Phil Sheridan: Leinart handling Super Bowl non-role with class

TAMPA, Fla. - Matt Leinart gets the joke the football fates have played on him. Three years after being anointed a franchise quarterback, he is preparing for the Super Bowl. It is just what you'd expect from the Heisman Trophy-winning, all-world star from Southern Cal.

The punchline, of course, is that Leinart will watch from the sideline as 37-year-old Kurt Warner completes his own Hall of Fame resume.

"It's sweet" to be here, Leinart said. "Starting in the Super Bowl may be a little sweeter, but I'm happy to be here. Obviously, you want to play. There's no bitter feelings. You don't get to this point very often. This is as sweet as it gets."

He almost managed to sound like he meant it. Leinart deserves some respect, though. He has handled the role of backup with class, and he endured two days of questions about being a disappointment with remarkable patience and refreshing candor.

"Having a lot of success in college, then getting to the NFL and not having it go the way you want, it's definitely a humbling experience," Leinart said. "It's humbled me just to realize how hard it is to get here and to be successful. I know that I can be successful, and I know I have a long career ahead of me."

Leinart does not qualify as a bust. He isn't Ryan Leaf or Tim Couch, at least not yet. He played fairly well as a rookie in 2006 despite missing a chunk of training camp while his contract was being negotiated. In 2007, he was the starter coming out of camp, then broke his collarbone in October.

The perception of Leinart as a failure has more to do with his off-field behavior. He has a knack for turning up on the Internet in embarrassing photographs, and in the gossip pages for dating the likes of Paris Hilton. Meanwhile, he fathered a son with basketball player Brynn Cameron.

Leinart said he's made some "mistakes," but didn't want to talk about specifics. "I've moved on," he said.

Last summer, perhaps feeling a little pressure to show progress in his second year, head coach Ken Whisenhunt chose Warner over Leinart. Warner had a terrific season and better postseason to lead the Cardinals to their first-ever Super Bowl.

"Everyone wanted to make our relationship out to be a shaky one or a controversy, especially this off-season," Leinart said. "We really didn't talk about it one time during camp. We stayed the same. We competed our butts off against each other, for sure, and we made each other better, I think. I've supported him all year, and he's had a fantastic year."

It's an intriguing what-if: Could Leinart have done what Warner did with targets like Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin?

"It's hard to tell," Leinart said. "I do feel that I was ready to get out there and play and lead the team. Obviously, I'm not Kurt Warner, but watching him, I feel I could make the reads and make the throws. I do believe that I could have been the starter and gotten us to this point, but it didn't work out that way.

"I'm not a bad player. I'm playing behind a Hall of Fame quarterback."

Being a high draft choice adds enormous pressure that can undermine quarterback's development. It's not coincidental that some of the most successful quarterbacks - Warner, Tom Brady - were able to learn the game outside the spotlight's glare.

Leinart now inadvertently has that chance.

"I didn't start my first NFL game until I was 28," Warner said. "I've had a pretty good career. We've talked about embracing the situation and being able to step back a little bit from the pressure and the high expectations that came with his background and just trying to learn as much as he could and grow as much as he can."

Leinart rattled off the names of quarterbacks who had to wait for their chance: Steve Young, Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo, his former Southern Cal teammate Matt Cassel. But then there were this year's rookie stars, Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco, who proved it is possible to make an immediate impact.

There is a chance Leinart will play Sunday. The Steelers' aggressive, bruising defense make that possibility very real. But he will have to wait for his chance to lead a team into the playoffs and be the quarterback he was in college.

"Being in college and then having some success as a rookie and being hurt last year and then this year - it just hasn't gone as planned," Leinart said. "I know a lot of people think I can't play, or whatever. I do use that as motivation. I want to get my opportunity. I think it will come."

Until then, he'll always have Paris.