NFL: Pokes don’t need to turn over this new Leaf

I have finally convinced myself that Jerry Jones was right about Troy Aikman's health. I can see why he had to let go of Chad Hennings and Erik Williams. This team needs rebuilding and it has to start somewhere. But just because he is out there, this is no time for the Cowboys to be thinking they have to turn over a new Leaf, especially not Ryan Leaf.

That's just the kind of crazy move we would expect Dallas owner Jerry Jones to make. The one that makes the least amount of sense. Jones loves reclamation projects. Dallas has become a wayward home for the NFL's down trodden. We are the Dallas Cowboys. Send us your big-headed, your suicidal, your aged. We will feed them and give them a good home. They will leave us richer then when they straggled through our door.

Ryan Leaf was taken by San Diego in what was the great QB sweepstakes of the 1998 NFL draft. Indianapolis took Peyton Manning first and have pounded on the playoff door ever since. The Chargers took Leaf with the second pick and have paid a terrible price to this day.

After being benched halfway through his rookie season Leaf missed all of 1999 with a shoulder injury. Following a strong preseason in which he won back his starting job in 2000, Leaf stunk up Qualcomm Stadium with five interceptions against just one TD in the first two games before getting the hook once again. He came back to start the final six games much to the disgust of his fellow teammates. He had totally lost their respect.

Ryan Leaf's boorish behavior was amazingly worse than his all around bad play in his three seasons out west. His temper tantrums began after just three games as a rookie when he blew up in the face of a locker room reporter and video crew. That was the beginning of a lot of hard feelings in Charger Town.

While injured in '99 Leaf performed once again before the cameras, not heaving passes mind you, but exchanging salty language with a fan visiting the Bolt training camp. He was suspended without pay last November after a lively profane exchange with his own general manager Bobby Beathard. It was later learned that he reportedly went out and played golf at a time when his wrist was too sore for him to join his teammates at practice.

Even though every football man in the NFL will admit that Ryan Leaf still holds a well of untapped potential inside himself, he dug his own very deep well to climb out of. “During my career I've never seen a player that had so much talent do so little with it,” said Beathard of the young, wayward quarterback.

But Ryan Leaf is no longer San Diego's Excedrin headache #16. For a measly 100 bills he is now an excess acid inducer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. May they have the strength to endure. Please don't give in to temptation and trade him to Jerry Jones. You need to try to save this boy yourself, Tampa Bay. Where's the faith, Tony D?

San Diego didn't receive any offers for Leaf and they weren't sad to see him go. Most of his offenses against the NFL fraternity were against his own. He wouldn't sleep in the player dorm at training camp. He wouldn't wear team issued gear on the sidelines. He butted heads with team officials and plainly exuded a blatant “I don't care” attitude.

Even with all of this, its not surprising that Leaf landed somewhere. The NFL is that kind of crazy fraternity. If a man has problems and he looks his teammates in the eye and admits them, then he and his strong arm are welcomed back into the fold. Ryan Leaf has lots of talent and somebody was going to pay him millions to see if they could tame the beast within him. Just thank our lucky stars it was the Bucks and not the Pokes.

All of this coast-to-coast movement has taken place while Leaf has been somewhere in the South Pacific honeymooning. For the record he hasn't apologized for anything or looked anybody in the eye and admitted he was wrong. But still, the NFL is slow to condemn a man who stands about 6'5” and throws the pig a mile.

So let's hope that Jerry Jones can let a fallen Leaf lie. Let us hope that Tampa Bay sees through the worthless pile of cast-offs Jones offers them and stands firm that they can help this poor boy. Let those east-coast shrinks try to tap that hidden potential. The Cowboys must turn over a new leaf. Please just don't let it be this one.