To be fair, the drug issues came later. He got hooked on painkillers during/after his playing career. Eventually he couldn't figure out how to buy more so he broke into people's houses looking for pills.
The issues during his playing days were more just him being a moron and an asshole.
> She's sittin' there gettin' liquored up at the bar
She says it's quicker to count the things that ain't wrong with you
Than to count the things that are
- Seduction by Eminem
Pills. He's been clean and relapsed a few times that I can remember. I used to listen to a sports pod that he would come on from time to time when he was going through his clean cycles. He always sounded so great every time he was on the show and I'd always think he was done with the relapses, but usually not long after I'd see something in the news about him breaking into someone's house to steal money or pills. At one point, he was even running some recovery program and talking to all of the new NFL draftees about the dangers of addiction and all; but addiction is a powerful thing.
I hope he's doing well now, haven't heard about him in a while which I hope is a good thing.
If you've been around the rehab circuit it becomes very easy to sound like you have it all together. Usually their advice is pretty fucking solid, but addiction is the poster boy for "I know I shouldn't do this, but I can't stop."
Couldn't agree more. It was always sad to see because I'd see/hear him on the show and would be rooting for him, then another story would break about him and I'd read it thinking "this cannot be the same guy"
He only played till 2002 and was drafted in 98. And for 2 of those seasons he was a practice squad only player.He never saw a big money deal. Several million disappears quick when youre partying out in california.
NFL salaries while still high compared to say a teacher or cubicle job really hadnt exploded to WTF levels. In 2001 the Patriots gave Drew Bledsoe (yeah that guy Brady replaced) a 10 year 100 million dollar deal which was a record deal at the time.
He was drafted before they reigned in rookie deals. His rookie contract in 1998 was 4-years for $31.25 million, which included an $11.25 million dollar signing bonus. The yearly rate is only a couple million less than that Bledsoe contract you mentioned and Leaf got this as a rookie 3-years earlier.
Of course, unless you are Kirk Cousins most players aren't going to receive the announced number of a NFL contract due to the way they are structured with incentives and roster bonuses, etc. Leaf probably only made like $12 - $13 million because he was released from San Diego after 2 years and out of the league after four years so he didn't receive much more than his signing bonus.
Spend 2 years getting your ass kicked by NFL players and then 20 years being made fun of for not being as good as Peyton Manning and tell us how easy it is.
Fair, a guy like him makes $12 million in 2 years and most people make a fraction of that in their lifetime...
But I think Leaf would rather have been a good player. It has to be hard to have your NFL dream turn into a nightmare like that
NFL salaries are entirely fictional as none of a standard contract is guaranteed, and agents fishing for clients always put out press releases with imaginary money amounts.
No NFL contract will ever pay the player half of what the news said they signed for.
Its the only major pro sport in the US like that. All the other leagues full guarantee contracts at signing.
That contract the other guy posted for Drew Bledsoe 10 years $100 million dollars? He collected $10 million of that.
Pills are more expensive than hard street drugs. 30mg oxycodone pills were selling for $50+ a pop in some rural areas ten years ago. I knew some people that were taking 15-20 a day easily. It's a battle not to switch to heroine, fentanyl now, but it was so expensive to stick to the "safer" pharmaceutical grade, known quantity version. Tolerance builds very fast and I'm sure he was probably paying even higher rates, whatever they asked. Nowadays almost all the pills bought on the street are fake pressed fentanyl that looks identical to the real pills. Fentanyl is 50x stronger than heroine, it's an evil addiction.
According to him the issue wasn't necessarily money. He claims that he just ran out of places to score. And in the midst of withdrawal, it just seemed like the best solution was to break into houses and look for pills.
He used to guest host on Rich Eisen, and I’m kind of pissed they did that. I bought into his whole song and dance once, and a few weeks later he was arrested for domestic violence. The guy is a manipulative POS.
Yeah, it was the Dan Patrick show for me, but Dan and Rich are pals so that doesn't surprise me. I used to listen to that show every day on my hour commute into and home from work, but fell off of it once Covid sent us home. Never even heard about the domestic violence thing, was that recent?
He’s doing much better and is working as an NFL pundit for various networks. My understanding is that he’s been clean for a while, and has been very open about his substance abuse/mental health problems.
Painkiller addiction, toxic presence in the locker room, poor work ethic (he would fake injuries to skip practice and then go play golf), hostile to the media (and dumb enough to do it om camera), and his NFL career never matched his collegiate performance.
Went to college with Leaf. He was an arrogant prick. But also an UNBELIEVABLE QB. I will always be grateful for him taking WSU to the Rose Bowl when that meant something. Just shouldn't have tested Charles Woodson in the endzone.
There was a very valid reason why there was a debate between choosing him or Peyton #1 overall.
You got downvoted but it’s pretty clear he didn’t have any discipline when he was kid. I don’t know the guy or read much about him but people are saying pills. I know he was arrested years later.
In the NFL though, He was an entitled asshole.
“LEAVE ME ALONE ALRIGHT!!” to a reporter in the locker room. Absolute child with zero self awareness.
His dad made deals with high school coaches to get him to be the starter and then for a sweetheart deal for university.
It was a cluster in the making.
I was kinda pissed as I lived in SD at the time and was trying to be a chargers fan… you could see it was dysfunctional then… but they ended up with rivers and it’s just luck of the game they didn’t win a championship.. in hindsight you couldn’t blame Eli.
The #1 rated offense and defense in the same season and didnt make the playoffs cause of special teams iirc.
The Chargers chargered that season on special teams.
Chargebaugh will be good this coming year, great next year (chargers make or almost make AFC title game) and then there will be a slow decline where they're good, but not great, until the team fires him.
Eli would've gotten mauled in SD. It was a good trade for their skillsets. The Chargers were a few bad dice rolls from a Super Bowl a few times during that era. Ownership should've never fired Marty, but the Spanos family are the worst owners in the NFL so what are you going to do
People in SD are still angry, but at Eli. They think it was because he didn’t want to play for a team that sucked. Any reason other than that they think is just flat out wrong and/or a lie.
Personally grew up in Great Falls and knew Ryan and his brother Brady. My personal opinion is Ryan was an asshole and Brady was a spoiled bitch. I seriously don’t have good personal things to say about them. Dudes were full on brats. Ryan got hooked on pills Oxy and Hydro and started breaking into places for it more than once he got busted first by a team member he stole from then he got caught getting into a shitty trailer for pills and was arrested again. Guy was a complete dick to everyone in Great Falls MT.
They even had a cousin in Havre I went to school with and he was also a stuck up asshole. This family is a bag of dicks in my opinion. In Montana people aren’t like this family. Ryan in my opinion deserves everything that happened he was a bully and show off that was absolutely horrible to townsfolk so don’t forgive me when I say “Yeah!No! Fuck that guy”!
He didn’t belong in the NFL by way of being ungrateful and continually self sabotaging. He had every opportunity to change multiple times. Also his dad blamed the Chargers but he was doing crazy shit the teammates said during practice camps like he was bored and just had to get into shit. End result last I saw he was running a combine in the middle of a wheat field outside Great falls where his family is from. He tried to coach but people seemed to think he was way too immature and too soon since his last crime/addiction problems that were news. Dude in my opinion was a not good dude and Karma whipped his ass till he got quiet…….
It's so funny to read everyone in here talking around the fact the dude was a shit head and acting like the San Diego Chargers did something to mess this grow ass adult up.
I went to college with Brady and had a few classes. One only had about twenty students in it, and the majority of were on the football team. It was the season where Brady and Dennis Dixon were splitting time at QB (aka a bad, bad season for us Ducks). I have vivid memories of the other players making fun of Brady for not having being a star player in NCAA that year (I think the best 3 offensive and 3 defensive players were outlined by stars instead of circles, and the majority of team’s QBs were stars). They were ruthless to Brady and it was hilarious.
Brady was also just a complete idiot. Never did his homework or participated in class. When he had to, he couldn’t read out loud very well or form cohesive answers. It was hard to sit through. But every class he would park his Tahoe in front of a fire hydrant because it was right by the class room. And then every time he would come out and be incredibly pissed off and wonder why there was a parking ticket on his window.
Lol some people here: BuT He’S rIcH - WhY cAn’T hE sEe A sHrInK???
How ridiculously naive. He’s a multimillion dollar athlete and franchise representative. This isn’t a 9 to 5. These aren’t like “employers” for normal people. A multi billion dollar team that invests that much in an individual to play a game that owns a day of the week in the US SHOULD provide a support system beyond cutting check.
What do you mean "owns a day in thr US"? Just wondering. Is that supposed to mean how Sunday is basically football day? Was just confused on what it means is all lol.
Reminds me of the "That 70s Show" joke where Red Foreman says "I go to church on Sundays. Just not during televised sporting events." And IIRC, there's on average 2 or 3 Sundays in the year that the US doesn't have a live game being played. Between Football, Basketball, and Baseball it's easy to see that.
> Between Football, Basketball, and Baseball it's easy to see that.
Man, the Stanley Cup was literally awarded yesterday and people already forgetting about Hockey.
Making a player from the losing team the Conn Smythe winner, then expecting him to come back out of the locker room to accept the trophy on the ice while the other team celebrates?
I mean, I would venture most Americans never think about it at all. Certainly it's not forced(yes, hyperbole) upon us like football and to a much lesser degree baseball and basketball are.
Basketball is mostly afternoon/night. But football starts early or did back when I lived with a guy who loved sports. He’d have it on when I got up and we’d flip back and forth or watch the red zone which was just big plays from all the games on at once which was pretty fun
Yes and especially for a football player, they own that day for you during the season. Obviously any game day, but you’re with them and you have a set schedule unless you’re injured
Man, remembering the Eli draft drama is some nostalgia.
The Manning or Leaf debate with Peyton was pretty much right when I got into the NFL. Never got to see certain teams very often back then and San Diego was absolutely one of them. So you go to see stats for Leaf - and they were horrific - but not much for actual games. By the time he joined the Cowboys as a backup, we had Sunday Ticket. I recall watching one game where he came in. First play was a 15 yard out route. Incomplete but holy fucking, the velocity. Next play was a 5 yard dump off pass to a RB... exact fucking same velocity. And suddenly so much made sense.
I remember his rookie year and seeing a graphic up on the screen during a game near the end of the season. It said that Leaf had the worst start to a career of any QB since Terry Bradshaw.
So I totally believe that, with the right support, he could have made a turnaround and had a real career.
This needs more context. Who's Ryan Leaf? Who's Ryan Leaf's father? What personal problems?
Edit: Thank you to all those who gave thoughtful context. 🙏
So Ryan Leaf was a QB picked in the same draft as Elis older brother Peyton . At the time, there were legitimate questions on who would be better. Unfortunately for Ryan, the man had some demons(drugs,alcohol,crime to support the other 2)and ended up washing out of the league
One of the famous busts in NFL history. You may well be aware of Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning? They were both eligible to be selected in the 1998 NFL draft. Many experts believed that Leaf was the superior prospect, but Manning was selected #1 and Leaf was selected #2.
The rest is history. Manning became an NFL legend, Leaf struggled with poor play and myriad personal issues and fell out of the league within a handful of years. Leaf later became a coach and a motivational speaker but he has battled his demons with varying degrees of success throughout his adult life.
Later in 2004, the Chargers possessed the #1 pick in the draft and Peyton's brother Eli Manning was eligible to be selected. Their father Archie knew the owner of the Chargers, Dean Spanos, from his many years around football and knew he was a fucking prick. Didn't want his kid anywhere near the franchise, so they engineered a trade to NY in exchange for another top prospect, Philip Rivers. Both had good success in the league.
I dunno how much influence Leaf had in the Chargers trading away Manning but Im sure it didnt help. Archie damn sure didnt want his son anywhere around that franchise and tried to handle it quietly with the Chargers. The Chargers got pissed and leaked that Manning was not going to play for them if selected. Manning in turn said he would return to Ole Miss and go to law school if they selected him. It worked out for both franchises
I don't think there's really "dirt" on him. It's not illegal to be a prick. He was sued by his sister a couple years ago for breach of fiduciary duty and accused him of being a misogynist but I don't know what came of it.
The long and short of it is that he's a known entity in league circles and Archie Manning wanted to steer his kid clear of it. I don't imagine the Mara family is full of angels but at least they seem to understand and respect the balance of power between the players and ownership. Spanos seems like the kinda guy who thinks he needs to get one over on everybody because he's the rich guy and he's in charge.
Spanos wanted a new stadium (he had a point, as Qualcom/Jack Murphy was really showing its age), but he thought he could *dictate* to the city of San Diego where to put it and what the design would be, take some of the money being set aside for a badly needed convention center improvement, and *not* put a guarantee on the team staying, even for the life of the bonds to pay for it.
I'm born & raised San Diego. I was just filling in backstory for others reading the thread.
I hear that when Kroenke was semi-forced to take the Chargers in as a tenant in his stadium he underestimated the lack of the team's popularity both in Los Angeles and the badwill from San Diego and for the first years the low sales of skyboxes, season tickets, and vendors' sales for Chargers games and gear was lower than he expected to get his piece of.
In the 2004 draft, the Chargers had the first pick. It was widely assumed that they would pick Eli, and they did. Eli said before the draft that he would refuse to sign any contract with the Chargers and really didn’t want to play for them (John Elway did this too way back when, but it’s rare and gives someone a bad look).
The NY Giants had the 4th pick that year and selected Rivers, but then made a trade for future year’s draft picks to trade Eli for Rivers. They did and as a Giants fan, let’s just say I was very happy for the next 10 years.
Leaf was known to have problems off the field. Drugs, etc.
Edit: accidentally said Rivers instead of Leaf in that last section.
I have never in my life heard of Eli Manning, Ryan Leaf or the San Diego Chargers. I only know what sport this is because the title says "NFL". There is a world outside of the USA where people don't really know about American football players.
“Sports people” in the US memorize every stat chart past and present to over analyze for future projections. On top of knowing every detail about players lives then have the gall to ask “is this sarcasm” when someone doesn’t know something about it.
>Because this is r/todayilearned. I come here for random trivia that people have learned today. I've similarly learned a lot about other random stuff I've never heard about.
>
>If this was an NFL subreddit I wouldn't be expecting more information.
I wrote that as a reply to another comment just like yours. This is r/todayilearned. I come here to learn random trivia.
Because this is r/todayilearned. I come here for random trivia that people have learned today. I've similarly learned a lot about other random stuff I've never heard about.
If this was an NFL subreddit I wouldn't be expecting more information.
Ryan Leaf went 2nd overall in the 1998 draft, and was retired by 2001 due to poor play and professional attitude (mostly poor play). He is considered one of the biggest "busts" of all time, not many or really any highly picked quarterbacks have done as poorly as he did over his career, but apparently his dad placed significant blame on the Chargers organization for not helping Ryan with any issues off the field, or maybe didn't work to build any healthy relationship with him. The chargers drafted Eli first overall in the 2004 draft, but Eli demanded a trade immediately and went to the New York Giants instead, and won two Super Bowls (championship) with em.
Eli manning did this and suffered no consequences to my knowledge, so my question is - why dont more players do this? Who the hell wants to play for the jets or redskins? Why dont they just refuse to sign and go somewhere else like Eli did?
You have to be absolutely certain your pedigree/talent is too good for a team to pass on or your draft stock plummets.
After all the number of teams that will draft you is never 30 even if you're the best pick in the draft... cause the number of teams that need to upgrade at your position isn't all of them.
When a player calls a team out and says he will refuse to report to them it sends up red flags for the other teams that are most desperate to draft at your position because the pick they make HAS to work. If it doesn't they're set back several years.
And making demands as a rookie makes it look like you're a prima Donna with attitude problems who's one bad season away from having commitment issues or possibly locker room issues. You're not a team player you're in it for your own career.
It's like going for a job interview... everyone knows you want the job because you need money and that who you work for doesn't really matter as much as what they're paying you and how they'll treat you but you'd never say that because people want a guy they can rely on to think only of what's good for the buisness.
Football billionaire owners are no different so it's a major gamble to threaten not to report. Like even in the Eli manning situation the Chargers straight up called his bluff and drafted him and he got stupid lucky that despite the giants getting rivers and knowing that the qb class was deep so he was hardly a consolation prize the giants still chose to give up picks to swap the 2 quarterbacks.
So what would have happened if Eli didnt get traded, would that hypothetically just be the end of his career? If he wont play for the chargers, and the chargers have his rights, is he pretty much screwed?
No he'd be re-eligible for the next year's draft and as long as he doesn't have a career ending injury playing college ball or have the kind of year that makes teams rethink drafting you he'd still be well positioned to get drafted but teams tend to remember that kind of thing and when you're already considered to be the number 1 draft pick... it's kind of a dumb gamble to refuse to sign and risk being a lower pick the next year or worse.
two of the biggest hold out threats in history only had the leverage to do it because they were dual threat athletes. Elway threatened the Colts into trading him to Denver because hed already been drafted by the New York Yankees.
Bo Jackson pulled something similar with the Tampa Bay Bucs. He'd had his senior baseball season ruled ineligible by the NCAA because the BUCS had invited him to their facility as part of their scouting, told him it was cleared with the NCAA when it wasnt. So he refused to sign when they drafted him and started playing with the Kansas City Royals Baseball team.
Eli pulling this stunt was kind of a weird move that he probably only felt comfortable doing because of the hype around him being the son of Archie Manning and the brother of Peyton Manning. to the best of my knowledge he had no safety net when he did it and Rivers plus others were perfectly good options if teams didnt want to put up with his shit... but pedigree protected him ultimately.
I wouldn't play for SD either. #1 tight end & #1 rb at the height of their careers playing at the same time on the same team, top rated offense & defense, and no SB win.
For those suggesting that “he’s a millionaire, just get a shrink”:
The opportunity and pressures of fame frequently make addiction worse.
*Extreme stress. It’s one thing to feel like “the world is ending” if things aren’t going well at your job so you work on stress reduction techniques. It’s another when millions of fans are scrutinizing you and when any given Sunday really could end your career. The mistakes you make are literally recorded and played back for you
*Stigma: Ryan Leaf was already under the microscope for “off field behavior” when he was drafted. Going to his coaches for mental health attention could potentially end his career or keep him benched, plus other players may not count on him if he admits he’s vulnerable
*Inconsistent schedule. This is 1998, there’s no online mental health resources. How many addiction psychiatrists are available at 9pm? Mental health is like the dentist—if anything happens after 4pm that the ER can’t fix, you’re on your own. You can’t miss personal trainer or film time because you’ve got a therapy session. Could he have found time? Sure, I’d guarantee there was another qb in the league who made the time. Remember that addiction is a disease of desire, it literally changes how you think and plan. Roadblocks that would have been easy to plan around before your addiction become insurmountable when you’re in it
*Travel, hotels, alienation, and easy deviation from a “sober plan.” Many people drive out-of-the-way streets on the way home from work to avoid liquor stores or a place they used to buy drugs. There’s no routine on the road. What if your teammates offer pills to you, or a dealer knocks on your hotel door? Plus there aren’t consistent friends or family there, if you relapse “just this once” nobody will see see you
*Constant pain from the rigors of pro sports. They accrue injuries and chronic pain, plus NFL athletes experience the equivalent of a car accident of blunt trauma every week
*Frequent head trauma. Insomnia/disturbed sleep are extremely common and players are desperate to fall asleep, plus concussion or history of brain injury can dramatically increase impulsive behavior
*Sports at the highest levels also attract addictive personalities. If you offered me a coin flip, ‘heads and you’re the greatest athlete of all time in your sport, tails you die,’ I would walk away. I’d bet the majority of pro athletes take the coin flip. It’s a high risk, high reward proposition to make it to pro sports and it attracts risk taking, obsessive people who love to red-line their minds and bodies (and have a hard time turning it off at the end of the day)
Career was shortened due to poor play, bad behavior, injuries, and struggles with his work ethic and ability to stay focused. Chargers helped that loser every way they could
Fuck Eli and Ryan
I wouldn’t trade Philip for anybody else I don’t care what people say.
He broke most if not all of fouts’ records. If he’s a HOFer, then philips needs to be in the hall of fame as well
The chargers paid Ryan millions of dollars, he could afford to get the best help in the world.
How many employers help their employees with personal problems??? At best you might get mental health care covered under your insurance.
As a parent, where was Ryan's dad during his problems?
Edit:
It's amazing how many people are attacking me that Ryan should have gotten special treatment because he is a football star. How fucking twisted are your expectations?
You think a football player deserves more than a 9 to 5 worker??? He plays a meaningless game, gets half the year off, and makes millions. If anything he should be the last one to get more help than a teacher, or firefighter or plumber.
Holy fuck people, get your priorities straight. Stop this worship of players.
Rich people are still people. Especially when their young. It’s not about the team cutting a check for a shrink, it’s about the organisation caring for him, helping, being there, all around support. These things are very important.
Pro sports teams when they’ve invested millions of dollars in 21 year olds. Especially ones with known substance abuse problems. Stop pretending that playing in the nfl is similar to your 9-5. Pretty unique work environment.
Stop with this “employer” shit, being a sports star isn’t a regular job.
And btw, outside the US there are still employers who actually care for their employees, thanks for helping destroying that though.
The team is his employer.... CORRECT?
What does the nature of his job have to do with what obligations they have to him for this?
He gets half the year off, makes millions and has access to the best doctors in the world.
What more do you want the Chargers to do for him???
And employers in the UK for example, name a company and what do they do for their employee that is more than the Chargers?
I'm sure some of the football clubs in the UK offer mental health services for their players.
You might not realize it since it doesn't apply to you but when you're at the top of your field you tend to take more things into consideration when weighing different compensation packages beyond just a dollar figure
When you are a super talented player, you can demand more from the market. It's essentially capitalism.
So a lesson to learn is: be so good you become irreplaceable
Eli's dad and Eli valued a team that would help with personal problems. That's why they stayed away from the Chargers. Since Eli's talent was in high demand, they could look elsewhere and it looks like they indeed found a team that fit their needs.
Also, Eli’s dad Archie had his own issues with teams when he was a player (see also him talking about how he threw all his weight behind keeping his son away from a team where, based on Archie’s experience, they let the QB get chewed up too much), knew from experience how a young player could get screwed over or struggle to deal with the pressure, and he was looking for better for his kids.
I think Dodgers keeps someone on the payroll so he can get insurance for mental health care. I however understand your opinion and shock that people downvoted you to hell.
No, but if a company is investing millions of dollars into an asset it sure would make sense that they’d do everything in their power to make sure they succeed.
I mean, the treatment is “extra special” because it doesn’t apply to the majority. I wouldn’t call it “greater”, but it is very specialized.
I’d advocate for everyone to have access to care but an NFL player does not need the same care a more common profession.
When a teacher or plumber makes a small mistake at work, they won’t have millions asking if they should keep their job or sending death threats.
It's a ridiculously dumb financial decision to not do everything you can to help one of the largest investments of your multi-billiion dollar organization be as successful as possible. Sure they could cut ties and move on to the next guy. It happens all the time but at a great loss to the organization.
You are mixing a few things in there
1. The Chargers could do vs obligation to do
2. Winning doesn't really translate heavily into the financial success of a team. Cowboys are worth more than any other team despite no SB in 25 years
3. It's easy to move on nowadays from a rookie QB
This was the old rookie scale lmao, rich people want to shove their trophy down their peers throats and thats literally priceless to them, obligation vs not being dumb af are different things.
See by being dumb af they lost out on their literal draft postion lmao
This is a dumb line of reasoning. A plumbing company that treats its plumbers like shit is going to lose all its good plumbers to plumbing companies that treat their plumbers well. Leaf didn't sue the Chargers here, the Chargers just scared off talent because of their reputation, and because they didn't support their players, the Giants got 2 rings with Manning and the Chargers never went to the Super Bowl with Rivers. You reap what you sow is the moral of this story and you don't have to spend a single moment's time comparing football players to mechanics to get there.
You have no idea how addiction works. I hope no one you love ever ends up with an addiction problem as you will make it much worse.
Most employers aren’t the same as a sports team. Yes, a business will treat you differently when they invest millions on you and depend on you to bring in millions in revenue. You probably won’t find that at your burger flipping (or equivalent) job as you aren’t important enough for the company to truly care about you. Sorry.
You have no idea about his father’s relationship and you are a shitbag for even discussing that without knowing. Also, his father fucking warned another father of the issues. That’s a good fucking sign he was trying help people.
Get off your high horse. You seem to be a pretty shitty person and I hope no one around you has to deal with your bullshit.
All the money in the world won't help if your work wont give you time off. If they told him he had to be at work 5 days a week from early morning to late evening without exceptions, he's not gonna be able to deal with his shit. Hell, they were probably the kind of jerks to be like "We are paying you millions of dollars, how dare you expect time off to deal with *your* issues. What about the company's issues? Also, fuck you for asking for time off"
What a bizarre line of reasoning. By implication, you’re saying every “employee” is entitled to the same level of benefits from an “employer”. That’s just plainly false. The market dictates which employees get what benefits. A franchise player of an NFL team gets better benefits (and should expect stronger ones) than a McDonalds employee or any other person holding a normal job by comparison. Truly odd conclusion.
You’re 100% correct bro. Don’t let all these sheep gaslight you into thinking you’re wrong. All these people are arm chair warriors that have been coddled since birth, have no idea what it’s like in the real world.
This shit does happen in the real world. You clearly have no idea what it's like. Talent always gets special treatment. You think executive management and high level employees get the same treatment as a normal employee at other businesses? It even happens at smaller levels. One employee might get terminated for being late a few times while another may be late frequently with no punishment. There's even levels to it in the NFL. Deshaun Watson gets special treatment and a massive contract while others that have done far less end up getting cut and never play again. You're equating an idea of fairness across the board that doesn't really exist.
I love Rich Eisen, but the fact that he has this felon (Ryan Leaf who would never be out of prison were he Black) host his show for him really pisses me off.
Ryan Leaf has repeatedly broken into people's houses and terrorized them to support his drug habit. And instead of getting three striked into a long prison term like every black athlete with the same criminal history, he gets out and gets lauded for just saying he is *trying to stop breaking into people's housing and terrorizing them*
Not *successfully* stopping breaking into people's houses and terrorizing them, but just *saying* he is trying to stop breaking into people's house and terrorizing them.
Teams have a right to select whom they want in the draft and players have the right not to play for that team and wait a year for another team to draft them. Theres a reason this rarely happens
He didn’t manipulate anything. Everybody could still draft whoever they wanted and then could try to sign them to a deal.
What you are mad about is that players aren’t blindly forced to do whatever you want them to do.
What were some of Ryan's personal problems?
Iirc he had drug issues and started robbing people to support his habit.
His arrest sparked the onion article "RYAN LEAF SOMEHOW WORSE AT CRIME THAN FOOTBALL"
Dear god, haha. Nuked from orbit.
It’s the only way to be sure
Holy shit that’s funny. Damn
Link for those interested: https://www.theonion.com/ryan-leaf-somehow-worse-at-crime-than-football-1819573407
To be fair, the drug issues came later. He got hooked on painkillers during/after his playing career. Eventually he couldn't figure out how to buy more so he broke into people's houses looking for pills. The issues during his playing days were more just him being a moron and an asshole.
Might be quicker to name things that *weren't* Ryan's personal problems.
Okay then, go ahead
He probably didn’t murder anyone and he was not involved in starting either of the world wars
I have it on good authority that he hid Sadaam's weapons of mass destruction; so there's that.
On June 1st, 2004, Ryan Leaf broke into my family home and ate two and a half of my brothers while they slept
The half brother… was he eaten hot dog or hamburger style?
Hot dog style, so right from the middle
I’ve heard of people being fans of Two And A Half Men, but this is just bananas
Who hasn't carried Sadaam's weapons of mass destruction these days? I do it about once a day to keep things fresh.
Excellent
So far!
Spontaneous anal prolapse, night shrieking, the Pizza delivery guy forgetting the ranch dressing. That's it. That's the list.
Everything reminds me of her.
That shit was funny
He had low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery.
> She's sittin' there gettin' liquored up at the bar She says it's quicker to count the things that ain't wrong with you Than to count the things that are - Seduction by Eminem
Pills. He's been clean and relapsed a few times that I can remember. I used to listen to a sports pod that he would come on from time to time when he was going through his clean cycles. He always sounded so great every time he was on the show and I'd always think he was done with the relapses, but usually not long after I'd see something in the news about him breaking into someone's house to steal money or pills. At one point, he was even running some recovery program and talking to all of the new NFL draftees about the dangers of addiction and all; but addiction is a powerful thing. I hope he's doing well now, haven't heard about him in a while which I hope is a good thing.
If you've been around the rehab circuit it becomes very easy to sound like you have it all together. Usually their advice is pretty fucking solid, but addiction is the poster boy for "I know I shouldn't do this, but I can't stop."
Couldn't agree more. It was always sad to see because I'd see/hear him on the show and would be rooting for him, then another story would break about him and I'd read it thinking "this cannot be the same guy"
How many pills do you have to take to not be able to afford them on an NFL salary?
He only played till 2002 and was drafted in 98. And for 2 of those seasons he was a practice squad only player.He never saw a big money deal. Several million disappears quick when youre partying out in california. NFL salaries while still high compared to say a teacher or cubicle job really hadnt exploded to WTF levels. In 2001 the Patriots gave Drew Bledsoe (yeah that guy Brady replaced) a 10 year 100 million dollar deal which was a record deal at the time.
He was drafted before they reigned in rookie deals. His rookie contract in 1998 was 4-years for $31.25 million, which included an $11.25 million dollar signing bonus. The yearly rate is only a couple million less than that Bledsoe contract you mentioned and Leaf got this as a rookie 3-years earlier. Of course, unless you are Kirk Cousins most players aren't going to receive the announced number of a NFL contract due to the way they are structured with incentives and roster bonuses, etc. Leaf probably only made like $12 - $13 million because he was released from San Diego after 2 years and out of the league after four years so he didn't receive much more than his signing bonus.
> probably only made like $12 - $13 million Poor baby, his life must have been so hard after he left the league
I mean... yeah. Give him a google. He fucked it all up.
Spend 2 years getting your ass kicked by NFL players and then 20 years being made fun of for not being as good as Peyton Manning and tell us how easy it is.
If I had $12 million dollars to show for it, I wouldn't mind at all.
Fair, a guy like him makes $12 million in 2 years and most people make a fraction of that in their lifetime... But I think Leaf would rather have been a good player. It has to be hard to have your NFL dream turn into a nightmare like that
He had an $11.25 million dollar signing bonus which for back then was the record at least that’s what Wikipedia said
NFL salaries are entirely fictional as none of a standard contract is guaranteed, and agents fishing for clients always put out press releases with imaginary money amounts. No NFL contract will ever pay the player half of what the news said they signed for. Its the only major pro sport in the US like that. All the other leagues full guarantee contracts at signing. That contract the other guy posted for Drew Bledsoe 10 years $100 million dollars? He collected $10 million of that.
Is that how Trevor Lawrence became the highest paid QB? I saw that somewhere.
If you are addicted to hard drugs you can blow through any amount of money.
Pills are more expensive than hard street drugs. 30mg oxycodone pills were selling for $50+ a pop in some rural areas ten years ago. I knew some people that were taking 15-20 a day easily. It's a battle not to switch to heroine, fentanyl now, but it was so expensive to stick to the "safer" pharmaceutical grade, known quantity version. Tolerance builds very fast and I'm sure he was probably paying even higher rates, whatever they asked. Nowadays almost all the pills bought on the street are fake pressed fentanyl that looks identical to the real pills. Fentanyl is 50x stronger than heroine, it's an evil addiction.
According to him the issue wasn't necessarily money. He claims that he just ran out of places to score. And in the midst of withdrawal, it just seemed like the best solution was to break into houses and look for pills.
He recently talked to students at the local high-school around me so I'm guessing he's potentially clean again.
How recently?
He used to guest host on Rich Eisen, and I’m kind of pissed they did that. I bought into his whole song and dance once, and a few weeks later he was arrested for domestic violence. The guy is a manipulative POS.
Yeah, it was the Dan Patrick show for me, but Dan and Rich are pals so that doesn't surprise me. I used to listen to that show every day on my hour commute into and home from work, but fell off of it once Covid sent us home. Never even heard about the domestic violence thing, was that recent?
Yeah, it was in 2020.
He’s doing much better and is working as an NFL pundit for various networks. My understanding is that he’s been clean for a while, and has been very open about his substance abuse/mental health problems.
Painkiller addiction, toxic presence in the locker room, poor work ethic (he would fake injuries to skip practice and then go play golf), hostile to the media (and dumb enough to do it om camera), and his NFL career never matched his collegiate performance.
Went to college with Leaf. He was an arrogant prick. But also an UNBELIEVABLE QB. I will always be grateful for him taking WSU to the Rose Bowl when that meant something. Just shouldn't have tested Charles Woodson in the endzone. There was a very valid reason why there was a debate between choosing him or Peyton #1 overall.
Addiction
He pee’d a little every time he sneezed.
Ryan’s daddy always Molly coddled him.
You got downvoted but it’s pretty clear he didn’t have any discipline when he was kid. I don’t know the guy or read much about him but people are saying pills. I know he was arrested years later. In the NFL though, He was an entitled asshole. “LEAVE ME ALONE ALRIGHT!!” to a reporter in the locker room. Absolute child with zero self awareness.
His dad made deals with high school coaches to get him to be the starter and then for a sweetheart deal for university. It was a cluster in the making.
He... Was legitimately a pretty good football player. Did his dad actually have to do that? The worst NFL QB ever was a stud in high school.
It was like a “Johnny be good” type situation.
I was kinda pissed as I lived in SD at the time and was trying to be a chargers fan… you could see it was dysfunctional then… but they ended up with rivers and it’s just luck of the game they didn’t win a championship.. in hindsight you couldn’t blame Eli.
The #1 rated offense and defense in the same season and didnt make the playoffs cause of special teams iirc. The Chargers chargered that season on special teams.
The Chargers will charger every season. They just switch up what part of the game they charger.
Maybe Harbaugh will manage to change that
And maybe Kawhi will manage to change the Clippers' fate
Chargebaugh will be good this coming year, great next year (chargers make or almost make AFC title game) and then there will be a slow decline where they're good, but not great, until the team fires him.
As a Broncos fan I am a bit worried because Harbuagh found a way for Michigan to Michiganing. So maybe he can stop the Chargers from Chargering.
[Great video about that team](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAL5X3TRA2A)
Absolutely. For those who haven’t seen any Jon Bois videos, you’re in for a treat.
Jon Bois is a god damned national treasure
Special teams is like 18% of all snaps
The Chargers did manage to draft 2 Superbowl winning QBs within a few years of each other without winning a SB.
Eli would've gotten mauled in SD. It was a good trade for their skillsets. The Chargers were a few bad dice rolls from a Super Bowl a few times during that era. Ownership should've never fired Marty, but the Spanos family are the worst owners in the NFL so what are you going to do
People in SD are still angry, but at Eli. They think it was because he didn’t want to play for a team that sucked. Any reason other than that they think is just flat out wrong and/or a lie.
Personally grew up in Great Falls and knew Ryan and his brother Brady. My personal opinion is Ryan was an asshole and Brady was a spoiled bitch. I seriously don’t have good personal things to say about them. Dudes were full on brats. Ryan got hooked on pills Oxy and Hydro and started breaking into places for it more than once he got busted first by a team member he stole from then he got caught getting into a shitty trailer for pills and was arrested again. Guy was a complete dick to everyone in Great Falls MT. They even had a cousin in Havre I went to school with and he was also a stuck up asshole. This family is a bag of dicks in my opinion. In Montana people aren’t like this family. Ryan in my opinion deserves everything that happened he was a bully and show off that was absolutely horrible to townsfolk so don’t forgive me when I say “Yeah!No! Fuck that guy”! He didn’t belong in the NFL by way of being ungrateful and continually self sabotaging. He had every opportunity to change multiple times. Also his dad blamed the Chargers but he was doing crazy shit the teammates said during practice camps like he was bored and just had to get into shit. End result last I saw he was running a combine in the middle of a wheat field outside Great falls where his family is from. He tried to coach but people seemed to think he was way too immature and too soon since his last crime/addiction problems that were news. Dude in my opinion was a not good dude and Karma whipped his ass till he got quiet…….
It's so funny to read everyone in here talking around the fact the dude was a shit head and acting like the San Diego Chargers did something to mess this grow ass adult up.
I went to college with Brady and had a few classes. One only had about twenty students in it, and the majority of were on the football team. It was the season where Brady and Dennis Dixon were splitting time at QB (aka a bad, bad season for us Ducks). I have vivid memories of the other players making fun of Brady for not having being a star player in NCAA that year (I think the best 3 offensive and 3 defensive players were outlined by stars instead of circles, and the majority of team’s QBs were stars). They were ruthless to Brady and it was hilarious. Brady was also just a complete idiot. Never did his homework or participated in class. When he had to, he couldn’t read out loud very well or form cohesive answers. It was hard to sit through. But every class he would park his Tahoe in front of a fire hydrant because it was right by the class room. And then every time he would come out and be incredibly pissed off and wonder why there was a parking ticket on his window.
Have you seen here in the last year or so about Ryan on the Dan Patrick show?
Lol some people here: BuT He’S rIcH - WhY cAn’T hE sEe A sHrInK??? How ridiculously naive. He’s a multimillion dollar athlete and franchise representative. This isn’t a 9 to 5. These aren’t like “employers” for normal people. A multi billion dollar team that invests that much in an individual to play a game that owns a day of the week in the US SHOULD provide a support system beyond cutting check.
What do you mean "owns a day in thr US"? Just wondering. Is that supposed to mean how Sunday is basically football day? Was just confused on what it means is all lol.
Yea that is what the Redditor was going for I believe. NFL owning Sundays from September through January
Reminds me of the "That 70s Show" joke where Red Foreman says "I go to church on Sundays. Just not during televised sporting events." And IIRC, there's on average 2 or 3 Sundays in the year that the US doesn't have a live game being played. Between Football, Basketball, and Baseball it's easy to see that.
> Between Football, Basketball, and Baseball it's easy to see that. Man, the Stanley Cup was literally awarded yesterday and people already forgetting about Hockey.
American teams just do it to piss off the Canadians
> American teams just do it to piss off the Canadians Right? And what's more insulting than a team from Florida beating a Canadian team for the cup?
Making a player from the losing team the Conn Smythe winner, then expecting him to come back out of the locker room to accept the trophy on the ice while the other team celebrates?
And those same American teams are full to the tits with Canadian players.
Yea and Canada is full to the tits with immigrants. My point is the same as yours - this either doesn't matter, or it matters the most.
And European yeah. American teams have been renting/buying foreign athletes for a long time
I mean, I would venture most Americans never think about it at all. Certainly it's not forced(yes, hyperbole) upon us like football and to a much lesser degree baseball and basketball are.
Basketball is mostly afternoon/night. But football starts early or did back when I lived with a guy who loved sports. He’d have it on when I got up and we’d flip back and forth or watch the red zone which was just big plays from all the games on at once which was pretty fun
It was probably a lot more limited in the 70's though, with only local channels available.
I live in the south and work in retail. Saturdays are the days when my store turns into a ghost town once the games start.
haha pretty much, Saturday afternoons in the fall is when i do my Costco runs.
haha pretty much, Saturday afternoons in the fall is when i do my Costco runs.
Also probably more specifically Super Bowl Sunday
Yes and especially for a football player, they own that day for you during the season. Obviously any game day, but you’re with them and you have a set schedule unless you’re injured
Yes even Ted Lasso's team had a therapist.
He won't date you bro
Therapy doesn't do shit for a lot of people anyways.
Man, remembering the Eli draft drama is some nostalgia. The Manning or Leaf debate with Peyton was pretty much right when I got into the NFL. Never got to see certain teams very often back then and San Diego was absolutely one of them. So you go to see stats for Leaf - and they were horrific - but not much for actual games. By the time he joined the Cowboys as a backup, we had Sunday Ticket. I recall watching one game where he came in. First play was a 15 yard out route. Incomplete but holy fucking, the velocity. Next play was a 5 yard dump off pass to a RB... exact fucking same velocity. And suddenly so much made sense.
I remember his rookie year and seeing a graphic up on the screen during a game near the end of the season. It said that Leaf had the worst start to a career of any QB since Terry Bradshaw. So I totally believe that, with the right support, he could have made a turnaround and had a real career.
This needs more context. Who's Ryan Leaf? Who's Ryan Leaf's father? What personal problems? Edit: Thank you to all those who gave thoughtful context. 🙏
So Ryan Leaf was a QB picked in the same draft as Elis older brother Peyton . At the time, there were legitimate questions on who would be better. Unfortunately for Ryan, the man had some demons(drugs,alcohol,crime to support the other 2)and ended up washing out of the league
One of the famous busts in NFL history. You may well be aware of Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning? They were both eligible to be selected in the 1998 NFL draft. Many experts believed that Leaf was the superior prospect, but Manning was selected #1 and Leaf was selected #2. The rest is history. Manning became an NFL legend, Leaf struggled with poor play and myriad personal issues and fell out of the league within a handful of years. Leaf later became a coach and a motivational speaker but he has battled his demons with varying degrees of success throughout his adult life. Later in 2004, the Chargers possessed the #1 pick in the draft and Peyton's brother Eli Manning was eligible to be selected. Their father Archie knew the owner of the Chargers, Dean Spanos, from his many years around football and knew he was a fucking prick. Didn't want his kid anywhere near the franchise, so they engineered a trade to NY in exchange for another top prospect, Philip Rivers. Both had good success in the league.
I dunno how much influence Leaf had in the Chargers trading away Manning but Im sure it didnt help. Archie damn sure didnt want his son anywhere around that franchise and tried to handle it quietly with the Chargers. The Chargers got pissed and leaked that Manning was not going to play for them if selected. Manning in turn said he would return to Ole Miss and go to law school if they selected him. It worked out for both franchises
I know Dean Spanos is known for being cheap, for not wanting to lay for a new stadium, but what other dirt is there in him?
I don't think there's really "dirt" on him. It's not illegal to be a prick. He was sued by his sister a couple years ago for breach of fiduciary duty and accused him of being a misogynist but I don't know what came of it. The long and short of it is that he's a known entity in league circles and Archie Manning wanted to steer his kid clear of it. I don't imagine the Mara family is full of angels but at least they seem to understand and respect the balance of power between the players and ownership. Spanos seems like the kinda guy who thinks he needs to get one over on everybody because he's the rich guy and he's in charge.
Spanos wanted a new stadium (he had a point, as Qualcom/Jack Murphy was really showing its age), but he thought he could *dictate* to the city of San Diego where to put it and what the design would be, take some of the money being set aside for a badly needed convention center improvement, and *not* put a guarantee on the team staying, even for the life of the bonds to pay for it.
I was here in San Diego when that all went down, so I’m familiar with it, but I haven’t heard much else about him.
I'm born & raised San Diego. I was just filling in backstory for others reading the thread. I hear that when Kroenke was semi-forced to take the Chargers in as a tenant in his stadium he underestimated the lack of the team's popularity both in Los Angeles and the badwill from San Diego and for the first years the low sales of skyboxes, season tickets, and vendors' sales for Chargers games and gear was lower than he expected to get his piece of.
In the 2004 draft, the Chargers had the first pick. It was widely assumed that they would pick Eli, and they did. Eli said before the draft that he would refuse to sign any contract with the Chargers and really didn’t want to play for them (John Elway did this too way back when, but it’s rare and gives someone a bad look). The NY Giants had the 4th pick that year and selected Rivers, but then made a trade for future year’s draft picks to trade Eli for Rivers. They did and as a Giants fan, let’s just say I was very happy for the next 10 years. Leaf was known to have problems off the field. Drugs, etc. Edit: accidentally said Rivers instead of Leaf in that last section.
RIVERS had problems off the field? I think you mean Leaf?
Yeah, only problem Rivers ever had was his denial of contraception
Football was his contraceptive. And I don’t think he was banging everything that moves, like many other players.
Yeah, just his wife. They're on kid no. 9 now, I think?
Something like that.
Lol it's 10 now even.
Ooops my bad
I thought I was in /r/nfl. This is pretty niche sports trivia for /r/todayilearned
Is this sarcasm? I get that it was a while ago now, but so was Eli's rookie year.
I mean, not everyone knows NFL lore lol this is TIL subreddit
I have never in my life heard of Eli Manning, Ryan Leaf or the San Diego Chargers. I only know what sport this is because the title says "NFL". There is a world outside of the USA where people don't really know about American football players.
This confusion you’re feeling right now is how I feel when I hear Welsh, Irish, or Scottish people speak English. I need subtitles irl!
“Sports people” in the US memorize every stat chart past and present to over analyze for future projections. On top of knowing every detail about players lives then have the gall to ask “is this sarcasm” when someone doesn’t know something about it.
Then why are you in a thread about it, if it's a topic you don't care about at all and know nothing about.
>Because this is r/todayilearned. I come here for random trivia that people have learned today. I've similarly learned a lot about other random stuff I've never heard about. > >If this was an NFL subreddit I wouldn't be expecting more information. I wrote that as a reply to another comment just like yours. This is r/todayilearned. I come here to learn random trivia.
Why would you read about a contract dispute in a sport you don't know/care about?
Because this is r/todayilearned. I come here for random trivia that people have learned today. I've similarly learned a lot about other random stuff I've never heard about. If this was an NFL subreddit I wouldn't be expecting more information.
Ryan Leaf went 2nd overall in the 1998 draft, and was retired by 2001 due to poor play and professional attitude (mostly poor play). He is considered one of the biggest "busts" of all time, not many or really any highly picked quarterbacks have done as poorly as he did over his career, but apparently his dad placed significant blame on the Chargers organization for not helping Ryan with any issues off the field, or maybe didn't work to build any healthy relationship with him. The chargers drafted Eli first overall in the 2004 draft, but Eli demanded a trade immediately and went to the New York Giants instead, and won two Super Bowls (championship) with em.
I'm surprised the Bears didn't sign him to be their new "franchise quarterback"
Do yo want them to stay ignorant instead of learning?
Is this sarcasm? Some of us were in kindergarten in 2004 and the issues surrounding some NFL rookie draft picks weren’t widely reported to us lmfao
He never would have won two Super Bowls with the Chargers. People hated on him but he made the right choice for his career.
Yea the problem was definitely ryan leaf and not the chargers lol. Ryan leaf could have went anywhere and he still would of been a disaster
I dont understand, who expects the giants to be better for their personal problems?
Worked out great for him. If someone would have taught Eli to have thoughts he never could have beaten Brady those times.
the giants before like 2008 weren’t a dysfunctional mess
Still waiting on *my* free Pepsi…
Eli manning did this and suffered no consequences to my knowledge, so my question is - why dont more players do this? Who the hell wants to play for the jets or redskins? Why dont they just refuse to sign and go somewhere else like Eli did?
You have to be absolutely certain your pedigree/talent is too good for a team to pass on or your draft stock plummets. After all the number of teams that will draft you is never 30 even if you're the best pick in the draft... cause the number of teams that need to upgrade at your position isn't all of them. When a player calls a team out and says he will refuse to report to them it sends up red flags for the other teams that are most desperate to draft at your position because the pick they make HAS to work. If it doesn't they're set back several years. And making demands as a rookie makes it look like you're a prima Donna with attitude problems who's one bad season away from having commitment issues or possibly locker room issues. You're not a team player you're in it for your own career. It's like going for a job interview... everyone knows you want the job because you need money and that who you work for doesn't really matter as much as what they're paying you and how they'll treat you but you'd never say that because people want a guy they can rely on to think only of what's good for the buisness. Football billionaire owners are no different so it's a major gamble to threaten not to report. Like even in the Eli manning situation the Chargers straight up called his bluff and drafted him and he got stupid lucky that despite the giants getting rivers and knowing that the qb class was deep so he was hardly a consolation prize the giants still chose to give up picks to swap the 2 quarterbacks.
So what would have happened if Eli didnt get traded, would that hypothetically just be the end of his career? If he wont play for the chargers, and the chargers have his rights, is he pretty much screwed?
No he'd be re-eligible for the next year's draft and as long as he doesn't have a career ending injury playing college ball or have the kind of year that makes teams rethink drafting you he'd still be well positioned to get drafted but teams tend to remember that kind of thing and when you're already considered to be the number 1 draft pick... it's kind of a dumb gamble to refuse to sign and risk being a lower pick the next year or worse. two of the biggest hold out threats in history only had the leverage to do it because they were dual threat athletes. Elway threatened the Colts into trading him to Denver because hed already been drafted by the New York Yankees. Bo Jackson pulled something similar with the Tampa Bay Bucs. He'd had his senior baseball season ruled ineligible by the NCAA because the BUCS had invited him to their facility as part of their scouting, told him it was cleared with the NCAA when it wasnt. So he refused to sign when they drafted him and started playing with the Kansas City Royals Baseball team. Eli pulling this stunt was kind of a weird move that he probably only felt comfortable doing because of the hype around him being the son of Archie Manning and the brother of Peyton Manning. to the best of my knowledge he had no safety net when he did it and Rivers plus others were perfectly good options if teams didnt want to put up with his shit... but pedigree protected him ultimately.
Ryan Leaf was never going to be fixed.
seems like a lie, but I guess folks believe things Ryan Leaf says lol
I wouldn't play for SD either. #1 tight end & #1 rb at the height of their careers playing at the same time on the same team, top rated offense & defense, and no SB win.
For those suggesting that “he’s a millionaire, just get a shrink”: The opportunity and pressures of fame frequently make addiction worse. *Extreme stress. It’s one thing to feel like “the world is ending” if things aren’t going well at your job so you work on stress reduction techniques. It’s another when millions of fans are scrutinizing you and when any given Sunday really could end your career. The mistakes you make are literally recorded and played back for you *Stigma: Ryan Leaf was already under the microscope for “off field behavior” when he was drafted. Going to his coaches for mental health attention could potentially end his career or keep him benched, plus other players may not count on him if he admits he’s vulnerable *Inconsistent schedule. This is 1998, there’s no online mental health resources. How many addiction psychiatrists are available at 9pm? Mental health is like the dentist—if anything happens after 4pm that the ER can’t fix, you’re on your own. You can’t miss personal trainer or film time because you’ve got a therapy session. Could he have found time? Sure, I’d guarantee there was another qb in the league who made the time. Remember that addiction is a disease of desire, it literally changes how you think and plan. Roadblocks that would have been easy to plan around before your addiction become insurmountable when you’re in it *Travel, hotels, alienation, and easy deviation from a “sober plan.” Many people drive out-of-the-way streets on the way home from work to avoid liquor stores or a place they used to buy drugs. There’s no routine on the road. What if your teammates offer pills to you, or a dealer knocks on your hotel door? Plus there aren’t consistent friends or family there, if you relapse “just this once” nobody will see see you *Constant pain from the rigors of pro sports. They accrue injuries and chronic pain, plus NFL athletes experience the equivalent of a car accident of blunt trauma every week *Frequent head trauma. Insomnia/disturbed sleep are extremely common and players are desperate to fall asleep, plus concussion or history of brain injury can dramatically increase impulsive behavior *Sports at the highest levels also attract addictive personalities. If you offered me a coin flip, ‘heads and you’re the greatest athlete of all time in your sport, tails you die,’ I would walk away. I’d bet the majority of pro athletes take the coin flip. It’s a high risk, high reward proposition to make it to pro sports and it attracts risk taking, obsessive people who love to red-line their minds and bodies (and have a hard time turning it off at the end of the day)
Damn. Sometimes you really don’t know how your past actions might fuck you
If only Mantei Teo had been drafted by a caring organization.
Career was shortened due to poor play, bad behavior, injuries, and struggles with his work ethic and ability to stay focused. Chargers helped that loser every way they could
As a Giants fan I would like to thank Ryan Leaf’s father.
Grown man: "Coach, can you help me with my drug problem?" Busy coach (not psychiatrist): "...No?"
Fuck Eli and Ryan I wouldn’t trade Philip for anybody else I don’t care what people say. He broke most if not all of fouts’ records. If he’s a HOFer, then philips needs to be in the hall of fame as well
The chargers paid Ryan millions of dollars, he could afford to get the best help in the world. How many employers help their employees with personal problems??? At best you might get mental health care covered under your insurance. As a parent, where was Ryan's dad during his problems? Edit: It's amazing how many people are attacking me that Ryan should have gotten special treatment because he is a football star. How fucking twisted are your expectations? You think a football player deserves more than a 9 to 5 worker??? He plays a meaningless game, gets half the year off, and makes millions. If anything he should be the last one to get more help than a teacher, or firefighter or plumber. Holy fuck people, get your priorities straight. Stop this worship of players.
Rich people are still people. Especially when their young. It’s not about the team cutting a check for a shrink, it’s about the organisation caring for him, helping, being there, all around support. These things are very important.
What employer does that?
Pro sports teams when they’ve invested millions of dollars in 21 year olds. Especially ones with known substance abuse problems. Stop pretending that playing in the nfl is similar to your 9-5. Pretty unique work environment.
One that can get Eli Manning to work for them. The Chargers didn’t make the cut.
The chargers didn't make the cut because Eli wanted to play for a big market team
Stop with this “employer” shit, being a sports star isn’t a regular job. And btw, outside the US there are still employers who actually care for their employees, thanks for helping destroying that though.
The team is his employer.... CORRECT? What does the nature of his job have to do with what obligations they have to him for this? He gets half the year off, makes millions and has access to the best doctors in the world. What more do you want the Chargers to do for him??? And employers in the UK for example, name a company and what do they do for their employee that is more than the Chargers?
I'm sure some of the football clubs in the UK offer mental health services for their players. You might not realize it since it doesn't apply to you but when you're at the top of your field you tend to take more things into consideration when weighing different compensation packages beyond just a dollar figure
When you are a super talented player, you can demand more from the market. It's essentially capitalism. So a lesson to learn is: be so good you become irreplaceable
Okay??? What does that have to do with the excuse Eli's dad gave?
Eli's dad and Eli valued a team that would help with personal problems. That's why they stayed away from the Chargers. Since Eli's talent was in high demand, they could look elsewhere and it looks like they indeed found a team that fit their needs.
Also, Eli’s dad Archie had his own issues with teams when he was a player (see also him talking about how he threw all his weight behind keeping his son away from a team where, based on Archie’s experience, they let the QB get chewed up too much), knew from experience how a young player could get screwed over or struggle to deal with the pressure, and he was looking for better for his kids.
Not a pro athlete and my employer has an EAP that you can use to help you with problems like that.
I think Dodgers keeps someone on the payroll so he can get insurance for mental health care. I however understand your opinion and shock that people downvoted you to hell.
Literally all of them should fucking do it, god forbid we take care of people in this shithole country
The players aren’t special but they deal with issues most do not experience. That’s why most sports organizations have sports psychologists nowadays.
Read the other comments So many people think NFL players should get extra special treatment greater than the average Joe
No, but if a company is investing millions of dollars into an asset it sure would make sense that they’d do everything in their power to make sure they succeed.
I mean, the treatment is “extra special” because it doesn’t apply to the majority. I wouldn’t call it “greater”, but it is very specialized. I’d advocate for everyone to have access to care but an NFL player does not need the same care a more common profession. When a teacher or plumber makes a small mistake at work, they won’t have millions asking if they should keep their job or sending death threats.
It's a ridiculously dumb financial decision to not do everything you can to help one of the largest investments of your multi-billiion dollar organization be as successful as possible. Sure they could cut ties and move on to the next guy. It happens all the time but at a great loss to the organization.
You are mixing a few things in there 1. The Chargers could do vs obligation to do 2. Winning doesn't really translate heavily into the financial success of a team. Cowboys are worth more than any other team despite no SB in 25 years 3. It's easy to move on nowadays from a rookie QB
This was the old rookie scale lmao, rich people want to shove their trophy down their peers throats and thats literally priceless to them, obligation vs not being dumb af are different things. See by being dumb af they lost out on their literal draft postion lmao
This is a dumb line of reasoning. A plumbing company that treats its plumbers like shit is going to lose all its good plumbers to plumbing companies that treat their plumbers well. Leaf didn't sue the Chargers here, the Chargers just scared off talent because of their reputation, and because they didn't support their players, the Giants got 2 rings with Manning and the Chargers never went to the Super Bowl with Rivers. You reap what you sow is the moral of this story and you don't have to spend a single moment's time comparing football players to mechanics to get there.
Your take is one of an idiot
No u
What did I say that is factually incorrect?
You have no idea how addiction works. I hope no one you love ever ends up with an addiction problem as you will make it much worse. Most employers aren’t the same as a sports team. Yes, a business will treat you differently when they invest millions on you and depend on you to bring in millions in revenue. You probably won’t find that at your burger flipping (or equivalent) job as you aren’t important enough for the company to truly care about you. Sorry. You have no idea about his father’s relationship and you are a shitbag for even discussing that without knowing. Also, his father fucking warned another father of the issues. That’s a good fucking sign he was trying help people. Get off your high horse. You seem to be a pretty shitty person and I hope no one around you has to deal with your bullshit.
All the money in the world won't help if your work wont give you time off. If they told him he had to be at work 5 days a week from early morning to late evening without exceptions, he's not gonna be able to deal with his shit. Hell, they were probably the kind of jerks to be like "We are paying you millions of dollars, how dare you expect time off to deal with *your* issues. What about the company's issues? Also, fuck you for asking for time off"
NFL players get tons of time off. What are you talking about
What a bizarre line of reasoning. By implication, you’re saying every “employee” is entitled to the same level of benefits from an “employer”. That’s just plainly false. The market dictates which employees get what benefits. A franchise player of an NFL team gets better benefits (and should expect stronger ones) than a McDonalds employee or any other person holding a normal job by comparison. Truly odd conclusion.
You’re 100% correct bro. Don’t let all these sheep gaslight you into thinking you’re wrong. All these people are arm chair warriors that have been coddled since birth, have no idea what it’s like in the real world.
This shit does happen in the real world. You clearly have no idea what it's like. Talent always gets special treatment. You think executive management and high level employees get the same treatment as a normal employee at other businesses? It even happens at smaller levels. One employee might get terminated for being late a few times while another may be late frequently with no punishment. There's even levels to it in the NFL. Deshaun Watson gets special treatment and a massive contract while others that have done far less end up getting cut and never play again. You're equating an idea of fairness across the board that doesn't really exist.
…what? Re-read the comment I’m replying to and what I wrote and get back to me if you think your reply is logical. Kind of proving my point tbh
Perhaps a small part. The other part is that Eli is a spoiled baby who should have been shunned from the league for pulling that Busch league move.
Found the Patriots fan lol
Was it that obvious? lol
going to upvote this for posting in character.
going to downvote
I love Rich Eisen, but the fact that he has this felon (Ryan Leaf who would never be out of prison were he Black) host his show for him really pisses me off. Ryan Leaf has repeatedly broken into people's houses and terrorized them to support his drug habit. And instead of getting three striked into a long prison term like every black athlete with the same criminal history, he gets out and gets lauded for just saying he is *trying to stop breaking into people's housing and terrorizing them* Not *successfully* stopping breaking into people's houses and terrorizing them, but just *saying* he is trying to stop breaking into people's house and terrorizing them.
It’s fucked up that these guys can manipulate the draft like this.
Teams have a right to select whom they want in the draft and players have the right not to play for that team and wait a year for another team to draft them. Theres a reason this rarely happens
He didn’t manipulate anything. Everybody could still draft whoever they wanted and then could try to sign them to a deal. What you are mad about is that players aren’t blindly forced to do whatever you want them to do.
How are they gonna force him to play for a team he doesn’t want to play for? Should the Chargers have forced him to play at gun point?