Before Ryan Leaf’s Tragedy, There Was Triumph At Washington State

The 1998 NFL Draft narrative is tired.

Did you know there was a heated debate whether the Indianapolis Colts should draft Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf in 1998? Of course you knew, barring you avoided any sports page, magazine, radio talk show or television program in the last decade-plus. The Manning-Leaf decision has become the standard bearer for hacky NFL Draft debates between two quarterbacks, more often than not used as a punchline than to provide any serious analysis.

Manning led Indianapolis to 11 playoff appearances and a Super Bowl. San Diego didn’t reach a postseason until six years after choosing Leaf. Manning won his first of four MVPs in 2003. Leaf was out of the league by then. Manning appeared on Saturday Night Live. Leaf’s most memorable TV appearance was this:

All of this has been pounded into the football fan’s mind ad nauseum each and every spring. The each parts paralleled yet polar opposite trajectories of each QB’s life continue to coexist. Earlier this month, Manning was signed to lead the Denver Broncos in the hope of leading them to their first Super Bowl since Manning’s rookie season. Elsewhere in the Rocky Mountains, Leaf was arrested on drug and burglary charges.

Leaf’s struggles are well documented, and unfortunately repeated tags to the ongoing punchline. Leaf is an addict; it’s a condition that has ruined lives and poses daily challenges. Quantify such weakness with the heroism associated to a great quarterback requires a huge leap, a possible explanation for the derisiveness with which Leaf seems to be so often judged.

And make no mistake, when he wore the crimson at Washington State, Leaf was great. His book “596 Switch,” released last autumn, details his illustrious career on the Palouse. There was a debate between Manning and he for the No. 1 pick because it was warranted.

The 1997 Cougars reached the Rose Bowl, on the strength of Leaf’s powerful arm. He was third in the season’s Heisman voting behind Manning, and winner Charles Woodson of Michigan. Leaf’s stats were comparable to Manning’s, even trumping them in some areas: 227-410, 3968 yards, 34 TDs for Leaf; 287-477, 3819 yards and 36 TDs for Manning.

That season’s Apple Cup remains one of the all-time great Pac-10 games of my lifetime. UW was the conference’s benchmark for excellence in the 1990s, and WSU hadn’t won in Seattle in 12 years. But with tickets to Pasadena on the line, Leaf made Husky Stadium his own for that Saturday. He threw three touchdown passes and 358 yards. The Cougars won 41-35.

While he hasn’t publicly made excuses, Leaf’s collapse could be at least partially attributed to the pressure of constant comparison. Then again, he thrived just a few years removed from captaining the Cougar offense in the shadow of one of the program greats, Drew Bledsoe. Bledsoe would leave WSU to have a lengthy, and sometimes very good NFL career. The Cougars won the 1992 Copper Bowl with Bledsoe as their quarterback.

But nothing Bledsoe did on the Palouse compares to Leaf’s college career. Statistically, Leaf was better. His WSU teams were more successful than Bledsoe’s. In every way, Leaf became the standard for that program, and remains so to this day.

That creates an interest juxtaposition to Manning, who was outstanding at Tennessee, make no mistake. He finished just behind Woodson for the Heisman and led the Volunteers to some great campaigns, but entered into a program with a much richer history than WSU. Further, UT famously won a championship immediately after Manning’s departure, a footnote to his career as prevalent as the Manning comparison are to Leaf’s.

With his NFL lineage, Manning was perhaps destined to walk his path. But it’s interesting to speculate how things may have unfolded had circumstance reversed Leaf and Manning’s roles. What if Leaf was the player at a tradition rich program, say USC instead of WSU? Might he have faltered earlier in his career, thus never rising to the pedestal from which he was knocked? What if Manning stepped away from the SEC, the pinnacle of college football and the place where his father played for somewhere less under the spotlight? What if Leaf went No. 1?