Ryan Leaf Continues to Coug His Life
Ryan Leaf, the star quarterback who led Washington State to the 1998 Rose Bowl, is in jail in Bellingham. He was arrested while crossing into the U.S. from Canada; Leaf is suspected of breaking into a college student's apartment to steal prescription painkillers, as well as a host of drugs charges. He could get twenty years in prison on the burglary charge alone. Yikes.
If you haven't followed the sad tale of Leaf's post-Wazzu life, we can sum it up this way: He Couged it.
The second overall pick in the 1998 NFL draft (Peyton Manning went first), Leaf's NFL career lasted just four seasons. The trouble started in Leaf's rookie year with San Diego; he cursed out a reporter and confronted a heckling fan--both times he had to be physically restrained. And this is just the stuff that was caught on camera.
San Diego released Leaf after the 2000 season; partially because they found out he'd been playing flag football when he was supposed to be rehabilitating an injury. Two other NFL teams briefly employed Leaf, including the Seahawks, hoping that his immaturity would pass. But Leaf, who'd received an $11.25 million signing bonus upon being drafted, retired before the Seahawks' 2002 training camp.
Leaf traveled to Europe, returned to Washington State to finish his college degree, and got hired in 2006 as quarterbacks coach at West Texas A&M, a Division II school. Leaf became the school's head golf coach. He seemed to have settled down and figured out why his NFL experience went so wrong. "When playing football became a job, it lost its luster for me," he told ESPN's Matt Mosely. "I kind of got out of the spotlight and life's never been this good."
But life took a turn for the worse. In November, Leaf was suspended from his job after allegedly asking a student for painkillers. Prosecutors allege that as far back as last January he was giving incomplete medical history to doctors in an effort to get pain pills.
Leaf was living in British Columbia; his lawyer says he was in a rehab program there. Texas prosecutors recently threatened Leaf with extradition if didn't appear in court on Thursday. Leaf was evidently on his way to do just that when arrested.
The question would seem to be--when did Leaf's drug use begin? Was it responsible for his NFL flameout, or a reaction to it? Or perhaps the guy is just a lost cause. After all, he was once named the most-hated sports figure in Montana, which is his home state!
Leaf will face an court hearing this afternoon, and then, his lawyer says, proceed to Texas.
