THURSDAY COMMENTARY – A NEW LEAF

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98 & Rock 98.5 FM)

Another day, and another big interview.

One of the biggest names in football – Ryan Leaf – will make his long-awaited appearance on The Rod Pedersen Show today (11 am CT, Game+ TV, YouTube Live & WQEE Radio).

If you don’t know already, Leaf is one of the biggest names in football for all the wrong reasons.

From his Wikipedia page: “The Great Falls, Montana product was selected as the second overall pick by the San Diego Chargers in the 1998 NFL Draft after Peyton Manning, but his career was shortened due to poor play, bad behavior, injuries, and struggles with his work ethic and ability to stay focused. An episode of NFL Top 10 ranked him as the No. 1 “draft bust’ in NFL history.”

It would later be learned that Leaf was suffering from addiction issues and various other mental health maladies and many thought the story ended there.

But it didn’t.

Leaf is sober now and an analyst on just about every TV and radio network in the U.S., analyzing the NFL and college football but also serving as an advocate for Recovery and the homeless in Southern California.

I knew he’d gotten sober, and had been chasing Ryan for a few years to come on my Recovery show but largely got the brush off.

But my intuition told me very strongly that I’d run into him again down the line. The sports world is small and the Recovery world is tiny.

And it happened this week.

So many people have written Ryan Leaf off but I know it’s actually a remarkable story of perseverance, and having to rebuild your life after dealing with an insidious mental disease.

I can’t wait for him to tell his story today, in a safe place.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily on Game+ TV, YouTube Live and WQEE Radio)