Lawrence Phillips, 1996
After he assaulted an ex-girlfriend while at the University of Nebraska, many NFL teams were wary of risking a valuable draft choice on the talented, but troubled, Phillips. The St. Louis Rams took a chance, plucking Phillips with the sixth overall pick, and even shipped Jerome Bettis to the Pittsburgh Steelers to make room for him. “The Bus” is headed to the Hall of Fame; Phillips clashed with his coach over playing time, and was cut in his second season. Picked up by the San Francisco 49ers in ’99, Phillips played in just eight more games before he was done in the N.F.L.
Phillips couldn’t stay out of trouble after his playing days. In October of 2006, he was convicted of seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon for driving a car at a group of young men, injuring three. Two years later, he was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Next: Ryan Leaf, 1998
Ryan Leaf, 1998
John Ruthroff / AFP / Getty
“Just don’t f—ing talk to me, all right!” Those words, screamed by Ryan Leaf at a reporter in the San Diego Chargers locker room in 1998, and fully captured by a television camera, nicely summed up Leaf’s brief career. He was spoiled, petulant, and prone to very public meltdowns. What’s worse, he couldn’t play a lick. In the third game of his career, Leaf delivered one of the all-time worst quarterback performances, completing one of fifteen passes for 4 yards and fumbling three times in a loss against the Kansas City Chiefs. Over three disastrous seasons, Leaf threw 14 touchdown passes and 36 interceptions. And to think, some football talent evaluators actually thought the Indianapolis Colts blew it by drafting Peyton Manning ahead of Leaf with the first pick in the ’98 draft (the Chargers picked Leaf second).
In 2006, Leaf joined the coaching staff at West Texas A&M and also became the school’s golf coach. Reporters flocked to Texas to file the requisite “Ryan Leaf has found peace” stories. But last fall, after acknowledging that he asked a player for a pill to help alleviate wrist pain, Leaf resigned from both positions.
Next: Charles Rogers, 2003
