Imagine being the younger brother of a star quarterback. The comparisons, the doubts and the successes, as well as the failures, carry on with you the rest of your life.
Your older brother was one of the most heralded college players in NCAA history and you can only hope to live up to the standard he set so high.
When he declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft, experts were picking him as the top quarterback in the country and was likely to be the number one pick overall. His accomplishments continued to pile up and he could only begin to wonder how to meet everybody’s expectations once he got a chance to play.
Your brother has cast a long shadow, and it may be impossible for you to find a way stand out.
But then the pressure gets to him. With all the hype and expectations forced upon him, he falters like no other quarterback before him and plays only a few seasons before he realizes he’s unwanted by every team in the league. He’s called many things: immature, unintelligent and unfit as an NFL quarterback.
He falls out of the spotlight as you begin to play quarterback for your high school team. Despite the comparisons drawn between you and him, you remain unfazed. You still go on to have a successful high school career and are recruited by major Division-I programs.
Going to your brother’s alma-mater would create too many parallels, but you still enroll somewhere close to home, somewhere where you believe you have a chance to play. Just any place where people won’t compare you to your older brother.
During your sophomore year, you finally get your chance after the starter goes down for the season and under the circumstances, you perform moderately well. This was something you weren’t supposed to go through yet, and any mistakes you make are accepted.
But because you aren’t impressing anybody, you still have to compete for the job with the other quarterback.
People say he’s more exciting to watch, he has a larger upside than you and that the job should be his.
Again, the criticism doesn’t alter the way you play; you lead game-winning drives later in the year and some people believe you should be named the starter.
But then in the team’s bowl game, you throw a game-ending interception at the stadium where your brother flamed out as a quarterback. All of the comparisons you tried so hard to avoid now come at you at full force and you can spend the entire offseason contemplating, ‘What if I’m set out to fail like my brother?’
That mindset makes it easy for the coach to name the other guy the starter for next season. He can tell you share the same qualities as your brother.
You spend the entire season waiting for your shot. The coach throws in a few trick plays to make you content, but you want another shot at starting.
Soon enough, it happens. With your rival starter finally begins to show weakness, coach throws you in and you perform about as well as anybody’s ever seen you play.
And with the team playing a patsy school the next week, you expect to see even more playing time. You want to show the coach how much you’ve learned while standing on the sidelines.
It’s not going to happen. The other guy’s still going to start. You will continue to sit.
For Brady Leaf, this is his life, always playing second-string, always under someone else’s shadow.
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