| It’s clear now — after minicamps, volunteer workouts and two preseason games — that while Leinart has spent an evening or two in Hollywood, he hasn’t “gone Hollywood.”He is, instead, a man who works hard at his job, knows his place and is eager to earn the respect of his teammates.“I’m a normal kid,” Leinart said.Well, normal might be stretching it. Most normal 23-year-olds don’t have millions of dollars in their bank account and women swooning at their every move.But Leinart does seem to be the antithesis of what he was portrayed to be, and how lucky for the Cardinals that the quarterback-deficient teams ahead of them in the draft — Oakland, Buffalo and Detroit — failed to look past the tabloid covers.
“I was interested to find out what he was like as a person,” quarterbacks coach Mike Kruzcek said. “I’ve been impressed since the day we brought him in. He didn’t seem to be that kind of guy that needs to be in the spotlight, out in the streets with celebrities, putting himself in front of the camera. He’s just a down-to-earth guy that is one of the guys. He’s not one of those guys that puts himself on a pedestal at all.”
The best way to describe Leinart: He’s a football player who’s a celebrity rather than a celebrity who’s a football player.
“My argument is look at what I did on the football field (at USC),” Leinart said. “It’s not like I had a bad reputation. Just because I had friends with popular names, who cares. I could have been like that in the Midwest and no one would have given a crap. I could have gone out every night and it wouldn’t have mattered.
“It bothered me to some degree because it took away from what I did on the football field and it kind of imprinted an image that wasn’t me. People who know me and understand me know that was all completely false.”
And the perception that his image scared some teams away?
“That’s just extra motivation,” Leinart said.
Leinart’s fame leaves little room for a private life. Multiple media sources reported Tuesday he and USC women’s basketball player Brynn Cameron are expecting a baby boy in November.
If Leinart was a second-string offensive tackle, nobody would care. And really, his personal life is none of our business. But this is the age of tabloid journalism, and when you are the highest-profile player in the most successful college football program in the country, and People magazine names you one of the world’s 50 most beautiful people, you’re the mouse and gossip is the mousetrap.
No one, however, should doubt Leinart’s commitment to football.
Despite missing 15 days of training camp, he’s played well in the Cardinals’ last two preseason games, completing 19 of 32 passes for 189 yards, with one touchdown and no interceptions.
He’s already roared past John Navarre on the depth chart and saved the coaching staff a few antacid tablets should Kurt Warner get hurt.
“He’s very comfortable on how to go out and play the game,” coach Dennis Green said.
Playing in a pro-style offense at USC has hastened Leinart’s development — “he came in here and understood the offense the first day we put it in,” Kruzcek said — but it doesn’t fully explain why he looks so comfortable on the field when most rookie quarterbacks are drowning in a pool of uncertainty.
In simple terms, Leinart is a playbook junkie. While the Cardinals and his agents were squabbling over contract terms, Leinart was immersed in Arizona’s offensive schemes, trying to make up for whatever time he would miss.
“His retention was remarkable when he came back to camp, so obviously he spent some of his downtime refreshing himself on what we do,” Kruzcek said. “A lot of guys that you bring in kind of erase the tape and have to start from the ground up. That’s not so with Matt. He learns on the run very, very well. He’s able to transfer what you show him on the grease board in a meeting to the field without having taken reps on it before. That’s unique.”
Let’s be clear: Leinart can’t play the wide-eyed innocent when it comes to his reputation. Hold your post-draft party in Pure Nightclub at Caesar’s Palace, and you’re going to be typecast.
But who says a young man can’t throw a bash and a football? |
Matt, you are no longer a “kid.”
You are now “baby’s daddy.”