Ryan Leaf is back. It was reported on Sunday that Leaf was hired by ESPN as a color analyst for the upcoming college football season. The last two decades have been a wild ride for Leaf, and his remarkable comeback story will serve as an inspiration to many people.
ESPN has hired Ryan Leaf as a college football analyst https://t.co/O4YAGOIyNx
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 15, 2019
In the late 1990s, Ryan Leaf was on top of the world. He led the Washington State Cougars to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 66 years in 1997, and he was invited to the Downtown Athletic Club as a Heisman Trophy finalist alongside Charles Woodson, Peyton Manning, and Randy Moss.
Leaf finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting that year, and some analysts considered him a better quarterback prospect than Manning coming out of college. The San Diego Chargers ended up selecting him with the No. 2 pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, and we all know how that turned out.
Life after football wasn’t great for Leaf either. Throughout the 2000s, he struggled to overcome a painkiller addiction that derailed his college coaching career, and in 2009, he was indicted for burglary and possession of controlled substances. He was sentenced to 10 years of probation as a result, but after he was arrested for burglary and possession again in 2012, he was sent to prison. Leaf ended up spending around two-and-a-half years in prison before being released in December 2014.
After hitting rock bottom, Leaf knew that he had to start from square one to rebuild his life, and his turnaround has been inspiring. Leaf told the Associated Press that he reached out to other quarterbacks that made the jump to announcing like Brady Quinn, Kirk Herbstreit, and Joel Klatt, and they helped show him the ropes.
Leaf said he was offered the job by ESPN a month ago, and that triggered a wave of emotions as he realized how far he had come over the last five years. He will be paired with Clay Matvick in the broadcast booth.
H/T Sports Illustrated
