I've never really believed in the phrase "What goes around, comes around."
But recent evidence in the football world has led me to believe there may be something to the old adage.
Take the Arizona Cardinals' loss to the Oakland Raiders just over a week ago.
There was Matt Leinart. The Golden Boy. The guy the media can't stop reporting about. The guy that always stares downward when he talks - and doesn't have much to say anyway - but is thought of as fascinating by so many.
He was getting roughed up. He was getting sacked. He was getting intercepted. Unlike when he played for USC, the football game wasn't handed to him on a silver platter.
Then on the other side was the less flashy and less heralded Andrew Walter. ASU's all-time leading passer looked like he was carving up Iowa all over again. He threw for 263 yards in less than four quarters - he left the game early with a slight hamstring injury - despite receiver Randy Moss dropping three of his passes.
Walter got his first win over Leinart that day. He was 0-for-2 against the Golden Boy in college. But now, the playing field is more level.
Leinart is no longer a cog in college football's greatest-ever team. And Walter is no longer the guy who routinely threw for 400 yards at ASU, carrying a team that could rarely run the ball or play defense.
Since they're both Pac-10 quarterbacks, Leinart and Walter have been inevitably compared over the last few years. Predictably, critics have always called Leinart the better player. But this will all change soon. Regardless of what has been spoon-fed to all of you, Walter will prove he is the better player in the NFL. You heard it here first.
Is it just me, or has Leinart had way too many things go just right in his football life?
As a sophomore, he narrowly won a preseason quarterback battle with Matt Cassel to succeed Carson Palmer. He then got to throw to an NFL first-round pick (Mike Williams) and a second-round pick (Keary Colbert).
Over the next two years, he threw to a future first-round pick (Dwayne Jarrett) and another future NFL player (Steve Smith). Not to mention Leinart regularly handed off - and threw to - such running backs as No. 2 overall NFL draft pick Reggie Bush and second-round selection LenDale White.
Leinart won a Heisman Trophy, but it was impossible for Leinart to do wrong for the Trojans. Hell, it was impossible for him not to do well. As the quarterback of a juggernaut team, he had praise heaped on him.
After deciding to stay at USC for his senior year and passing on a chance to be the No. 1 overall pick, Leinart was taken No. 10 by the Cardinals this year.
People said the choice to stay at USC cost him money, but the Golden Boy held out and still managed to get top-three money. Now he has the best receiving tandem in the NFL (Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald) to throw to. Can Leinart ever not catch a break?
At ASU, Walter had significantly less talent around him. He had a fourth-round NFL pick (Shaun McDonald) for just one season. And he had a future third-round pick in Derek Hagan, who was mostly still wet-behind-the-ears during the three years Walter started.
Other than that, Walter made stars of his mediocre receivers. It wasn't the other way around. Walter also had no running game to take pressure off him and didn't have the plethora of future NFL players along his offensive line that Leinart had.
Still, Walter threw for 10,617 yards and 85 touchdowns in his college career - almost identical to Leinart's 10,693 yards and 99 scores.
Along the way, Walter never made a scene out on the town, he never whined about opposing teams whose players put a good hit on him - as The Golden Boy did for weeks about ASU - and he never caused a problem.
Walter had the misfortune to separate his throwing shoulder in his final regular season game at ASU, so his draft status dropped to a third-round selection. As a rookie last year, a sports hernia kept him out of the lineup. Walter seemingly couldn't catch a break.
Since he didn't have the opportunity to play on national TV a fraction as much as Leinart, most people didn't know how good Walter was - except for the Raiders, that is.
The Raiders were criticized for not taking the Golden Boy with their first-round selection this year. But owner Al Davis and his crew knew better. They knew they had a better player already on their hands.
Now, things have finally begun to turn out in Walter's favor. His Raiders beating up on the Leinart-led Cardinals was just the beginning.
Despite playing for one of the worst teams the Raiders have ever had, Walter now has two straight wins in his young career, and Leinart is 0-4 as a starter.
And no matter how good of numbers Leinart puts up with Boldin and Fitzgerald over the years, he will never again be a winner. That is because the Cardinals are cursed. They haven't won in 50 years and they won't for another 50 at least. Not even the Golden Boy can turn them around.
Meanwhile, Walter will continue to grow in the Raiders' air-it-out attack. Al Davis will improve the players around his quarterback and the Walter-led Silver and Black will be Super Bowl contenders in good time once again.
And instead of wondering what the nine teams who passed on Leinart were thinking, the "experts" will be left tying to figure out what the other 31 teams who passed on Walter were thinking.
I guess what comes around, does indeed go around.
Reach the reporter at drex1_phx@hotmail.com
