Leinart takes a high road, but no easy street

You wonder whether he will pick up the phone. What possible reason would he have to pick up the phone?

As his football team has become a symbol of determination, he has become one of disillusionment.

As the Arizona Cardinals have sprinted wildly through the NFL playoffs, he has stood painfully still.

As the Cardinals attempt to leap upon football’s grandest stage today in the NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles, he will recede even further into the background.

Visor on backward. Hands on hips. Eyes wandering. His scraggly beard growth once looked so noble. Now, it just looks like he forgot to shave.

You wonder, why on Earth would Matt Leinart want to talk about any of this?

“Hey, Bill Plaschke, how are you doing?”

He not only picks up the phone, he shouts happily into it.

Some may think he’s finished, but he sounds like he’s just getting started.

“This is not how I planned it,” he says. “But you know, it’s been good for me.”

Good?

“I’m on a team that is one game from going to the Super Bowl when nobody believed in us,” he says. “And every day I get to be around a Hall of Fame quarterback.”

Good?

“I guess you can say all of this has made me grow up,” Leinart says. “I guess you can say I’ve learned.”

If so, it’s been a brutally public education. Or is that execution?

Leinart left Los Angeles after the 2005 season as one of the best, and most endearing, college players in this town’s history.

He led USC to two national championships, won a Heisman Trophy, returned for a senior season, impressed everyone with his kindness and humility.

Then, driving six hours across the desert to join the Cardinals as their 10th overall draft pick, he might as well have jumped to the moon.

To the average fan, the old Matt Leinart seemingly vaporized, while the new one was virtually unrecognizable.

He became more known for hot tubs than touchdown passes. He became more celebrated for his relationship with Paris Hilton than a film room.

He made bigger news for fathering a child with USC women’s basketball guard Brynn Cameron than for mentoring any victories.

Everywhere, there were camera phones. Everywhere, there was criticism.

“In L.A., when I was there, I really felt beloved,” Leinart says. “But the minute you get out of there, it’s like everyone else hates you.”

Was it hate, or was it just interest? Did he not realize the personal tax on a $50.8-million contract?

“I didn’t realize that I could no longer lead a normal life,” he says. “I didn’t know the sacrifices involved.”

His actions were considered common stuff for a 22-year-old, but immature stuff for the future leader of a struggling football team.

Either folks ripped him or wanted to be his best friend, and it’s hard to say which was more dangerous.

“Part of the problem of L.A. not having an NFL team is that Matt was treated like an NFL quarterback before he was out of college,” says Steve Clarkson, Southland quarterback guru who counts Leinart among his many high-profile clients. “You are surrounded by people treating you like a pro, and Matt felt some of that.”

The new Matt Leinart also became known as someone who didn’t work very hard during the season, paying more attention to his celebrated social life.

“He went from a pro-style system at USC to a similar system in Arizona and, yeah, frankly, it was easy for him, like riding a bike,” says Clarkson.

In his first season, he played a dozen games with a 74.0 passer rating, decent enough for a rookie. But the next fall, his season was shortened because of a shoulder injury.

This season, he was finally going to break out. But in the spring, another series of Internet photos appeared, these showing Leinart feeding a young woman beer through a funnel.

Leinart immediate phoned Coach Ken Whisenhunt to apologize, but it was too late. He had already lost the coach’s trust as a leader. A couple of months later, in training camp, it wasn’t that difficult for Kurt Warner to beat him out for the starting job.

“This summer, Matt worked harder than ever,” says Clarkson. “But he is still dogged by the perception that he is too Hollywood, too Paris Hilton.”

In all, in three NFL seasons, he has thrown for fewer yards than in his senior season at USC. He has tossed 14 touchdown passes with 17 interceptions, for a 71.7 passer rating that is half of what it was in his final Trojan year.

And now he’s stuck behind a guy whose career has been resurrected, with Warner surely returning for at least one more season.

But this fall, he says, he made a decision.

“I could have become a distraction, pointed fingers, complained, or I could have just worked hard and been prepared, knowing I’m one play from getting in,” Leinart says. “And that’s the road I’ve taken.”

It’s a road that Leinart feels will lead him back to where he started.

“I’ve spent an entire year out of the limelight, and it’s really made me think, really helped me grow,” he says.

Clarkson says there is only one way to truly shrug off the turmoil of the last three years.

“The only way Matt will get rid of all that talk of his reputation is to get a chance to play, and then perform well when he has that chance,” Clarkson says. “I believe he’s ready for that.”

A few days ago, Leinart was asked for directions by another quarterback in a similar situation, a guy named Mark Sanchez.

Once upon a time, Leinart would have celebrated with him. But now, Leinart simply warned him.

“I told Mark that he was physically ready to play with the best of them,” he says, pausing, lowering his voice. “But I also told him that the biggest thing about the NFL is the mental part, the maturity part. I told him, it takes its toll on you.”

Understood.

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bill.plaschke@latimes.com