People say I'm arrogant or cocky. You know what it is? I feel that I have a good chance to win ball games.
— Ryan Leaf
I don't look at myself and think I'm that special.
I was always worried about what others were thinking about me or how I was being perceived.
I've made mistakes and made them bigger because of the way I have reacted to them.
We're all flawed human beings trying to be a better person on a daily basis and I didn't figure that out for a long, long time.
You don't want to say the money changes you, but it definitely does.
I don't judge anybody until I meet them.
People hold me accountable. Before I would push people away, but that's not a way to be successful.
I spent money on all the wrong things. Private airfare. Things like that.
I don't want anybody to know anything about me.
I lay my head down every night with a ton of gratitude.
I mean this country is all about second chances. Look at me.
How you deal with things is what matters.
I lied all my life.
I defy anybody to be of service to another human being and not have the most peaceful night of sleep you've had in a long, long time.
I grew up in a really supportive environment.
I do follow the NFL. It took me a while to get back into it, but I do follow it religiously now. Huge Packers and Steelers fan.
Put me in the game, and my team will win 9 times out of 10.
People make too big a deal about me.
I was good at two things, athletics and lying.
The hole I've dug for myself is very big.
I wanted to be a professional athlete. Young men and women from Montana don't make it to the professional level that often. And I always believed that because I was a great football player that made me better than you. And that's not the case at all.
Coaching in college is not a right. It's a privilege.
I had this giant ego of an athlete, but I was self-conscious at everything else.
I look back and see the integrity my dad had, but I didn't gravitate toward that. I don't see how I didn't.
The rule is you don't play very long in this league. So you make the most out of it and you have to look at yourself in that fashion.
If you can't admit your faults how can you ever grow?
Try to be a better person everyday.
Playing in the NFL, it's a privilege, it's not a right.
When I bought my first house I had all these red flags on my credit report because I bounced a bunch of checks to places like Pizza Hut and stuff like that for $13 or $15 because I was trying to feed my O-linemen.
If you look like a ghost, you feel like a ghost.
I thought I was a god. I was more important than you, because I could do this thing where I played a silly sport that made me a better human being, in my eyes.
Football is just a game. Everybody takes it so much more seriously than it is, but there are many more important things in my life.
The farther I go East in the U.S. the more I get recognized because of more sports crazy the East Coast is.
I've lived on $400 a month in college. I've lived on it fine.
How can I go from this poor college kid one day and the next day get a check for $7 million. How's that going to affect me?
I'm stubborn.
A lot of times people say they want a fresh start, but you can't really have a fresh start because it doesn't happen that way.
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've always been a stubborn guy and you've got to beat me up before I'll start doing something.
When I retired, I took my money from the financial planner and proceeded to present the front that everything was fine. I had to pretend I still made $5 million a year.
I don't believe I was meant to be a professional quarterback. I was meant to have these life experiences and be an impact on others who've struggled. That's what I'm meant to do.
I didn't know how to deal with real life issues the right way as a humble human being until I was humbled to the point of being put in a jail cell.
We're all flawed human beings trying to be better but there's consequences to your actions and you have to be accountable for 'em.
Many times somebody tried to help me be constructive and I just pushed them away.
I don't make the right choices. I simply don't.
There's freedom in being rigorously honest. I lied all my life.
I had two amazing parents, two younger brothers, grandparents, a supportive community. Really loved.
I don't care if I go 2 for 40. If we win, it doesn't matter.
