC Championships, and Super Bowl XLI. Their new stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, could be called The House That Peyton Built. He closed his career with the Denver Broncos, again winning a Super Bowl and losing another, and putting him on course to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in 2021.
The Chargers' 1st season after drafting Leaf wasn't as bad as the Colts' 1st after drafting Manning: 5-11. Bad, but hardly a disaster, given that the quarterback was a rookie, and plenty of quarterbacks who went on to have good careers, including Manning, had worse rookie seasons, at least in terms of wins and losses.
In the 21 full seasons since drafting Leaf, the Chargers have made the Playoffs 7 times, winning their Division 5 times. Doesn't sound so bad. But look more closely: After that 1998 Draft, the Chargers didn't make the Playoffs in any of the next 6 seasons. They've only made 1 AFC Championship Game, losing it. Like the Colts, they needed a new stadium. Unlike the Colts, their city wouldn't give it to them, and, after the 2016 season, they left San Diego for Los Angeles.
So what happened? Ryan Leaf happened. He made a lot of mistakes, but blamed his teammates. He developed a bad work ethic. He preferred to play golf instead of studying game film. He got into an argument with a sportswriter, and it was caught on camera. He was 22 years old, going on 12.
Rodney Harrison, a safety not yet in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but regarded well enough to be voted by fans into the 50th Anniversary Teams of both the Chargers and the New England Patriots, called the 1998 season with Leaf as quarterback of the Chargers, "A nightmare you can't even imagine." He also said, "If I had to go through another year like that, I'd probably quit playing."
Just 20 minutes into the Chargers' 1st training camp of the 1999 season, Leaf got hurt, and had to miss the entire season. Former Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie, about to turn 37, was signed as the starter. Later in the season, the injured Leaf got into a shouting match with general manager Bobby Beathard.
Leaf got off to a bad start in 2000, missed half the season due to injury, lied about a new injury to get out of practice. was caught playing golf later that day, and played poorly the rest of the season.
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The Seattle Seahawks signed him for 2002, and it was thought that head coach Mike Holmgren, himself a former quarterback who had helped develop Joe Montana and Steve Young as a San Francisco assistant, and Brett Favre as head coach in Green Bay, could help him. After all, he was only 26: A few quarterbacks didn't come into their own until after that. Y.A. Tittle, George Blanda, Jim Plunkett and Vinny Testaverde come to mind.
But just before the start of training camp, Leaf retired. He gave no explanation. He never tried again: Not in the NFL, not in the CFL, not in Arena Football. Career statistics. 4-17 as a starting quarterback, 48.4 percent completion percentage, 3,666 yards, 14 touchdowns, 36 interceptions.
Rodney Harrison again: "He took the money and ran... Normally, in this game, you get back what you put into it. And he pretty much got back what he put into it."
It is true that Leaf had injuries. Some college football stars get hurt before they can become NFL stars, and are regarded as "busts," but shouldn't be: Blair Thomas, Steve Emtman, Ki-Jana Carter, Courtney Brown. Even Brian Bosworth, the patron sinner for bad attitudes among football players until Leaf came along, had his career ended by injury rather than personality: When he could play, he played well, and he did help the Seattle Seahawks win a Division title.
Timm Rosenbach, one of Leaf's predecessors as Washington State quarterback, was another guy whose career is regarded as a bust, but shouldn't be, due to a nasty injury, in his case a broken leg that limited him to spot duty in his 1st season, a mediocre 2nd season, and barely playing after that.
But it wasn't just injuries that hurt Leaf's career. He did it to himself.
And the Chargers did it to themselves, too. They look like idiots for drafting him. Why did they do it? Surely, there must have been reasons why, at the time, drafting Leaf made sense. There must have been, right?
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the San Diego Chargers for Drafting Ryan Leaf
First, a couple of reasons that didn't make the cut: The Best of the Rest.
The National Football League. In 1990, the NFL changed their rule, and allowed redshirt juniors, players who had been in a college's football program for 4 years but had played only 3, to enter the Draft. Maybe if this rule hadn't been in place, the extra year in school would have done Leaf a lot of good. He might have matured a little. He might have been more ready to enter the NFL in 1999 than he was in 1998.
The 1st pick belonged to the Cleveland Browns. They took Tim Couch, quarterback of Kentucky. He was a bust, based on performance alone, not on attitude. Actually, 7 quarterbacks were taken in the 1st 3 rounds that year, and, of those, only Donovan McNabb (of Syracuse, the 2nd pick, by the Philadelphia Eagles) could even remotely be called a success. Maybe Leaf would still have been a bust. But maybe not. Maybe he would have been a good fit in Cleveland.
The Buffalo Bills. In 1997, they beat the Colts 37-35 in Orchard Park, and 9-6 in Indianapolis. Had the Colts won either of those games, the Chargers would have had the top pick, and would have been able to draft Peyton Manning.
Once again, a Bills kicker changed history: While Steve Christie made the field goal that won that legendary 1992-93 Playoff game with the Houston Oilers, had he not missed field goals in either of the '97 Bills-Colts games, the Colts would have had the 2nd pick in the draft, and would have had to choose between Ryan Leaf and the field.
Maybe Leaf would have fit in better with the Colts, and then had a good career. After all, the Atlanta Falcons drafted Brett Favre, and he was a terrible fit for them, but they traded him after just 1 season, and he was a great fit for the Green Bay Packers. Maybe if the Chargers had traded him after that 1st year...
But he and the Colts never got that chance to see what they could do together. He and the Chargers did, and it was a disaster. One more Indianapolis score in either of 2 games against Buffalo could have made a tremendous difference.
The Indianapolis Colts. They did seriously consider drafting Leaf, before taking Manning. If they had taken Leaf, maybe they would have gone nowhere -- and then gone somewhere, not getting the new stadium. With the arrival of the Ravens, they couldn't have gone back to Baltimore. But maybe they, rather than the Chargers, would be the team now playing in a 25,000-seat soccer stadium in the Los Angeles suburbs, waiting for the new Hollywood Park stadium to open so they could share it with the Rams.
Now, the Top 5:
5. Bobby Beathard. There are 5 men in the Pro Football Hall of Fame who were elected on the basis of being team executives, without also being head coaches: Gil Brandt, Jim Finks, Bill Polian, Ron Wolf and Bobby Beathard.
Beathard's record is amazing. As a scout for the Kansas City Chiefs, he helped build a team that reached Super Bowl I and won Super Bowl IV. As director of player personnel for the Miami Dolphins, he helped build a team that won Super Bowls VII and VIII. As general manager of the Washington Redskins, he helped build a team that won Super Bowls XVII, XXII and XXVI, and reached Super Bowl XVIII. As general manager of the Chargers, he had already built a team that reached Super Bowl XXIX. That's 9 Super Bowls, winning 6.
He was a man who usually knew what he was doing. If Bobby Beathard thinks a player is going to have a good pro football career, then it's usually good to believe him. This time, he was wrong.
4. Ryan Leaf. At the time, he looked like a good choice. In 2 1/2 seasons as Washington State's starting quarterback, he passed for 7,433 yards, 59 touchdowns and 24 interceptions, a good ratio. He also rushed for 14 touchdowns.
In 1997, he led the Cougars to their 1st Pacific-10 (now Pacific-12) Conference Championship. They lost the Rose Bowl, but he hardly disgraced himself in it, getting "Wazzu" to within 21-16 against Michigan, which shared the National Championship with Nebraska.
The NFL now invests more in psychological evaluations of players. Maybe the Chargers wouldn't have drafted Leaf if they'd been able to check him out this way. But, based on what they saw in college, he didn't look like a bad choice.
3. Washington State University. They had a history of producing good quarterbacks. Jack Thompson in the late 1970s. Timm Rosenbach in the late 1980s. Drew Bledsoe in the early 1990s. Drafting a Wazzu quarterback looked like a good idea. As it turned out, drafting that one wasn't.
2. Stan Humphries' Retirement. Humphries led the Chargers to the 1992 AFC Western Division title, and then the 1994 AFC Championship. It certainly wasn't his fault the Chargers lost Super Bowl XXIX to the 49ers.
But after the 1997 season, he retired due to having sustained concussions. It was for the best: We've seen what happens to players who hang on too long. And, for all we know, he still did: He's 54, and may yet show symptoms of damage.
But he was 32 when he quit. If he had sustained 1 fewer concussion, he might have felt more able to play, and the Chargers wouldn't have needed to draft a quarterback in 1998. Maybe they would have ended up drafting McNabb in 1999. Maybe they would have drafted Tom Brady in 2000 -- who, although on the bench, was on the other side of the field from Leaf in that 1998 Rose Bowl.
Or maybe Humphries would still have been able to play through the 2000 season. And then the Chargers could have drafted the guy they did draft in 2001:
1. Drew Brees. If Leaf had "worked out," would the Chargers have been appreciably better than they were with Brees? Maybe not: In his 4th season as the starter, 2004, Brees got the Bolts to 12-4 and the AFC West title.
But then they drafted Philip Rivers in 2005, after trying and failing to get Eli Manning. Now, you could argue that drafting Rivers, and thus undermining Brees, and thus leading him to refuse offers of a new contract after the one he had with the Chargers ran out, allowing him to become a legend and a Super Bowl winner with the New Orleans Saints, was an even bigger mistake than drafting Leaf. But that's a whole other debate.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. The reason that Leaf turned out to be a bust, his immaturity, was not immediately apparent in April 1998 when he was drafted. And there were reasons why a player with his skills and record deserved a chance to become an NFL quarterback.
Blame Leaf for being a bad choice, not the Chargers for choosing him. They didn't know. Nobody knew.
Postscript: At first, Leaf looked like he was, well, turning over a new leaf. He went back to WSU, got his degree, and become a collegiate assistant coach. But that didn't work out. He became a financial consultant, based on his degree. But, in dealing with the residual effects from his injuries, he became addicted to painkillers, and it led to a brief prison term.
He turns 43 today, is about to get married for the 2nd time, hosts a radio show, works with rehab centers, and runs a foundation to aid high school and college students in avoiding the pitfalls that lead to addiction, and to help those who did not to get clean.
