By now, I'm sure all of you football fans heard about of Ryan Leaf's recent indictment of drug and burglary charges. I think this story is well beyond sad.

Leaf seems to be a common story for a few ex-NFL stars deemed to greatness before they even stepped on the pro field, other than fall hard and never seem to rise up afterward. Lawrence Phillips and Charles Rogers are two good examples.

Ryan Leaf came into the NFL with great expectations. It's no secret that some had Leaf, the former star from Washington State , regarded higher than Tennessee's Peyton Manning.

While Manning has lived up to his hype and then some, Leaf fell flat on his face and, even today, is looking for a way to pick himself up off the floor.

Anyone remember how that started??? Let's see.... after the 1998 NFL Draft, Leaf was allegedly in Las Vegas instead of being at Chargers headquarters. He then skipped the always-mandatory Rookie Symposium and was later fined. But that didn't stop Leaf. In his world, he was the King of Zamunda. He was invincible.

Leaf started off looking like the QB the Chargers thought they had, winning his first 2 games. But from his 3rd game on, he was awful. He finished his rookie season with 2 TDs, 15 INTs, benched towards the end of the season, and a 45.3 QB rating.

Who can forgot the now-infamous locker room incident? Leaf yelled at a San Diego Union Tribune employee, which alerted Junior Seau and another teammate to pull him away



The "apology" Leaf gave later on was just as pathetic. Leaf read an apology letter on a small piece of paper with no emotion, then balled the paper up and threw it in his locker shortly after finishing, in front of everyone. What a stand up guy!

In 1999, Leaf was place on IR for a shoulder injury, but instead of rehabbing, he had more important things in mind. You know, like golfing and playing flag football that just so happened to get back to the Chargers via video tape. It started the demise of his career in San Diego.

Leaf returned for the 2000 season and did nothing to show the team he was serious about being their future, and the Chargers finally released him, with only 4 wins in 3 seasons.


Leaf tried to make comebacks with the Bucs, Seahawks and Cowboys but didn't last long, due to a wrist injury that Leaf refused to have surgery done. He had disappeared for a few years.

In 2006, Leaf emerged as a QB coach at West Texas A&M, and had done pretty well for himself.

But in 2008, Leaf was placed on indefinite leave from his duties for asking for pain pills from one of his players. Shortly thereafter, Leaf resigned. Back to the dark side he went.

Which leads us to today's latest news. Most people, like myself, aren't surprised this has happened. But in all honesty, I wanted Leaf to end up victorious. Granted he was a pure a-hole during his NFL days, but life sometimes has a way of saying, "Hey... either you become humble on your own, or by force" . I wouldn't doubt Leaf probably saw himself as untouchable, like a lot of pro athletes tend to do. But he got a slice of reality pie and that's why he's where he is today.

I hope Leaf finally gets the help he deserves. Per ESPN, Leaf has been going to drug rehab in British Columbia. Maybe it's his way to stay out of jail, but I hope along the process he works it out so that he can defeat his demons. Hopefully he can look back at all of the ups in his life that led to all of the downs, this one included, and say that he's ready to be on the sunny side..... for good this time.

Eleven years ago, starting with the NFL Draft, we saw his whole downward spiral begin. Who knows how this saga ends. Hopefully for Ryan Leaf, he'll come out on top