Ryan Leaf's 1998 Performance Against The Kansas City Chiefs Was Unbelievably Bad

Published on November 16th, 2020 12:41 am EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


What was the worst performance in the history of fantasy football?

There have been some really bad performances in the history of fantasy football. Defenses that got torched for 60 points. Running backs that finished with hardly any yards and multiple fumbles. Superstar wide receivers that were completely shut down.

One performance, however, stands above them all.

We all know the story of Ryan Leaf. Ryan Leaf, the second overall pick in the 1998 NFL draft, who turned out to be one of the all-time biggest busts in the history of the NFL.

The San Diego Chargers were playing in Kansas City on September 20th, 1998.

The first two games of Ryan Leaf's career had gone well, even if his numbers hadn't been great. Both games ended in victories for the Chargers, and Leafs tossed for a little under 400 yards cumulatively. Not great, but both games were wins.

Ryan Leaf's downwards tumble would officially begin on September 20th, 1998, when he completed the worst performance in the history of fantasy football.

Leaf would go 1-15 in the game, throwing for just 4 yards. In a league that scores 1 point for every 25 yards in passing, this would mean that Leaf would have had 0 points through the air.

Leaf would also rush four times for 1 yard, which resulted in another 0 if you were in a league that awarded a point for every 10 yards gained on the ground.

Leaf was intercepted twice in the game, which would have resulted in negative four points in most fantasy football leagues.

To make matters worse, Leaf would lose three fumbles in the game, including two to Derrick Thomas. If each fumble lost was worth negative two points, this would have meant an additional 6 points to the negative for Leaf and his unfortunate fantasy football owners.

In a standard scoring league, this would have resulted in a -10 score for Leaf on the day, which is certainly one of the worst fantasy football performances in the history of the NFL, if not the very worst.

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Here are some of the highlights from that game:



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If you had Ryan Leaf set as your starting quarterback on September 20th, 1998, you almost certainly took a loss on the day.

There have been some other horrific fantasy football performances in the history of the NFL (Rex Grossman, to name one), though Ryan Leaf stands head and shoulders above them all.