When we read the piece that Playboy did on Ryan Leaf last fall, we actually felt bad for the guy. Sure, we've taken our fair share of shots at the former Chargers quarterback (like many others, we named him one of the biggest busts in NFL Draft history earlier this year), but it sounds like his life really sucks right now. And the latest piece of news about him is going to make it suck even worse than it already does.
Leaf's former agent Leigh Steinberg just finished writing a book. And in the book, he claims that Leaf didn't want the Colts to draft him No. 1 overall in the 1998 NFL Draft. So in an effort to get the Colts to pass on him, Steinberg orchestrated a plan that involved Leaf skipping a meeting with Indianapolis on purpose so that they would draft Peyton Manning over Leaf. Steinberg contends that the Colts had expressed interest in drafting Leaf over Manning but that Leaf wasn't on board with that and wanted to go second overall.
"I first cleared the idea with Chargers general manager Bobby Beathard, lest San Diego also question my client's reliability," Steinberg says in the book. "Beathard went along with the ruse."
Former Colts general manager Bill Polian says that that's not how he remembers things, though. He appeared on ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning today and said that his intention was to draft Manning over Leaf—and it was not because Leaf missed a meeting with him. Beathard also made an appearance on Mike and Mike and revealed that the Chargers actually tried to trade up in the '98 Draft to get Manning. But they ended up settling for Leaf when the Colts took Manning and, according to him, they realized that they had made a terrible mistake almost immediately.
"[Ryan] was in terrible shape," Beathard said. "He couldn't even complete the jog around the field at the start of practice. It was a disaster from the start and I'm responsible for it."
So who's telling the truth here? It's unclear. We would suspect that Steinberg embellished the Leaf story a bit for the sake of his book. But regardless of what the truth is, Ryan Leaf once again comes out of this minor controversy looking bad. And we're reminded for the 10,000th time that Leaf was one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history. Poor guy.
RELATED: The 25 Biggest Draft Fails in NFL History
[via Pro Football Talk]
