Episode 2 of “How the NFL Works” is LIVE at Go Long.

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How the NFL Works, S1 E2: Life After Football with Ryan Leaf

Here’s the written transcript of our conversation with former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf. Life After Football is a cruel game for retirees… and it’s a game the NFL chooses not to play.

Leaf, however, has become a go-to resource for retirees across the country.

He truly believes he’s the luckiest guy on the face of the earth. The feeling of helping someone turn their life around, he says, trumps anything he would’ve felt hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

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You’ve never been afraid to share your good, your bad, your ugly. You’re brutally honest with your own life, Ryan, and I think in the process you’re saving lives for a lot of NFL players. I’m sure there’s so many conversations you’ve had with guys after they’ve left the NFL. We see players in gold jackets. We see players on ESPN and NFL Network. We tragically hear about the Vincent Jacksons. But there is, what, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 other guys in the middle. We really don’t know what they’re going through.

Leaf: There’s only 27,000 players ever to play in the hundred years of the NFL. That’s it. So it’s a small pool. It’s a really small pool, and there’s zero reason why any of us should be getting picked off. You know what’s ironic is the NFL, Park Avenue, I don’t have any access to former players through them. Zero. They don’t want me around their players. So, what happened to me — and this is how karma or kismet or how things work — is I developed a relationship with the CEO of the Menninger Clinic. And the Menninger Clinic is a state-of-the-art, psychiatric substance use disorder facility in Houston, Texas. I was at Peyton Manning’s induction to the Hall of Fame in 2021 and I ran into the CEO there. We just started talking and we stayed in touch. And then a couple years later, we came up with a plan on how I could give back because they had just worked out a deal with the NFL Players Association, which meant that they had the facility available to any former players.

So I go down quarterly now to Houston. Every time I go down, there’ll be anywhere from eight to 12 former players that are currently seeking treatment and getting the help that they need. And I have direct access to them, the access I would’ve never had through the NFL because they don’t do that. They put up this facade called the “NFL Legends Community,” which says we are going to be there for former players. But when the shit hits the fan for any former player — if it does any damage to the shield — they distance themselves from it. Anything that’s going bad for a player or a former player, that’s when people need you the most. That’s when they need the most support and help to feel like they’re not alone. And so, this is amazing how it’s worked out. I just got back recently from Houston just last month and, again, another tangible, purposeful opportunity to actually reach out and touch a fellow NFL brother and hopefully give them some hope that things can get better. Things can change. You can have the life of your dreams and you’re not wrapped up in this identity that lasts, I don’t know, 2.8 years on average. So it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for me.

You put it perfectly a couple of years ago when you called the NFL, this “propaganda machine,” a “money-printing company,” and a “marketing arm.” But why? Why do you think when shit hits the fan — and I’ve heard this with countless former players — the league really isn’t there? Because that’s not a big number.

Leaf: I don’t understand it. I think they have enough PR issues going on that they don’t want this. They also, for being such a big corporation in the eyes of people, they are a small entity. There’s not a lot of people that work for them. And the bigger thing in all of this is Roger Goodell is managed by 31 owners. He does their bidding. And their bidding is to make as much money as possible. That’s what they do. I do believe some of them want to win championships just because there’s a competitive nature to the Billionaire Boys Club. But I also think the most important thing is there to be the most valued asset out there. And if there is anything that can do damage to that, they want it scuttled and put away and not talked about. Concussions are at the very forefront. The Damar Hamlin situation two years ago. All of those things, they want to move on immediately just like — when that happened — they wanted to go back right out on the field immediately.

They basically stepped over Damar Hamlin’s body. There were football games a few days later.

Leaf: The funny thing was, I had my own talk show for the last two years until our company got bought out by Fanatics Sportsbook recently. And I was pretty critical of Goodell and Troy Vincent, and I said that they should postpone games this week, utilize that bye week before the Super Bowl to allow teams to check in on one another. I didn’t think anybody had a chance to really check in with each other — in particular, the Buffalo Bills. They left Cincinnati and all of a sudden — they’re having to deal with all of it, whether or not he’s going to be healthy — and then to go out and play. So I was pretty critical of that. And normally I’m on “Good Morning Football” every week while I was in New York. Our coordinating producer got a call from Park Avenue and said, “Take Ryan off the broadcast this week.” And I was just like, “You know what? I’m OK with that.” If that’s their way of trying to control things, I don’t know. It was silly that they weren’t able to just own up to the fact that “This is a freak accident. We just knew what we do best and let’s go back to playing football. We made a mistake. We’ll now have more data and information to do better next time.” I would’ve loved that answer. I don’t mind if you mess up. In fact, look at me! I mess up all the time. I’m just really good now at going, “Oh wow, that was Old Behavior Me. I’m sorry. I’m going to try to be better the next time and not make that same mistake. Do you forgive me?” I think that just goes a long way.

They’re just not capable. And when you’ve fooled once, it’s a thing. If you keep being fooled over and over and over, then that’s on you. And you have to start making the decision to stand up and set healthy boundaries around those types of situations and incidents. And so Roger’s Roger. He works directly for the owners. The guy that I really have the beef with is Troy Vincent. He’s a former player and he just seems like he sold his soul for all that money. I don’t know if he believes he’s commissioner in-waiting because I guess that’s meaningful. It’s 40+ million a year, a private plane, all the things that come with commissioner status. But he’s a former player. That’s the thing that rubs me the wrong way and I think probably rubs a lot of people the wrong way, that he does not seem like an advocate for players, which is so ironic because he was one and he was a very good one.

Frankly, it’s a bit disgusting. That’s the biggest problem that I have and I think a lot of people have. I love that they like to bring back players and have them be a part of the league in different kind of ways. I do not think having former players be the ones that have to dish out punishment is a good thing either. You’re watching the Jon Runyan situation with Derwin James this last week. Derrick Brooks holds up the appeal process and I’m like, “Bro, man, you guys knew what it was like to play defense back there,” and now they’ve got all these changing rules on where you got to throw your head and you guys are just like, “We’ll just steal all their money. We’ll just take their money.” It’s just so odd to me that that’s the way it goes down there at the league.

With Troy Vincent, is he just bought and paid for then? Is he just a convenient mouthpiece for the league?

Leaf: Well, he’s very convenient. Yes. I think he’s bought and paid for and that’s unfortunate. It is. He could have a real position to be an advocate for the player, and he’s not. It’s not like this isn’t just public knowledge. What’s ironic about the NFL, this isn’t news. What I’m saying isn’t news to people. It’s widely known. It’s almost just like it’s the blurred background of a Zoom meeting. You know what’s behind you. You can see it. But you’re trying to just kind of blur it to everybody out there and they’re willing to just look through it through a blurred lens. And I’m a direct consumer here for the NFL. I love the NFL. I love football. I love consuming it. I love watching it. I sit on NFL Red Zone on Sundays for seven hours straight and watch football. So if I’m the one that’s willing to be critical and still sit and watch their product — which they’re enjoying billions of dollars from — they probably can look at it, like “Who cares what anybody has to say? They’re going to consume it anyway.” They’re exactly right. And if that’s ultimately the values that they live under? I don’t know if you saw recently the article that was written with the undercover investigative reporter with the Washington Commanders and the employee there and how insubordinate the employee was. But if you look at the context of what was said, none of that is deniable stuff. You’re just like, “Yeah, that’s them. But he is an employee. He shouldn’t have probably said that and that’s why he’s being suspended.” That was the injustice of it all. He’s telling the truth, but he just shouldn’t have done that. We can’t tell you how the sausage is made, but you know how the sausage is made.

Let’s just be honest about the sport and what it does to your body, to your brain in the moment. Let’s not pretend there’s some crazy utopian middle ground that we can piece together — Frankensteinian. It doesn’t exist with what all these rules are trying to get toward. So let’s just be honest in the moment and then let’s be honest when guys are done with what it does to you. You’re living proof for that.