Lord Byron

Editor's Note:
The following is another guest spot for our 32 for 32 feature. This post is by our own Mr. "Real Life of Alex Mack" Liquid Dinho.


O Byron, Lord Byron






Byron Leftwich was born on January 14th 1980 in Washington DC. Lord Byron was born on January 22nd 1788 in London. Byron Leftwich is a professional football quarterback. Lord Byron was an English Romantic poet. A google search for Byron Leftwich returns 204,000 hits. A google search for Lord Byron returns 3,600,000 hits. Byron Leftwich has a baby face and looks like Gary Coleman. Lord Byron is a true baller and doesn’t give a fuck who he looks like cause other people look like him not the other way around.

So what are the similarities? One, they both have the same first name. Two, straight players. That’s right both Byron’s are straight players. Lord Byron tapped everything that came his way. His conquests include the wife the Prime Minister of England, Mary Shelley’s sister and other English nobility. But don’t fret, Lord Byron doesn’t discriminate based on sex or family relations. He poked his cousin, half-sister, men, boys… Like I said, Lord Byron doesn’t give a fuck. Byron Leftwich on the other hand, well, he probably Mike Leached some sorority chica. (To Mike Leach is to undertake any action in a locked equipment room.) So maybe Baby Face can’t compete with the Lord in the game of Games, but Baby Face’s got the edge on the Gridiron.

The usual reaction that even a serious football fan has when the name Byron Leftwich is mentioned is of a fat, slow QB, with a big arm who never panned out in the NFL. In other words a bust. However these conclusions are somewhat unfair. To see why let’s review Leftwich’s career starting with his days at Marshall.

Not heavily recruited coming out of high school, Leftwich decides to attend the MAC powerhouse Marshall, whose potent passing game had been established by Chad Pennington and Randy Moss. Byron’s big frame 6’5 250, and big arm lit up the MAC with impressive passing numbers. Over three years he passed for 11,903 yards with 89 touchdowns and 28 interceptions.
His college career is highlighted by Marshalls 64-61 victory over ECU in the 2001 GMAC Bowl, in which he faced future teammate David Garrard. Leftwich threw for 576 yards and 4 TDs as Marshall rallied from a 38-8 deficit at half time to win in double OT. Check out some of the highlights from this game, its ridiculous. Check out the looks of the coaches at 13:22,14:15 and at 17:19. Priceless.

Leftwich also gained national fame for being carried downfield by his offensive linemen after completing a long pass with a broken shin. Check it out:



An accurate QB, with a cannon for an arm and leadership abilities is pretty enticing to NFL general managers. In one of the strangest draft day episodes in which the Vikings missed their pick, the Jaguars jumped at the opportunity for a franchise QB and drafted Byron 7th overall in the 2003 draft. The situation looked great for a young QB to mature. The Jags had a veteran starter in Mark Brunell, A solid defense and talented skill players such as Fred Taylor and Jimmy Smith. However the Jags’ plans hit a snag four weeks into Byron’s rookie year when Brunell went down with an injury, and Leftwich was thrust into the starting role.

Over the next 4 seasons Leftwich started 44 games before having season ending ankle surgery after week 5 in 2005 and week 11 in 2006. Leftwich lead the Jaguars to a 24-20 record during this span with 51 TDs and 36 INTs. Hardly bad numbers for the young QB, especially when you consider that this period also contained the retirement of Jimmy Smith, the leaving of Fred Taylor and was prior to the arrival of MJD.

The problem for Leftwich is that David Garrard came in and went 13-6 as a starter when Byron was injured and then proceeded to win the starting job over Leftwich during the 2007 preseason. Leftwich was released by Jacksonville and spent the 2007 season as a backup in Atlanta. He spent the 2008 season as the backup in Pittsburgh and won a ring on the shoulders of Big Ben. After signing with Tampa Bay to be the starter for 2009, he was replaced as the 1st string QB by Josh Johnson in week 4 and ended the season on IR.

Leftwich is due a $3.5 million roster bonus in March so you can bet he’ll be released this offseason. Leftwich is almost certainly going to look for a starting opportunity, however its unclear if he’ll get one. After getting dumped by Jacksonville he’s been with three different teams in as many years, hardly the right environment to excel as a quarterback. If no team is willing to give him the chance to start, I’d expect him to return as the backup in Pittsburgh. Charlie Batch is old and Dennis Dixon is not ready to be an NFL QB. Given Big Ben’s concussion issues the Steelers need a veteran QB who’s familiar with the offense. Byron Leftwich fits the bill.

It’s pretty clear that Byron Leftwich will never be a franchise quarterback. When you’re drafted 7th overall that level of achievement is certainly expected, so it’s easy to dismiss Leftwich as a bust. However look at what he did in Jacksonville. He wasn’t tearing up the league, but he certainly wasn’t bad enough to be run out of town. Since then he’s bounced around with mixed results. It’s likely that he will be given another starting shot in his career. If he can win some games, maybe lead a team to the postseason then he may leave a different legacy. As Lord Byron once said, “Men are the sport of circumstances when it seems circumstances are the sport of men.” I’m not sure what that means, but Leftwich is a man and he plays a sport so it should apply.