Dating back to when he was in college, weighing his career options in both the National Football League AND Major League Baseball, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray‘s commitment to and love for the game of football has been called into question. But for at least one news cycle, Murray may find himself off the hook thanks to Matt Leinart.
The Arizona Cardinals used a 1st Round pick on Matt Leinart, a standout at USC who had a Heisman Trophy and National Title to his name, in the 2006 NFL Draft. Leinart would go on to make just 17 starts during his four disappointing seasons with the Cardinals. Three years after his Cards departure, in a tremendously surprising twist, Leinart was out of the NFL entirely.
During a recent episode of the “Throwbacks” podcast, Leinart made a somewhat surprising admission to his co-host, Jerry Ferrara. Leinart, who didn’t start playing football until he was a freshman in high school, doesn’t believe that it was necessarily his late start that held him back from a long and successful NFL career. Instead, he seems to believe it’s because even at the peak of his career, he was never really “in love” with playing football.
“I don’t think I ever really loved it,” Leinart said on July 17. “I didn’t eat, sleep, breathe football. I was just really good at it, I had great teams around me and I made it, and I was talented, but like, that was it. So, I look at all these guys, like, man, that’s all they knew growing up. That’s all they did.”
USC Stardom Did Not Translate to Professional Success
It’s not difficult to make the case that the football career Matt Leinart was in fact a tremendous success, even if that success didn’t necessarily come at the professional level. Leinart never got that big second contract or any sort of iconic moment in the NFL, but what he was able to accomplish at USC puts the former Trojan in rare air.
In three seasons as the starter at USC, Leinart quarterbacked the Trojans to a 37-2 record. He won a National Title, finished as a runner-up once, took home the Heisman Trophy once, and was a finalist another team. He’s got his name all over the USC record books and crossed the goal line on one of the most famous plays in college football history.
In honor of USC vs Notre Dame tomorrow…@ReggieBush and @MattLeinartQB tell the story of what really happened during the infamous “Bush Push” that is still remembered today. ✌️pic.twitter.com/kGj9RMYDEI
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) October 11, 2019
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Matt Leinart’s Failures Opened The Door for Cardinals
Unfortunately for Cardinals fans, there are no such moments like this one for Leinart during his time in Arizona. However, if there is a silver lining of a blown 1st round pick, it’s this one… Leinart’s on-field failures during his time in Arizona opened the door for the Cardinals to turn back to Kurt Warner at the start of the 2008 season, leaving Leinart as his backup.
Warner, just as he had nine years earlier as the surprising starter of the St. Louis Rams, led the Cardinals to a Super Bowl appearance, and nearly brought Arizona their first Super Bowl title. Had it not been for a perfectly executed toe-tap from Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes, Leinart would actually be able to refer to himself as a Super Bowl champion.
Arizona is still awaiting a return to the biggest game in pro sports. With just one NFC Championship Game appearance to show for it in the decade and a half since, it stands to reason that fans in Arizona would be getting restless, especially since the flashes of promise that Kyler Murray has shown since 2019 have been fleeting.
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