Turning Over an Old Leaf: WSU QB Great Faces Legal Issues Again
Ryan Leaf was doing so well.
Broadcasting college football games and providing commentary for ESPN and the Pac-12 Network.
Telling his story of incarceration, addiction and redemption.
On Friday afternoon, however, came the news that Leaf was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor domestic battery and booked into jail in Palm Springs, California. Details of the alleged incident have not been released.
This has been the story of Ryan Leaf's life -- one of descent and ascent. He seemingly can't have one without the other.
In 1997, he rose to great heights as a Washington State quarterback, leading the Cougars to their first Rose Bowl in 66 years, this after beating Washington in Seattle.
Yet he spent much of the lead-up to the bowl game riding around Los Angeles in limos and listening to people telling him how great he was.
Leaf went to the San Diego Chargers as the No. 2 pick overall in the NFL draft, which was a crowning achievement for him. Yet he played just parts of three seasons and washed out of the league. He couldn't handle adversity. Some consider him the biggest bust in the history of the draft.
He entered college coaching, but before long he was serving time in prison for drug possession and other offenses, including violating his probation. He copped to addiction issues.
Leaf had been doing so well lately, fully embraced once more by his alma mater, which has a new head coach in Nick Rolovich, who is shown speaking in the video about the pandemic and his job. It seemed as if the ex-WSU quarterback was everywhere on the airwaves, humbled and comfortable once and for all in his own skin.
Profiling Leaf remains one of the strangest sportswriting assignments of my career spanning three-plus decades. Shortly after he and the Cougars beat the Huskies 41-35 to win the Apple Cup and a trip to Pasadena, I was asked by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to travel to Great Falls, Montana, and write his roots story.
A strange assignment, a profile of Ryan Leaf
Dan Raley photo
I'd spoken to Leaf throughout the season and actually enjoyed his brashness. I'd even asked him for suggestions on who to speak to on this trip.
For two days in his hometown, I went in and out of his high school, his parents' home, businesses, restaurants and bars, at each stop asking everyone for memories, anecdotes and general thoughts.
I was struck by the fact that nearly all of these people offered exceptionally strong opinions about Ryan Leaf. They either loved or hated him. Middle ground didn't exist.
As my trip began to wind down, Great Falls residents I had met insisted that a trip to the Flamingo Lounge was mandatory for me to get the full flavor of this star-crossed quarterback. The people there would know him.
It was a great tip. Walking into the well-worn establishment on the south side of town, I saw locals playing poker, dancing to country music and drinking Montana-brewed Moose Drool beer.
I sat down and ordered that beverage of choice and started transcribing my notes, at first oblivious to my surroundings. Curious people kept stopping to ask what I was doing.
Writing a story about Ryan Leaf, I said to each inquisitor. I gladly welcomed these intrusions and their input. This was way too easy. Before long, a half-dozen people had invited themselves to my table, sat down and ordered pitchers of Moose Drool beer. I appreciated this Montana friendliness. The discussion of Leaf continued on.
After an hour or more went by, many beers were consumed. The party atmosphere eventually changed on a dime. A pair of men, each 40 years old or more, began to argue. One was an accountant, the other a parks department manager, upstanding citizens who should have known better.
One loudly insisted that Leaf was the greatest quarterback produced by Montana's second-largest city. The other person named someone else and professed his great dislike for the WSU player. They glared at each other.
The men's voices got louder and really agitated. You knew what was coming: They stood up and knocked over tables that were pushed together to accommodate the group.
With nimble reflexes, we grabbed and salvaged some of the Moose Drool pitchers lined up, but not all as they crashed to the floor. Barmaids cleaned up the mess and the barroom combatants were sent home before anyone got injured.
I was stunned by what happened; not their actions mind you, but my good fortune. These guys wrote the intro to my story for me. In the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, I had witnessed Leaf's Continental Divide in its full glory. This became the lead paragraphs and the headline for my lengthy piece.
Over this past weekend, Leaf spent much of his time locked up behind bars in Southern California, a most sad development for somebody who deserved a second chance. He's been assigned a follow-up court date for late September.
Hopefully the ex-WSU quarterback hasn't squandered his good standing in the public eye. Or sacrificed the high-profile broadcasting and speaking careers that he'd worked so hard to establish.
It appears he's still fighting that Continental Divide, only internally.
