24
Apr
2009
Biggest Busts of the NFL Draft – Lawrence Phillips
Photo: Getty Images
On this NFL draft eve, as visions of game-changing prospects dance in our heads, we would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone one final time about the very real possibility that today’s blue-chip prospects will be tomorrow’s punch line. We like to think of it as a public service.
NFL Fanhouse has also done everyone the favor of breaking down the biggest NFL draft busts by team, including a fascinating “where are they now” photo slide show.
And in the final chapter of our series, we bring you Lawrence Phillips. The former Nebraska RB was the #6 pick of the 1996 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams, despite pleading no contest to a charge of domestic violence after beating up his girlfriend. The Rams felt so good about Phillips that they chose him ahead of Eddie George, and immediately traded Jerome Bettis away to the Steelers. You can guess where this is headed …
Phillips was released for insubordination in 1997 after 25 games with the Rams. He subsequently signed with the Dolphins, but was released after pleading no contest to hitting a woman in a night club. A stint in NFL Europe, where he set league records for rushing and TDs, was followed by a failed attempt to return to the NFL with the 49ers, and then finally, the CFL.
In October 2008, Phillips was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon, after running down 3 kids with his car after losing a pick-up football game to them. Let me say that again. He ran over some kids with his car because of a pickup football game!!! AND, at the time he was arrested, Phillips was also wanted by police for yet another domestic violence charge.
So Phillips take the prize for the farthest fall from grace, despite being blessed with such natural talent, and being given so many chances to turn things around. Pretty sad, really.
You can check out highlights of Phillips in his prime at Nebraska after the jump …
23
Apr
2009
Biggest Busts of the NFL Draft – Ryan Leaf
Ryan Leaf seems to be doing really well these days. Photo: Deadspin.com
Ryan Leaf has become the poster boy for the NFL Draft Bust.
The former all-American QB at Washington State was selected by San Diego with the 2nd pick in the 1998 draft, right after Indianapolis picked Peyton Manning. The Chargers traded up to get Leaf, parting with their first round pick (3rd overall), second-round pick (32nd overall), their 1999 first-round pick, wide receiver Eric Metcalf and linebacker Patrick Sapp. Shortly after the draft, Leaf declared, “I’m looking forward to a 15-year career, a couple of trips to the Super Bowl, and a parade through downtown San Diego.”
Not quite. After winning his first 2 starts as a rookie, it quickly unraveled for Leaf, and he was benched after 9 games. From there it was all downhill. Injuries, locker room blow-ups, injuries, generally prickish behavior, and a breach of contract law suit from the Chargers led to his release after the 2000 season. Leaf had brief stints with the Bucs and Cowboys before retiring from football at the age of 26 in 2002.
In 2006, Leaf joined the coaching staff of Division II West Texas A&M as QB coach, but was recently suspended after asking a player for painkillers. So yeah. Things are looking pretty good for ol’ Ryan. The over/under on Leaf ending up with a drunken mug shot on The Smoking Gun is 18 months.
And you know you’ve officially become part of pop culture when The Simpsons are making fun of you:
16
Apr
2009
Biggest Busts of the NFL Draft – Todd Marinovich
Esquire Magazine has a fascinating look at the life and times of Todd Marinovich, “The Man Who Never Was”, which makes every other fall-from-grace story in the NFL look like child’s play.
Marinovich was trained from birth by his nutjob father Marv to be a prototype QB, but never seemed to share his father’s dreams of becoming a superstar athlete. He discovered pot at a young age and gravitated more toward the life of a stoned California surfer than to that of a pro quarterback. And after achieving his father’s dreams of winning the Rose Bowl at USC and being drafted in the first round by the Raiders, Todd promptly began a downward spiral that included nightly in-season partying, heroin addiction, multiple arrests, a tasering, and of course, the arena football league.
This article really is a must-read.
Here’s a little tidbit from Marinovich’s rookie year with the Raiders:
Sometimes, for fun or hangover relief, Todd took pharmaceutical speed before the games. “I wasn’t playing, so the warm-ups were my game. They’d have these great stereo systems in the stadiums; they’d be blasting the Stones or whatever. I’d take some black beauties and be throwing the ball seventy-five yards, running around playing receiver, fucking around — and then I was done for the day. I never played. Some guys did play on speed. Or they mixed with Vicodin. They could run through a fuckin’ wall and not feel a thing.”
Or, how about this beauty from his days in the Arena League:
Once, during halftime at a home game, Todd retrieved a premade rig out of his locker and went to the bathroom to shoot up. Sitting on the toilet, half listening to the chalk talk, he slammed the heroin. As the team was leaving the locker room for the second half, he struggled with the screen in his glass crack pipe — he wasn’t getting a good hit. Then the pipe broke, and he lacerated his left thumb. By the time he got out onto the field, his thumb wrapped in a towel, the game had already started. He took up the clipboard, his only duty. “I didn’t even know what play they were calling,” Todd says. “Nobody looked at the shit I wrote down anyway.”
5
Apr
2009
Biggest Busts of the NFL Draft – #1 Tony Mandarich
As we continue our countdown to NFL Draft Weekend, I thought it fitting to take a look at one of my favorite aspects of any draft: the BUST.
First off, it’s important to define the term “bust”. For our purposes here, we’re talking about high-profile college players who went high in the draft and were projected as can’t-miss prospects, but never made it in the pros for one reason or another. Whether due to injury, inability to make the jump to the next level, or just plain laziness once they got the big payday, there is an ever-growing list of high draft choices who will forever be known as huge piles of wasted talent. I tend to give guys who suffered an injury right away a pass, and focus more on the flops who simply wasted their golden opportunity.
The fine folks over at NFLMocks.com are currently conducting a Worst Man Drafted Tournament, in honor of March Madness, and it really brings to mind just how many “sure things” have failed miserably once they got to the NFL. The names – Ryan Leaf, Steve Emtman, Brian Bosworth & Todd Marinovich, to name a few of the most notable – are forever etched in NFL draft lore.
For me, the definitive NFL Draft bust will forever be Tony Mandarich. A lot of people will say Ryan Leaf, but with Leaf there was argument over whether he was even the best QB in his draft class (vs Peyton Manning). A lot of people questioned Leaf’s maturity and intelligence from the beginning. When Mandarich came out, the opinion was unanimous. He was the “best OL prospect ever”. I’ll never forget that 1989 Sports Illustrated with Mandarich – the massive OT from Michigan State – on the cover, declaring him to be the next Anthony Munez, and the safest pick of the draft that year. The article told tales of Mandarich’s ridiculous seven-meal-a-day diet, and his workouts consisting of insane, Guns ‘n’ Roses-fueled lifting sessions. The term “pancake” was literally invented for him at MSU. As an undersized sophomore linebacker in high school, I pinned the SI cover to my wall, attempted to mimic his workout routine, and used Mandarich as inspiration to gain size, muscle and meanness on the field.
Mandarich was selected 2nd overall by Green Bay, and was cut after 3 years of a 4 year contract. The Packers cited a failure to live up to expectations. Because of his drastic weight loss upon entering the NFL, there was speculation that his success at the collegiate level was fueled by the use of steroids (gasp! shocking!). Compounding the negative stigma is the fact that Barry Sanders was selected right after Mandarich, at No. 3 by the Lions.
