Ryan Leaf and Peyton Manning are forever connected after being the first two players off the board in the 1998 NFL Draft — Manning first, Leaf second — but apparently his connection to the Manning family runs deeper than that.
While appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday, Leaf revealed that Archie Manning called his Father to see how the Chargers had treated the quarterback and later used that input to help influence Eli Manning’s decision to demand a trade in the 2004 NFL Draft, ultimately landing with the New York Giants.
“Archie and his family had called my Father and wanted to know how they treated his son,” Leaf said. “And that was a huge part of [Eli demanding a trade]. Because, even as poorly as I behaved, there was no support. And for the longest time I held a resentment around that, but what was my part? I finally had to take a stock in that. But [Archie] did his due diligence. He called and like, ‘what happened when things went bad? What did they do to help support your son?’
“It wasn’t the only reason [for the trade], of course. [The Chargers] were not known for winning, they had been to one Super Bowl in a year that the head coach was then ushered out for Kevin Gilbride in Year 2.”
With a frustrated chuckle, Leaf then expanded on the irony of that.
“What’s ironic about the whole deal is that Gilbride gets fired my rookie year, he ends up in New York and wins two Super Bowls with Eli Manning as [his] offensive coordinator,” Leaf said.
While there have been many stories about that draft day trade and Eli’s refusal to play for the Chargers, this is the first time the NFL world has learned of Leaf’s involvement in the whole thing.
