First to all those football fans who do not know who Ryan Leaf is.  Ryan Leaf was a Quarterback coming out of Washington State who came on strong in his senior year and was competing against Peyton Manning for the number 1 overall pick in the '98 draft.  Leaf was first in career td passes with 57 and 2nd in yards with 7818 for Washinton State.  Leaf was the athletic type quarterback who came onto the scene in his last year where Manning was a solid starter for four years.  Leaf was seen as an interesting quarterback who had a lot of upside and potential.  However after winning his first two starts he struggled on the field and off the field with pouring beer on reporters and the list goes on.  Leaf may not have been the quarterback of the future or the answer to turn this franchise around by his play but he was the player who brought this franchise around.  Leaf being drafted by the Chargers led the Chargers to were they are now. 

  Ryan Leaf could argueably be the biggest bust of all-time.  Leaf played for the Chargers and the Cowboys and here are his career stats. (26 games 3,666 yards 48.4 completion%  14 TDs and 36 ints. with a 4-17 record as a starter) While many could look at his lack of success and his on and off the field problems as bad and bad for the team you must look at the big picture.  Leaf is the reason for the drafting of Tomlinson and Drew Brees.  The Chargers after that were cautious about drafting a Quarterback in the first round leading to the drafting of Tomlinson.  If Leaf was successful they would have had a better record and would not have been in the spot to draft LaDainian Tomlinson and also would not have needed to draft Drew Brees because they would have had a quarterback already.  So even with Leaf not being succesful in the NFL and being considered as the biggest bust of all-time he however ended up helping the franchise.  With that i would just like to thank Ryan Leaf on behalf of the entire Charger Nation.