Leaf looking to turn over new one on Division II staff

Ryan Leaf is serious about it this time.

We know this because he has taken a job in the college football backwater of Canyon, Texas. The Division II West Texas A&M Buffaloes don't particularly need a washed-up NFL signal-caller as their quarterbacks coach. They were 10-2 last year, Lone Star Conference champs.

Leaf joins a Buffaloes team that went 10-2 in 2005. (Getty Images)

But he needs them.

Leaf needs them because it's time to start a career, to do something with his life, grow up. Living off $11.25 million in bonus money is possible but not preferred for the former Heisman Trophy candidate, who turns 30 on Monday.

"I'm not going to let a five-year snippet of my life define what the next 40 or 50 years are going to be," he told the Indianapolis Star.

That's about all anyone has gotten out of Leaf since he took the job in February. Give him credit. Boy Bust hasn't sought attention or interviews (surprise!). Essentially, he wants to be left alone, all right?

For those of us who were there that afternoon in the Chargers' locker room, that makes perfect sense. Leaf blew up at San Diego Union-Tribune beat writer Jay Posner. Teammates stepped in to grab Leaf and prevent what could have really been an ugly situation.

The incident is preserved on film that might as well be training video for bad-boy athletes.

Just leave me alone, all right!?

"I saw it the other night on TV, 'Top 100 blow-ups,' chuckled Buffaloes coach Don Carthel. "First time I'd ever seen. I don't watch NFL stuff."

That was eight years ago, which is the whole point of Leaf surfacing in the Texas panhandle. Folks really don't care there. Or anywhere. Leaf is choosing to work his way up in profession from the Dust Bowl.

Can there be a more humbling start?

Ryan has little to offer Entertainment Tonight, the NFL Network or The Surreal Life. The most famous quarterback named Leaf these days is his brother Brady, who is fighting for the starting job at Oregon.

Compared to what has happened since his rookie year in 1998, Ryan is a regular Regis Philbin. Since retiring in 2002, Leaf has been trumped by the likes of Terrell Owens and Kobe, who were merely a ramp to Barry Bonds. The anti-hero with the big head and faux muscles practically spits venom.

And then gets rewarded with his own reality show.

Firestorms are now a matter of degree, severity, relevance and immediacy. Leaf is in the oldies bin. The fact that he couldn't succeed in the NFL is more an encyclopedia entry than a life lesson.

The rich laughingstock at least had the sense to disappear to his Montana ranch after retiring in 2002. He didn't throw it in our faces, cash in on some faded glory. Leaf actually went back to school at Washington State, at one point taking a sports management class titled Media Relations.

Go figure.

Now he's the curiosity of Canyon, working in his off time at the local boys club. All of it smells, looks, walks and talks like actual dignity, maturity and responsibility.

"I never had seen any of those outbursts," Carthel said. "I know a lot more about him now than I did then.

"What he's done in the past shouldn't have any bearing on how good a coach he is."

In another world, another time, the Chargers are charged with making the biggest blunder in NFL Draft history. They traded up to the No. 2 slot to get Leaf.

Meanwhile, the Colts made maybe the wisest choice in draft history, taking Peyton Manning over Leaf. San Diego might still be recovering. Manning is headed to the Hall of Fame.

"He has an injury that prevented him from playing up to his potential that was played down," Mike Price said cryptically. Price, now at UTEP, was Leaf's coach at Washington State during that magic run to the Rose Bowl in 1997.

Injury? What injury? We'd love to hear there was something else at work besides a colossal case of immaturity.

"I'm not sure if I can comment on that or not," Price said. "He didn't make it in the pros, and that happens to a lot of guys."

Price is going to defend his old quarterback, but he wasn't going to give him a job. When Leaf called asking, the Miners' coach gave his former prodigy the same line heard by the out-of-work salesmen.

We love your work, but we don't have anything right now.

"He would have liked to have gone here with me, but there were no openings on my staff," said Price, who then made a call to Carthel.

West Texas A&M had just lost its offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach to Baylor. Leaf came into town, spent four days with players and staff, and bonded.

Now Boy Bust is helping coach Division II's best passing offense.

"I'm happy for him because it seems like he might have found his way," Price said.

The Leaf legacy is not dead, not as long as there is serendipity. In December, Brady threw a crushing interception with 33 seconds left in the Holiday Bowl that allowed Oklahoma to clinch a 17-14 victory.

From the same city and same stadium where Ryan began his career, the AP wire-story almost wouldn't let it end:

Leave it to a Leaf.