The name Ryan Leaf may be synonymous with struggle for NFL fans, but college football fans remember the former Washington State Cougar as one of the most gifted quarterbacks to ever play in the Pac 12. Life certainly has not been easy for the second overall pick of the 1998 NFL Draft since leaving Pullman, but he seems to have turned things around and that is enough for ESPN to put their faith in him. Leaf will serve as a game analyst for college football on the World Wide Leader this season.
Leaf will be paired with play-by-play man Clay Matvick. He expects to call games all over the country. The duo will mostly be seen on ESPN2 and ESPNU.
2019 won’t be Leaf’s first season in a broadcast booth. He worked for the Pac 12 Network last season. He has also been co-hosting the morning show on Sirius XM’s Pac 12 Radio.
Ryan Leaf was arrested in 2012 in Montana. He had broken into a home with the intention of stealing prescription drugs. The charge violated terms of his probation in Texas. As a result the former QB spent two years in prison.
Upon his release in 2014, Leaf considered going to law school, a career in entertainment, or pursuing his dreams of becoming a sportscaster.
“I had a broadcast journalism degree from the Murrow School at Washington State so I had the ability to do it. Or at least the know-how,” Leaf said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I just didn’t know what I was going to do.”
Leaf credits a lot of people with helping him achieve his goal. He told the AP that Fox’s Jay Glazer served as his mentor, Sirius XM’s Steve Cohen built a show around him, and ESPN’s ED Placey helped get him on the right radars. Leaf landed an audition for ESPN after shadowing Greg McElroy in Los Angeles last season.
“Ryan has experienced the highs and lows in the game of football, putting him in a position to relate to a wide range of situations players can find themselves in,” ESPN’s vice president of production, Lee Fitting told the AP. “He will be able to rely on those experiences — including an unbelievable college career where he was an All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist — in his analysis, making him a tremendous asset for our team.”
