Manning vs Leaf — the franchise-defining call

By the spring of 1998, the Colts had the #1 pick after a 3-13 season under Lindy Infante. The two-quarterback race split the league: Indianapolis brought both prospects in for private workouts, dinners, and full psychological evaluations. Manning showed up to dinners with notebook and pen; Leaf famously skipped or arrived late.

Polian later told NFL Films the call wasn’t close once the team finished their character work. “Peyton was Peyton from the day he walked in. Ryan was a different kid in different rooms.” Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay, GM Polian, and head coach Jim Mora unanimously voted Manning. The San Diego Chargers traded up to #2 (giving Arizona the #3 pick + a 1999 first-rounder + Eric Metcalf) to grab Leaf.

How the rest of 1998 played out

Manning’s rookie year was statistically rough — he threw an NFL-record 28 interceptions — but he started all 16 games and laid groundwork. By his second season the Colts went 13-3. Leaf’s career imploded almost immediately: 4 TDs and 15 INTs as a rookie, locker-room blowups, a 1-15 sophomore season, and out of the league after four years.

Other notable picks in the 1998 first round: Charles Woodson (#4 to Oakland — also a future Hall of Famer), Curtis Enis (#5 to Chicago), Andre Wadsworth (#3 to Arizona), Fred Taylor (#9 to Jacksonville), Randy Moss (#21 to Minnesota in the slide of the night). Moss going at 21 — partly because of off-field concerns — is the second-most-cited 1998 “miss” after Leaf.

The two careers

Manning won five NFL MVPs (a record), two Super Bowls (XLI with the Colts in the 2006 season, 50 with Denver in 2015), and threw for an NFL-record 539 career touchdown passes (since broken by Brady and Brees). He retired in March 2016 after Super Bowl 50 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021.

Leaf was out of football by age 25, served prison time on burglary and drug charges in the early 2010s, and has since become a sober-living counselor and college football radio analyst. He has spoken openly about being the cautionary tale that allowed Manning’s path to look inevitable in retrospect.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Peyton Manning and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).