A truely sad day folks. The Great Ryan Leaf has retired. His stats were unmatched 16 TDs and 36 ints. Sniff-sniff. Biggest waste of talent ever, in any sport.
The NFL stud quarterback to bust list is pretty long, but for the "can't miss hall of fame arm" tag that he was given, he is pretty high up there. David Klingler, first QB taken in 92, sucked. Ty Detmer Coy Detmer Danny Weurffel Rick Mirer, # 2 overall in 93, sucked. Heath Schuler # 3 in 94, sucked. Trent Dilfer # 6 in 94, mostly sucked until recently when he began to only partially suck. Jim Druckenmiller, sucked. Akili Smith, currently sucking. and going back a bit: Tony Eason (pats- mid 80's, mostly sucked). Chuck Long in 86 (12th overall, sucked). Kelly Stouffer (6th overall in 87, sucked). Steve Walsh from Miami in 1989, sucked. Rodney Peete, sucked. Dan McGwire in 1991 (#16 overall), sucked. Todd Marinovich, sucked. Guys that had gaudy stats that everyone looked at said would be running the league one day and never panned out. Some have had modest success, but many have failed. Jeff George is my favorite Quarterback bust, because he was supposed to be better than Joe Montana. Props to Browning Nagle, wherever you are.
It helped that he didn't have to really do ANYTHING extraordinary for his team. He was told to always "play it safe", hand the ball to Jamal, and let his defense win games for him. And regarding Cryin Leaf - and this is coming from a LONG TIME Chargers fan (going waaaaay back to the Don Coryell/Dan Fouts/Charlie Joiner days) ... it was very sad to see how Leaf completely fell apart... however from what has been told, the Chargers should have been aware that Leaf's mental makeup was certainly not as great as Peyton Manning's mental makeup. And it's sad that Leaf is already giving up- he SHOULD be utterly grateful to have a team willing to give him $300K to be a backup QB, considering what his career has been like so far.
Then you look at guys like: Brett Favre Rich Gannon Jeff Garcia Tom Brady Kurt Warner Jay Fiedler Mark Brunell Aaron Brooks You wonder if it's better to be drafted low (or in some cases, not at all) than come in with a can't-miss label.
Ryan Leaf just made it so easy to cheer against him. His behavior was so childish and laughable that one could only hope he fell flat on his face. Heath Shuler might have never developed into an NFL Quarterback, but at least he bowed out quietly, and it was a lot harder to cheer against him.
Rick Mirer and that other bust where Lee Corso said he'd win the Heisman 3 times (just because he had a good game against NW in Chicago) are my fave busts. F***ing Notre Whore scum.
Ron Powlus. Funny you brought that up, since during his <cough>heyday</cough> I was telling people Jarious Jackson should start since he actually fit ND's offense. Powlus could have been something if he went somewhere without an option O, but we'll never know. Oh well.
I'm just waiting for next rookie QB holdout...all the owners have to do is remember cryin' leaf, David Klingler, Andre Ware and Heath Loser...they won't pay.
Even marginal players deserve mention, like Vinnie Interceptiverde. One good season with my Jets and he's the automatic starter, stifling the growth of a good young QB like Pennington. As for worst bust in ANY sport, that has to be Alexander Daigle. JMac
Last I heard Heath Shuler was running a successful real estate company in Tennessee. His hold out in '94 definitely hurt his development here in DC for the Redskins but he really should have stayed at Tennessee for his senior season.