Ryan Leaf offers words of inspiration to Missouri football

Leaf spoke to the Missouri football team to say a few words at the team’s “Welcome Back BBQ”.

Leaf has been a mental health advocate for quite some time. He also hasn’t been shy about sharing the story of his struggles over the years. He has been sober for 11 years.

Ryan Leaf was dominant his final two years at WSU

As a player, Leaf was dominant during his final year with the Washington State Cougars and he enjoyed a very successful junior year, too. He hung up his cleats there with 7,433 passing yards, ranking him sixth in school history, just ahead of Drew Bledsoe on the school’s all-time passing yardage list. Leaf certainly left his mark in Pullman and his name is still all over the Cougar record books even though his playing career there ended more than 25 years ago.

Leaf saved his best stuff for his last year at WSU, racking up numerous accolades after he completed 55.4 percent of his passes for 3,968 passing yards, while tossing 34 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. He won nearly every award imaginable, including being named the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year (1997), first team All-American, and first team All-Pac-10. Leaf’s senior season was so good that he even finished as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy that year, finishing third behind Charles Woodson and Peyton Manning.

The Montana native also guided the Cougars to their first Pac-10 Championship in school history. Washington State battled valiantly, but fell 21-16 to the eventual national champions, the Michigan Wolverines, in the 1998 Rose Bowl.

In his post-football life, Ryan Leaf has been doing a variety of podcasting and sports broadcasting appearances over the past several years, along with various speaking engagements.

If you’d like to listen to his podcast, “Bust/The Ryan Leaf Story,” you can find that here.

Missouri football begins their season on August 31st, when they’ll face off against the South Dakota Coyotes.