THE MOUTH TO THE SOUTH

Met the punk the other day, before all of San Diego fell in love with him after he had made the Kevin Gilbride-coached Chargers a winner, admittedly a feat to rival anything ever accomplished by Edison or Einstein.

Got the full Ryan Leaf treatment, too, the know-it-all shrugs, derogatory Peyton Manning remarks and flippant answers, while observing he was the only football player at lunch to leave his dirty dishes behind for someone else to clean up.

So what did you expect from a kid?

“Perfect Peyton” as Leaf likes to derisively call Manning, or “the Golden Boy,” as he snipes, would never have removed tape and an ice bag from his right elbow and just dropped them on the floor for someone else to pick up.

But as Leaf likes to boast, “That’s why I’m more marketable than the Golden Boy on the endorsement end of things; I got personality.”

Apparently that’s the point he was trying to make with a beautiful young woman at the NFL Quarterback Challenge before camp began. Only two problems:

* Witnesses said he was having a difficult time enunciating crude remarks after downing a load of beer in a round of golf with Carolina quarterback Kerry Collins--now there’s a role model.

* And that beautiful young woman’s husband, who turned out to be another NFL quarterback, was none too happy.

Kids will be kids, and so what if John Belushi is playing quarterback for the Chargers?

“He’s Jim McMahon,” said former Charger quarterback Dan Fouts. “I’m a big fan of McMahon’s. Jim’s so unique. I think this guy is his own guy, but just as unique.”

“Attitude? Yeah, but what did he do out there? He played great [in his first exhibition game, completing 14 of 20 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown] and Jim McMahon played great when he played. He’s a ballplayer--that’s what I saw. It was like he was playing on the street, just playing, just throwing the ball.”

Never a dull moment around this kid. After he had received an $11.25-million signing bonus to join the Chargers, teammate-linebacker Junior Seau stunned everyone by decking him in practice, even though Leaf was wearing the bright red don’t-hit-me jersey that makes the quarterback off-limits.

Asked about it later, Leaf huffed, “It’s personal, nothing you guys have to know about.”

So what really happened? Did he put a move on Seau’s wife too?

“If you haven’t played the game of football, you couldn’t possibly understand,” Leaf said.

If Michael Irvin can play football, it can’t be that tough to understand.

Seau explained, saying that nine years ago, when he was a rookie, he was terrorized by teammates’ Billy Ray Smith and Gary Plummer. They routinely charged room service to Seau’s hotel bill and other items to his credit card.

So Seau, the veteran now, decided to keep the tradition alive. At a sports auction a few weeks back, while Leaf was minding his rookie business, Seau announced that Leaf had won the bidding for a $1,500 sky box at Qualcomm Stadium.

“That would be $700 after the charitable write-off, and he needs the deductions,” said Seau with a laugh. But Leaf wasn’t laughing.

Seau later took 25 of his teammates to a posh sushi restaurant, rang up a $2,800 tab and put it on Leaf’s credit card, which somehow had come into his possession.

“He was mad,” Seau said. “He got kind of riled up, but it’s just one of those things you have to go through as a rookie.”

Charger management denies it, but insiders say Leaf went hell-bent angry to the front office complaining, which irritated Seau, resulting in some exchange of football pleasantries and a smack at practice.

“Hey, I love the kid,” said Seau, the first to congratulate the youngster after Leaf threw a touchdown pass against the San Francisco 49ers in the exhibition opener. “It’s just part of the growing-up process in the NFL.”

The Chargers predict Leaf will grow up to be one of the best quarterbacks ever, his brashness becoming an asset in resurrecting a franchise that has to buy 41,000 tickets for the first few games and give them away to kids to avoid the embarrassment of having the city buy them to make good on a 60,000-seat guarantee.

“This guy has the chance to be a great player,” said June Jones, Charger quarterback coach. “I think that [attitude] tag, whatever it was that we were hearing about when he came out of college--that problem with teammates or whatever--hasn’t shown itself. He’s matured beyond that and has been nothing but a positive leader. He knows how to be a team guy.”

Keeping in mind that Fouts was not very popular with most of his teammates and he’s now in the Hall of Fame, Leaf was criticized at Washington State for being quick to criticize, self-absorbed and unable to shoulder the blame for poor play. Chris Jackson, a former teammate, told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “He was a little snotty-nosed kid.”

So now he has the potential to be a big snotty-nosed kid, making him more like McMahon every minute.

The Chargers had to choose a starting quarterback among Casey Weldon, who hasn’t started an NFL game in his six-year pro career; Craig Whelihan, who was 0-7 last year, and Leaf, in whom they have invested $31 million.

Gilbride, saying it was a tougher decision than you would think--which says something about Gilbride--chose Leaf.

Leaf’s reply: “I didn’t leave college early to sit on the bench for a year.”

You gotta love him--if he’s playing for your favorite team. Before the draft, he told Sports Illustrated: “People say I’m arrogant or cocky. You know what it is? I feel that I have a good chance to win ballgames. Put me in the game, and my team will win nine times out of 10.”

The bullish attitude that has propelled Leaf to these lofty ranks, and has the potential to make him something special in the NFL, also packs the kind of misguided wallop that can knock someone off the track.

For example, ask him about the ticket-buying fans--the folks the Chargers seriously need to embrace these days--and he snaps, “I really don’t care what the public thinks.”

Wouldn’t it be better to tread a little more lightly?

“I don’t have to be mellow for anyone; that’s what everybody likes--that I got a personality.”

Well, not everybody. Jon Kasper, a former teammate at Russell High in Great Falls, Mont., wrote in a Missoula newspaper: “He’s always been an extremely talented athlete, and he’s always had an extremely big mouth.”

When a San Diego-area newspaper, the North County Times, wanted to do a profile on Leaf about his growing up in Montana, Leaf said, “I don’t like Great Falls and I don’t like returning there.”

It comes as no surprise, then, to learn through newspaper accounts that young Leaf once flipped off the fans at a local basketball game.

Surprising, however, are Leaf’s explanations, which are contradictory. He will say repeatedly that Manning is his friend and he pays no mind to competing with him, then spends the next few minutes tearing him down.

He made headlines in San Diego, guaranteeing he would sign a contract and report to training camp on time, and when he didn’t, holding out for more money, he blamed it on reporters, saying: “I wasn’t late; they left a word out. I said I guaranteed I’d be there by Monday.”

He told a reporter he had bought Skip Away, the race horse, then had to explain it was joke after the horse’s owner expressed shock upon reading it in the newspaper.

Tell him the team looked shaky in practice, and he replies, “That was our best practice of the year.”

At times Leaf has all the engaging qualities of a young man eager to conquer the world--still boyish and innocent enough to cherish forever the ball he threw for his first NFL preseason touchdown pass. And then there are other times. Too early to tell in a young man’s career which way Leaf will go.

“The biggest misconception about me is that I’m an arrogant-type kid,” he said arrogantly.

The overriding opinion in the NFL, in part why Manning was selected before Leaf in the NFL draft, is that Manning was more mature, has more polish, and a better chance to enjoy early success in the NFL.

No, he doesn’t, said Leaf. “He’s been doing this his whole life and I’m just as good as him and I’ve been doing it for four years. Why didn’t he do the same thing [have more success than Leaf] in college? Our offense was more complicated than his. His was fake it and throw it to the guy. Mine was wide open, like the pro offenses are.

“Manning has no relevance with me. I don’t care what he does. I’m going to be connected to the guy forever, but that’s connected through the media. I don’t care what anybody thinks. Peyton’s my friend. He’s more mature, he’s been doing this forever, but give me 22 years of it and see how good I am. Listen, I don’t measure myself against Peyton Manning.”

Uh-huh, right.

But win football games and most anything goes in the NFL, as evidenced by the way McMahon, Irvin and so many others have conducted themselves.

Which way will Leaf ultimately go?

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said.

Have you ever agreed with something a reporter has said?

“Yeah,” he said, leaving the table. “When they say I’m good.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How They Stack Up

Sure, San Diego rookie quarterback Ryan Leaf has the mouth, but who has the numbers? A look at the career statistics for Leaf (selected No.2 in the NFL draft) and former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning (No. 1 pick), including one NFL exhibition game each:

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Year Player G Att. Comp. Pct. Yds. Int 1994 Leaf (Redshirted) Manning 10 114 89 61.8 1,141 6 1995 Leaf 9 97 62 53.6 654 1 Manning 11 380 244 64.2 2,954 4 1996 Leaf 11 373 194 52.0 2,811 12 Manning 11 380 243 63.9 3,287 12 1997 Leaf 11 375 210 56.0 3,637 10 Manning 13 477 287 60.2 3,819 11 Total Leaf 31 845 456 54.0 7,102 23 (College) Manning 45 1,381 863 62.5 11,201 33 NFL Leaf 1 20 14 70.0 116 0 (Exhibit.) Manning 1 15 8 53.3 113 1

Year TD (Pass-Rush) 1994 12 (11-1) 1995 6 (4-2) 27 (22-5) 1996 27 (21-6) 23 (20-3) 1997 39 (33-6) 39 (36-3) Total 72 (58-14) (College) 101 (89-12) NFL 1 (1-0) (Exhibit.) 1 (1-0)

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