Leaf: Chargers never overcame ill-fated pick
It has been alLOS ANGELES most two decades since the San Diego Chargers drafted Ryan Leaf, but the former NFL quarterback said the franchise still might be suffering the consequences.
The Chargers have won four playoff games since they used the No. 2 overall pick of the 1998 draft on Leaf, who was 414 as a starter during two seasons with the team.
“I don’t know if they’ve ever really rebounded from that,” Leaf told USA TODAY Sports, noting the Chargers had reached the Super Bowl four seasons before they drafted him. “They’d just come out of a Super Bowl and, you know, maybe taking that next step by getting a franchise quarterback. It didn’t pan out for them — or for me.”
Leaf said he wasn’t wired to be a professional quarterback and the Chargers probably should have known as much. He said he heard the team had diagnostic tests that showed his mental makeup was inferior to that of Peyton Manning, who was selected ahead of Leaf by the Indianapolis Colts.
“I just didn’t have the brain makeup apparently,” Leaf said. “If I were tested now, would I have the right brain makeup? Who knows?”
Now 40, Leaf said he is an entirely different — and better — person than when he was play- ing in the NFL.
He retired from the NFL after three seasons, during which he threw 14 touchdown passes and 36 interceptions and completed 48.4% of his passes. He later served 32 months in prison for burglary convictions that Leaf said stemmed from his addiction to painkillers.
Leaf, who says he’s been sober since April 2012, has spent the last year and a half working for the Transcend recovery community, a sober-living environment with nine homes in the Los Angeles, New York and Houston areas. He said he no longer feels ashamed about his life — on or off the field.
“I’m grateful for how it’s turned out,” said Leaf, who was released from prison in December 2014. “The biggest thing is for my family, what they’ve had to go through. But the pleasure they live in now, or at least for the last 21⁄ years, is immeasurable.”
Not so much for the Chargers, who during that same blessed time for the Leaf family have produced a 9-23 record.
Would the Chargers still be in San Diego rather than relocating to Los Angeles if Leaf had been as clear-headed as he appears today and lived up to the team’s hopes that he was their franchise quarterback?
“Who knows?” he replied before adding, “I don’t believe I was meant to be a professional quarterback. I was meant to have these life experiences and be an impact on others who’ve struggled. That’s what I’m meant to do.”