Leinart Will Always Have His Parents to Rely Upon

I have two kids and both love money. My money.

Obviously they take after their mother.

I mention this because last week Linda and Bob Leinart supported their son Matt, who passed on millions of dollars in favor of returning to school and continuing to mooch off mom and dad.

“He’s been mooching off us for 21 years, what’s one more year?” Bob said.

As a family, of course, we’ve never been confronted by such a huge decision. I’ve always wondered, though, what it would be like to have kids with talent -- with the capability of making millions and maybe on occasion picking up a dinner tab.

I probably should have married a woman with athletic ability, but looking back now I don’t recall giving much thought to selective breeding.

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LINDA AND BOB, meanwhile, produced a gifted quarterback who could’ve left USC with a degree and signed a NFL contract that would’ve put something like $14 million in the bank under the kid’s name.

Last year, Bob said, he refinanced his home to pay the $20,000 premium for a $1-million Lloyd’s of London insurance policy in the event his son could no longer play football. “That was a killer,” Bob said. “Biggest check I’ve ever written.”

Matt gets a $950 stipend as a student/athlete, but “his rent is something like $750 a month,” Bob said, “so we’re always there if he needs something.”

When it came time to talk NFL, father and son met several times over lunch, which Bob always bought. “Who else?” Bob said.

The week before the final decision, the family went over everything while out for dinner, which Bob bought. And yet, Bob said, “this never came down to money. That’s not what this family is about.”

For everyone else, of course, it came down to the money. Some folks were so incensed that Matt didn’t take the money they took to calling him “stupid.” And surprisingly, not all these people had degrees from UCLA.

I mentioned the amount of money Leinart was passing on, and it’s a good thing the restaurant we were dining in had smelling salts, or we might never have revived the Grocery Store Bagger. Of course, he might’ve fainted too because the waitress made the mistake of putting the check in front of him about the same time we were discussing Leinart.

The daughters were unanimous in their assessment of Matt’s decision: “What, is he nuts?” One of them married the Bagger, so she’s obviously got a lot of nerve to call anyone nuts.

I have no doubt both daughters would’ve taken the money, and then asked me to buy them dinner to celebrate. I have no idea why we raised such money-grubbers, but I admire the way the Leinarts kept things in perspective.

Maybe it would have been different had Matt had the keen interest in Coach purses and the desire to own a different pair of shoes for every hour in the day like the daughters.

There’s no question Matt’s different. “If you knew our family, you’d understand,” said Bob, owner of a L.A.-based gift representation firm. “There aren’t a lot of family units out there any more, and that’s sad, but we are. We’re very close and we spend a lot of time together. Everybody we seem to know who has a lot of money is not very happy, divorced or something. We’re real happy and content.”

I happen to think it wouldn’t be a disaster if everything went sour and the kid had to pass on a NFL career, use his degree and work for a living. No reason why he couldn’t buy lottery tickets like the rest of us.

“Linda’s whole thing was a safety issue, and not from football,” Bob said. “She was worried about fans and crazy people. It was a total mom thing. Matt’s gotten mobbed, and it’s going to get worse. He lives in downtown L.A., which is not the safest place, and one night last year someone followed him all the way home before Matt finally got rid of him.”

Bob compiled the NFL pros and cons but refrained from telling his son what he’d do if put in the same situation. “He never asked me what he should do until the final morning, and I said, ‘What do you feel in your heart?’ He said he wanted to come back, so I said that’s what he should do.”

I guess dad will be contacting Lloyd’s and refinancing the house once again.

“Matt won’t admit it, but I think he was kind of afraid to go out in the big, bad world right now,” Bob said. “He just wasn’t ready. I also don’t think he felt he was physically ready to go to the NFL, so why not go back to school and have fun?”

The question hangs heavy in the air for everyone, though: What if the kid gets hurts and blows all that money and the chance to play in the NFL?

“I’d be disappointed, but his mom wouldn’t care,” Bob said. “He has a SC education, and he’d do just fine.”

Of course, he would, because he could always mooch off mom and dad.

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YOU NOTICE how fast Cesar Izturis and Eric Gagne came to terms with the Dodgers -- avoiding arbitration. It’s got to be the Ng Fear Factor.

A year ago Dodger executive Kim Ng convinced an arbitrator that Eric Gagne wasn’t worth what he was asking for even though he probably had the best year for a reliever in baseball history. Now you know why the Parking Lot Attendant kept Ng on the job when he took over.

Brad Penny, who wasn’t with the Dodgers a year ago when Ng did her number on Gagne, continues to be arbitration eligible. The poor guy.

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TOM LASORDA is going to be the emcee at a pair of black-tie events as part of the festivities commemorating this week’s presidential inauguration. I’d like to see the look on people’s faces when they find out baloney is being served.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Luis Soria:

“I think you should be careful who you call a ‘shrimp,’ wise guy, because there are a lot of well-known people that are short or shorter than the Lakers’ Tierre Brown. Do you have something against short people? I’m one of them.”

I’m afraid that anything I say might go over your head.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.