A biography for Ryan Leafhasn’t been written yet.
“I was always worried about what others were thinking about me or how I was being perceived.”
“The third game of my career, we played Kansas City and I played as poorly as I've ever played in my life. I completed one of 15 passes and had two interceptions.”
“Playing in the NFL, it's a privilege, it's not a right.”
“When I enjoyed football the most was when I wasn't getting paid.”
“I thought I was a god. I was more important than you, because I could do this thing where I played a silly sport that made me a better human being, in my eyes.”
“Football is just a game. Everybody takes it so much more seriously than it is, but there are many more important things in my life.”
“I had this giant ego of an athlete, but I was self-conscious at everything else.”
“About a year after I retired from playing, I decided that I wanted to getback to college, where I had the greatest time of my life, and to get involved with college football.”
“When people ask where I'm from, I tell them Washington, because that's where I feel the most comforted by the people.”
“I was an ego maniac with a self-esteem problem and that's what most addicts are like.”
“When playing football became a job, it lost its luster for me.”
“People hold me accountable. Before I would push people away, but that's not a way to be successful.”
“Coaching in college is not a right. It's a privilege.”
“I didn't leave school early to sit on the bench.”
“I didn't know how to deal with real life issues the right way as a humble human being until I was humbled to the point of being put in a jail cell.”
“I mean, Mike Riley is an idiot, but I can't do anything to change that. He wasn't supposed to be a head coach in the NFL.”
“When I retired, I took my money from the financial planner and proceeded to present the front that everything was fine. I had to pretend I still made $5 million a year.”
“I'm actually pretty reserved.”
“Life is life and there are always going to be struggles. But when you're doing the next right thing it seems to make everything a little easier, a little bit better and a lot happier.”
“I was fighting a war on two fronts. I was fighting the best defenses in professional football and I was fighting the media. At that level you just cannot do that. You just cannot do it. I couldn't stop it, and I didn't try to stop it.”