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The NFL draft is a time for excitement and optimism, but realistically, some of the players taken on Saturday aren’t going to pan out in the NFL. What happens to all of the old bust picks, though? They don’t just disappear, and many of them are far more successful off the field than they ever were in the NFL. In honor of the upcoming draft, here’s the scoop on how some of your favorite busts are keeping busy:
1. Todd Marinovich
Todd Marinovich, the USC QB with an overbearing father the Raiders took in the first round of the 1991 draft, has had one legal problem after another since leaving the NFL after just two seasons. The arrests have ranged from little problems like skateboarding in prohibited areas on up to growing marijuana and sexual assault. He’s currently in jail awaiting a hearing after failing to appear for a previous date in court.
2. Mike Mamula
Mike Mamula, the stout defensive end who wowed scouts at the 1995 NFL combine and enticed the Eagles into drafting him seventh overall, had a disappointing, injury-riddled football career. He’s doing better in the corporate world, though, where as of 2008 he was the business director for a South Jersey company that administers drug tests and background checks for employers.
3. David Klingler
David Klingler didn’t live up to his record-breaking career at the University of Houston when the Cincinnati Bengals took the QB with the sixth pick of the 1992 draft. He isn’t just sitting around with his NFL money, though; Klingler is currently a PhD student at the Dallas Theological Seminary.
4. Ryan Leaf
Ryan Leaf, the Washington State QB the Chargers took just behind Peyton Manning with the second pick of the NFL draft, washed out of the league in spectacular fashion. He landed on his feet as a football and golf coach at West Texas A&M, but he had to leave that job last November after bumming a painkiller off of a player.
5. Michael Westbrook
Michael Westbrook went number four overall to the Redskins in 1995, but the former Colorado WR was never a big star in the NFL. Luckily, though, he’s found his true calling: Brazilian Jiu-Jistu, where he’s won several events. Westbrook also dabbled in mixed martial arts and recently appeared on the MTV series Bully Beatdown as the cage fighter who gave a bully a beatdown.
6. Brian Bosworth
Brian Bosworth, the phenomenal Oklahoma linebacker, didn’t go in the normal NFL draft, but he signed a record 10-year, $11 million deal after the Seahawks took him in the 1987 supplemental draft. The Boz was a major flop in the NFL, though, and eventually turned to acting. He hasn’t garnered much critical acclaim as of yet, but if IMDB’s cast listing for the upcoming Down and Distance is accurate, we’d better reserve a seat for Bosworth at the Oscars. How could a film starring Gary Busey, Master P, Lil’ Romeo, and Bosworth not sweep the Academy Awards?
7. Tim Couch
Tim Couch, an amazing QB during his collegiate career at Kentucky, couldn’t hack it after the Browns took him with the first overall pick in the 1999 draft, and after Cleveland cut him loose he couldn’t make another team’s roster while being dogged by steroid rumors. He’s currently an analyst for the Big Blue Sports Network, which covers Kentucky sports.
8. Akili Smith
Akili Smith, who went just behind Couch at the third spot in the 1999 draft, fared even worse. After four years with the Bengals, he couldn’t catch on with another NFL team and spent some time in NFL Europe and the CFL. According to a story that ran in the LA Times last weekend, he’s currently coaching quarterbacks at Grossmont College in El Cajon, California.
9. Cade McNown
Cade McNown was another QB disaster from the bust bonanza first round of the 1999 draft, when five signal callers went in the first twelve picks, and only Donovan McNabb and Daunte Culpepper turned out to be any good. McNown went to the Bears with the 12th pick of the draft and was arguably known more for his Playboy centerfold dating habits than his work on the field. (He’s allegedly banned from the Playboy Mansion for cavorting with one of Hef’s girlfriends.) Last April, though, Thompson National Properties, a company that caters to high-end real estate investors, announced that McNown was its new Senior Vice President, Investor Development.
10. Heath Shuler
Heath Shuler, the highly touted University of Tennessee quarterback, was pretty abysmal after the Redskins took him with the third pick in the 1994 NFL Draft; he only lasted four seasons in the NFL. Luckily for Shuler, he bounced back to start a large real estate business in Knoxville, which he used as a springboard to become a Democratic congressman for North Carolina’s 11th district. He still stinks at football, though; when Shuler led a congressional team against a squad of Capitol Police in a friendly game in 2007, he threw two picks as his team got shut out.
11. Lawrence Phillips
Lawrence Phillips looked like he would be the next great NFL running back, so the Rams burned the sixth pick in the 1996 draft on the Nebraska standout. Phillips, though, was something of a jerk. He couldn’t make it in the NFL and had several run-ins with coaches and law enforcement during a journeyman career that took him to the AFL and the CFL. He’s currently serving 10 years in a California prison following an assault with a deadly weapon conviction.
12. Tony Mandarich
Tony Mandarich, who Sports Illustrated dubbed “The Incredible Bulk” before the 1989 draft, went to the Packers with the second overall pick. Unfortunately, Mandarich’s bulk didn’t translate so well to the NFL, and the offensive tackle only started 47 games in his career. He recently came clean about his steroid and painkiller abuse during his playing days. Today he runs Mandarich Media Group, a business that offers Web media production services.
13. Peter Warrick
Peter Warrick, the standout Florida State WR who was busted in college for shoplifting from a department store, became another entry in the Bengals’ long list of woeful draft picks when they took him fourth overall in 2000. Warrick wasn’t able to steal much time in the NFL, though, and after bouncing around the league for five years, he fell back to small-time leagues. He’s currently on the roster of the Bloomington Extreme of the Indoor Football League.
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Comments (12)
Comment
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The draft (in any sport) is a crapshoot. Yet, perversely, the guys who are drafted first have more leverage than the teams who drafted them. Since the NFL is about to do a new deal with the players, I imagine the teams/owners will want to impose some sort of limit of $$ rookies can earn, much lower than the system currently in place, due solely to the fact that they haven’t proved anything yet and should not be paid more than proven veterans.
posted by James on 4-23-2009 at 2:41 pm
A quick note on Lawrence Phillips. He is in jail for trying to run down / running down a youth with his car following a dispute in a pick up football game.
posted by Patrick Brock on 4-23-2009 at 3:16 pm
An overwhelming percentage of these players were drafted by teams that have not been successful as of late, like the Washington “this-year-we’re-going-all-the-way” Redskins, the Cincinatti “We’re-competing-with-Detroit-for-most-number-one-draft-picks” Bengals, and the Oakland “we-once-had-a-great-team-so-we-traded-away-all-of-our-good-players-or-fired-our-good-coaches” Raiders.
*nailed it*
posted by Joel on 4-23-2009 at 3:41 pm
What about Eric Crouch? Drafted 1st round by St. Louis. He played for Nebraska, and won the Heismann, but never played a game in the NFL. I believe he is now a newscaster in Lincoln, NE.
posted by I Am Beaker on 4-23-2009 at 4:12 pm
The Bengals have had terrible luck in the draft (Thanks Mr. Brown…You’re doing a WONDERFUL job! PSSST…Hire a GM you dink!).
What would have been an interesting tid-bit to this article would have been the deals that these first-rounders received when entering their *sweet* NFL careers.
Maybe in a future article…
posted by Who Dey on 4-23-2009 at 4:35 pm
you could probably do a whole list just about Chiacgo Bears draft busts. It’s a good thing they wont be drafting in the first round fo the next two years and traded for Cutler instead…now they just need a receiver or two to throw to.
Go Bears!
posted by andy on 4-23-2009 at 5:42 pm
I just knew Ryan Leaf would be listed here…
(Yes, I’m a Chargers fan – and yes, I’m still a bit bitter about that one!)
posted by Steve In San Diego on 4-23-2009 at 6:54 pm
I just had a feeling Ryan Leaf would be mentioned (yes, many of us Chargers fans are still bitter about that one).
posted by Steve In San Diego on 4-23-2009 at 7:02 pm
Beaker,
Crouch was picked in the THIRD round as a wide receiver (he was a QB during his time at Nebraska). And to my knowledge, he is not a newscaster–that would have garnered big headlines. I think they have him on for radio coverage of sports stuff from time to time, but he’s not a regular (if you do actually know anything about Nebraska football, maybe you are thinking of Matt Davison? He’s famous in Nebraska for preserving the 1997 Championship season, and he is a regular for Husker sport radio.) Crouch is probably not on this list because he was a 3rd round pick (95th overall), so the expectations were not as high as as for say, some of these #6 overall picks. You could argue that winning the Heisman and then not doing well in the NFL is bad, but there is a surprisingly large number of Heisman winners who didn’t do much in the NFL, in part because college QBs (often the winners of the Heisman) usually possess a much different skill set than great NFL QBs.
At any rate, fact check next time. It’s a valuable life skill. :)
posted by kate on 4-23-2009 at 7:13 pm
Marinovich had a brief stop with the Los Angeles Avenger of the Arena Football League. Here’s part of an article I wrote about one of his less shining moments when they visited Nashville:
“One of the turning points of the game was when Ben Crosland caught up with Avengers QB Todd Marinovich in the endzone. Crosland grabbed Marinovich by the ankle of his red high top Converse Chuck Taylor shoes, causing him to try to throw the ball away. After a brief conference the officials called intentional grounding, resulting in a safety. Marinovich snapped when the officials made the call, protesting vigorously enough to draw a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. He then picked up the flag and threw it at an official – a move that drew a second penalty and got him and his ugly shoes ejected from the game, giving the Kats excellent field position once the penalty yardage was added to the ensuing kickoff return.”
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 4-23-2009 at 8:11 pm
Hey now, the Bengals haven’t had all bad draft picks. Carson Palmer seems to be holding his own.
posted by Chris on 4-24-2009 at 1:24 am
What about TOM BRADY at pick 199 in the 6th round.What a waste for the Patriots.They have never recovered from that awful pick.
posted by Drew Charles on 4-25-2009 at 11:32 am