Former college standout turned glorious NFL draft bust turned Otis from The Devil’s Rejects-style drugged-out Texas highwayman Ryan Leaf is recovering from surgery to remove a benign tumor from his brain. Leaf had surgery last week, and yes, every single report of this guy having a tumor removed from his brain features a paragraph about how he is one of the worst football players of all time. I hope the surgery was an Eternal Sunshine thing to remove the word “bust” from Ryan Leaf’s brain.
“I am looking forward to resting a bit and being with my family,” Leaf told the AP in a statement.
“This was just another bridge for me to cross, and I will continue to live each day to the fullest and give back where I can!”
Examples of Leaf giving back to date include getting a four-year $31.25 million contract with a $11.25 million signing bonus to play 21 career games and working 10 years of probation for eight felony drug charges. He also fleed to Canada and signed a contract to write three autobiographical books about his life, which I guess constitute giving back. Peyton Manning helped deliver life-saving goods to the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and has a children’s hospital in Indianapolis named after him. I mean, I’m just saying.
In all seriousness, brain tumors are serious business, and absolutely no one wishes him well.
[via USA Today]
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“I will continue to live each day to the fullest and give back where I can!”
I’m confused by the exclamation mark at the end of that sentence, and agrees that no one wished him well.
Do you mean “no one wishes him ILL”, Mr. Guy-Who-Writes-For-A-Living? Or do you really think no on wishes him well?
@johnny – I meant what I typed, Mr. Guy-Who-Comments-On-Blog-Posts-As-A-Hobby
That’s pretty cold-hearted, man. I know you guys prize being funny above all else, but jesus it’s a fucking brain tumor.
I’ll break from you and wish him well. And I’ll go one further and wish you well, b/c karma is a bitch, especially when you make fun of shit like tumors.
@Sven – Karma doesn’t happen to you until the next lifetime, so if it’s going to be a bitch to me, it’ll be when I’m already a dog.
I wish him well in that I don’t wish him any specific harm.
Arguing about logistics of Karma… only in India! and apparently, WL comment threads.
And yeah, I’m with Punchy on this one, I don’t really care what happens to him. Tumors suck, though.
@johnny allegra: DON’T TALK TO ME ALRIGHT? KNOCK IT OFF!
I hit a couple of buckets of balls at a driving range next the immature Leaf back in 1998, and only being a year or two older than him then, I wasn’t sure what to make of him. I, like Leaf, was an ignorant asshole back then (still am too, proudly), but boy did he treat people like shit at that driving range counter that day.
Not that he deserves a brain tumor, but if I had a short list of folks I had to pass them out to…like Brandon, I’m just sayin’.
Yeah, I’m not happy that he’s got a brain tumor and I don’t want him to die or anything, I’m just not going to pray for him. Like Batman choosing to not save Ra’s al Ghul.
Sheesh, from your post about Joe Rogan, I thought that there would be 100+ comments taking you to task for being pro-tumor.
Personally, I think that it’s a bit much. Joking about cancer is always touchy, because if you do it around the wrong person, at the wrong time, it’s gonna blow up in your face. And since Ryan Leaf isn’t like OJ Simpson, saying that you don’t wish him well in a fight against cancer seems pretty hyperbolic.
That said, I wish people would stop being so fucking personally offended by cancer jokes. Does a blogger really want Ryan Leaf to die from a brain tumor? Mr. Hypersensitive-to-cancer-jokes, are you being hypersensitive because someone you know/love has/had cancer and you don’t think it’s ever a joking matter? Or are you just jumping in to show that you’re a “better person”?
Having lost a loved one–a great guy, who never committed multiple felonies, yet was stricken down at the age of 20–to an inoperable brain tumor, I suppose I could get all up in arms because, dammit, brain tumors aren’t funny.
And yeah, for years I winced whenever I saw Kindergarten Cop, or someone did their Arnold impression from that movie.
But you know what? I didn’t take it personally: I knew the people making the joke weren’t trying to hurt or offend me.
I guess what I’m saying is, let Ryan Leaf be offended by the tumor joke. If/when someone wishes your tumor kills you, then get into huffy-undies-in-a-bunch mode.
Until then, stop being offended on behalf of cancer patients, survivors, and their relatives. Some of us don’t want your pity.
Hey, with any luck, it screwed with his brain in a positive way and he becomes the salt of the earth:)