Athlete

When people ask where I'm from, I tell them Washington, because that's where I feel the most comforted by the people.

I'm not the type of guy who goes to members of my team or the other team and says, 'Hey, I'm awesome,' because I can improve in so many ways.

You grow from all those things you go through.

When playing football became a job, it lost its luster for me.

If you can't admit your faults how can you ever grow?

I have a very small sample size: 2-0 to start my NFL career. Talking a lot of smack. And then I walk into Kansas City and put up the worst football game of my existence. And I've always been this brash, arrogant kind of guy.

About a year after I retired from playing, I decided that I wanted to getback to college, where I had the greatest time of my life, and to get involved with college football.

I lay my head down every night with a ton of gratitude.

I don't want to coach in the NFL.

I grew up in Montana and played football my whole life.

I was a college coach, and I messed up. And I found a way to deal with the consequences and be better.

I think that if I was only known for who I was as a football player and only that, it just would have been a tragedy.

Life is life and there are always going to be struggles. But when you're doing the next right thing it seems to make everything a little easier, a little bit better and a lot happier.

Every time I stepped on the practice field when I was in San Diego, I dreaded going to work. It wasn't any fun. I didn't like the people I was playing with. They didn't like me.

There was a joke going around campus when I was at Washington State. It went, 'What's the difference between God and Ryan Leaf?' The punchline was, 'God doesn't think he's Ryan Leaf.'

I didn't leave school early to sit on the bench.

People say I'm arrogant or cocky. You know what it is? I feel that I have a good chance to win ball games.

I'm the kind of competitor where if I'm able to play, I've got to play.

A lot of people said they prayed for me. I felt their prayers.

The hole I've dug for myself is very big.