Good Playboy article (yes, I only read the articles! Boo! Hiss!) on Ryan Leaf’s spectacular fall from grace, written by a former Montana State prison cellmate whom happens to be English so it has the hilarity factor of wry Brit colloquialisms tossed into the mix. It’s interesting, if a tad TLDR.
For those with patience or interest: http://playboysfw.kinja.com/ryan-leafs-jailhouse-confessions-written-by-his-cell-1254883817
Good read, thanks for the recommendation.
I’m thinking I need to amend my death pool list.
Moving him up, or down?
You need a year old article about him to think he’s a human being? :dubious:
Poor dumb kid wasn’t able to handle sudden celebrity at age 22 or whatever, and wound up with a boatload of addictions and issues. He’s got my pity, and I’m glad he’s apparently managed to hang on to some of his money.
I think I’m a bad human being, because my reaction to the article wasn’t nearly as sympathetic. Granted, I will never know the pressure of being an NFL QB, especially one in his circumstances, but it seems to me many of his failures are of his own making. He was an arrogant douchebag when he played, and he seemingly enjoyed all the good parts of his money/celebrity, but didn’t necessarily put in the effort to be great.
It’s tough, with the injuries and addiction issues he had, but the guy was blessed with incredible physical tools and talent; he just didn’t seem to want to put in the effort and mental preparation to succeed. He was weak, mentally, and couldn’t or didn’t want to make himself stronger.
I feel bad for the guy, but he’s in a prison (heh) of his own making. The thing that struck me was that he still hasn’t really taken responsibility for his choices, and his apparent biggest wish is to just sit around, doped to the gills, and watch TV.
Like I said, I may be a bad human being.
That’s something I didn’t expect, especially with the whole being in prison thing.
C’mon furt, it’s called being facetious. Of course he’s a spawn of Cthulu, and not human at all. Jeez.
Well, “his apparent biggest wish is to just sit around, doped to the gills, and watch TV” is about as good a description of addiction as any. So if you don’t think addicts deserve sympathy, ok. I’m not sure they do either, despite having been one, but do be clear that what you are objecting to is his addictive personality, not just his personality. One way of looking at addiction is that it is weakness, but there are other ways.
Leaf was a Montana kid who, in the span of about 8 months when he was 20 years old went from unknown QB for a perennially losing team in Puyallup, WA (population about 12), to being a national celebrity, getting his ass kissed everywhere he went, getting boatloads of money … and then in another few months he was faced with coaches expecting him to work 70+ hours a week, a lockerroom full of grown men he was expected to lead, and constant media attention. And then he was failing at his sport for the first time in his life.
I firmly believe that at least 50% of the 21-year old men in America, were they suddenly handed the opportunity/responsibility package he was would flame out just as badly. Not in the exact same way, but in similar haze of entitlement/arrogance/laziness/etc. (See Russell, Young, etc.) God knows I would have. The fact that so few of these guys do is a testament to the screening power of big-time college ball.
Yes, he was was “weak, mentally.” Is that some kind of horrible offense? Is “getting mentally stronger” just something anyone can choose to do easily; kind of like pulling oneself up by the bootstraps? He was a dumbshit kid doing dumbshit kid things. Lots of dumbshit kids get pregnant or hooked on drugs or in trouble with the law. He’s responsible for his actions, and his actions put him in jail. Doesn’t mean I can’t still feel badly for him – as I do for all the other dumbshit kids – and think “there but the for the grace of God.”
I’ve heard a lot of people demonizing the guy. I feel bad for him.
[QUOTE=kayT]
Well, “his apparent biggest wish is to just sit around, doped to the gills, and watch TV” is about as good a description of addiction as any. So if you don’t think addicts deserve sympathy, ok. I’m not sure they do either, despite having been one, but do be clear that what you are objecting to is his addictive personality, not just his personality. One way of looking at addiction is that it is weakness, but there are other ways.
[/QUOTE]
+1
But he wasn’t just handed this great responsibility/opportunity out of the blue. Certainly he was immature, but he was a Heisman finalist, was kinda a big deal, and had the ego to go along with it. It’s not like he was magically handed a great opportunity, everyone knew he would be a top 2 draft pick. He had more than enough time to prepare himself for the NFL.
But he was arrogant, so arrogant that coaches questioned his work ethic and desire to actually put in the work to get better. That was the biggest difference between him and Peyton. Peyton was willing to put in the time, effort, and work to make himself better, while Ryan simply thought he was so good that the NFL wouldn’t be a problem.
And it didn’t get better. He hit a few lows, and rather than reacting with humility or preseverence, he doubled down on being an arrogant prick. He pissed of teammates, screamed on the sideline, threw people under the bus, and blamed others for his own lack of development.
But he’s not a kid anymore. He’s 38 years old.
You can feel sorry for him. I do to … up to a point. I just think he’s where he is in life, not because of celebrity, or college football, or external pressure, but because of himself and the decisions he made.
Matt Hassellbeck was drafted the same year as Ryan Leaf, albeit MUCH later. And he’s said almost exactly the same thing as you. He said that, while Leaf didn’t handle things well and brought some of his problems on himself, Hassellbeck would have fallen on his face just as badly if he’d been handed the starting quarterback job right away as a rookie. If that had happened, Hassellbeck would now be remembered as “a bust” rather than as a solid pro who had a very respectable career.
Maybe Leaf should have spent a few years carrying a clipboard. Or maybe he’d have screwed things up anyway. We’ll never know.
Bot the bottom line is, LOTS of great college quarterback don’t pan out as pros. That doesn’t automatically make them idiots or bad people.
Yeah, it kind of was out of the blue. He was on the bench as an 18 year old freshman, the starter of a losing team that nobody ever heard of as a sophomore … and then he had one great year that suddenly made him a national figure, heisman candidate, and #2 pick in the span of about 8 months – a period during which he was showered with praise, got freebies of every currency imaginable, etc. – and then was plunged into an NFL team where the game was so much harder, where everyone suddenly told him he hadn’t earned anything, and where he had a camera in his face 24/7. (And frankly, I’m not even sure he had all-around NFL talent to begin with: he had the size and the cannon arm, and coaches like to think that given those that they can teach accuracy and the mental part of the game, but I have my doubts. For that matter, I think there is a certain personality type required to be a great leader, and that it can’t be learned, certainly not as an adult. Asking Leaf or Cutler to have different personalities is, IMO, 80% as futile as asking Russell Wilson to grow four inches.)
Maybe you were of such sterling character at age 20-21 where you could have handled a yearlong rollercoaster ride like that well. Most of us weren’t.
Yes, he was arrogant. Do you think maybe the adulation he recieved from a society that reveres athletes had something to do with that? And no, he didn’t have the work ethic of Peyton Manning, or even the work ethic of an average NFL QB. … 95% of the people on the planet don’t have that kind of single-minded work ethic, including you and I. Check our post counts for verification.
I don’t think you can seperate those two categories (circumstances and actions) so easily. I suspect you wouldn’t if we were talking about Jamal who grew up in the projects and made the decision to start slinging drugs, or Emmylou who grew up in Redneck Gulch and made the decision to have a baby she couldn’t support.
In all those cases, I see a combination of both societal dysfunction and stupid choices, which lead to ingrained self-destructive behaviors that do indeed last for years, decades, even a lifetime. That’s the story of a loooot of people. Heck, if we define “self-destructive behaviors” broadly enough, that’s probably the story of most everyone I know.
YMMV. Just keep it in mind the next time you find yourself mocking conservatives for overly pat rhetoric about overcoming one’s background.
In any case, IF the article is accurate (and who knows if we can trust the accounts of a con trying to make a few bucks by selling a story), it sems as if Ryan Leaf already hates himself more than any football fan hates him.
He already regards himself as a failure, as a loser, as an a-hole who blew a golden opportunity.
If he ever DID have a huge ego, he sure doesn’t have it now. He already has a lower opinion of Ryan Leaf than his biggest detractors do. He doesn’t seem to get high because he has entitlement issues. He gets high to stop feeling like the lowest piece of crap on Earth.
Astorian, that’s almost why I actually like the article. It’s a pretty bleak picture of a human existence, with the context of celebrity fanfare, expectations, etc.