Morgen selected 'leaf' as the theme for this week's Manic Monday meme. It is football season. My 8-year old's team is on a 6-game winning streak. We live in Cincinnati ... my 8-year old's team is the only winning football available to us!
I imagine that the folks in San Diego CA still have nightmares about the 1998 NFL draft. The top two picks were to be quarterbacks with Peyton Manning of Tennesse, and Ryan Leaf of Washington State entering the draft. Both QB's were sure fire bets. With the first overall pick the Colts took Peyton Manning. The Chargers jumped at the opportunity to draft Leaf. The Chargers then signed their golden boy to a lucrative long term contract, with a $11.25 million dollar signing bonus.
What was to follow would become NFL history. Leaf threw more interceptions than completions, hurt himself, yelled
at reporters, hurt himself again, got his own teammates angry at him, got hurt some more, changed teams a few times, and eventually retired as the quarterback with the worst Passer Rating in NFL history.
I understand that his high school removed all his trophies from their trophy case!
Obviously, the Colts made the right decision in 1998.
However, the story is building towards a better ending for Leaf. Despite being known as the 'biggest bust ever', Leaf is now leading a productive life. He is currently the QB coach for West Texas A&M (Div. II).
Village soulclap to Ryan Leaf for finding a way to stay in the game that he loves!
I imagine that the folks in San Diego CA still have nightmares about the 1998 NFL draft. The top two picks were to be quarterbacks with Peyton Manning of Tennesse, and Ryan Leaf of Washington State entering the draft. Both QB's were sure fire bets. With the first overall pick the Colts took Peyton Manning. The Chargers jumped at the opportunity to draft Leaf. The Chargers then signed their golden boy to a lucrative long term contract, with a $11.25 million dollar signing bonus.
What was to follow would become NFL history. Leaf threw more interceptions than completions, hurt himself, yelled
at reporters, hurt himself again, got his own teammates angry at him, got hurt some more, changed teams a few times, and eventually retired as the quarterback with the worst Passer Rating in NFL history.I understand that his high school removed all his trophies from their trophy case!
Obviously, the Colts made the right decision in 1998.
However, the story is building towards a better ending for Leaf. Despite being known as the 'biggest bust ever', Leaf is now leading a productive life. He is currently the QB coach for West Texas A&M (Div. II).
Village soulclap to Ryan Leaf for finding a way to stay in the game that he loves!
13 comments:
What a great way to work in the theme! I like your blog from what I've seen! Thanks so much for visiting me :-) Always nice to meet new folks.
~Andrea
My Autism Insights
Andrea - Asante sana! I haven't participated in the Manic Monday meme for many moons. It is great to see new folks like yourself are now involved with this weekly meme...
Villager,
In Detroit we have the Lions.
Need I say more?
I gave up on our teams in NE Ohio long time ago. But since I was not born here, I could pick any team I wanted w/out anybody raising their eyebrows :o) So I'm a Patriots fan and a Yankee fan. Yup!
Have a great Monday :o)
Interesting profile. It sounds as if he finally found his way after growing up a bit.
Love how you took this a different direction! I don't know jack about sports but so enjoyed reading this!
Happy MM!
xxox
bv
Keith - At least your team fired Matt Millen. We still have Mike Brown (sigh). Also, you just took home another WNBA championship yesterday...
Ivanhoe - I feel ya'! I was born & raised in Los Angeles. My fav baseball team is the LA Dodgers. My fav basketball team is the LA Lakers. My fav football team is the NY Giants (lived there for a few years when my middle daughter was born) and we don't have any NFL teams in LA anymore...
Jamie - Yeah...I suppose getting a $11 million check helps (smile)...
As long as he can stay in the game and continue to be happy that's a great reward.
I guess it takes some guys a little longer to grow up than others.
And congrats to your son and his teammates!
Football isn't my thing but I do like to watch the kids play. Yay for your 8-year-old's team. I hope he(or she) is having a wonderful time.
Thanks for stopping by! I always learn something when I come here. :) Nicely done and thanks for stopping by.
it seems like people assume Ryan Leaf is going to screw up before it actually happens... but i guess this is mostly his own doing
Patrick - I was happy to see that Ryan Leaf had gotten his life back in a positive light back in October when I wrote this. However, it appears that he may have made a mistake earlier this week. I see that he had to resign from his job with the football team today...
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