Matt Leinart life and biography

Matt Leinart is an American professional football quarterback for the Houston Texans of the National Football League. Leinart previously played for four seasons (2006-2009) with the Arizona Cardinals, largely in a backup role to the now-retired Kurt Warner, before being released on September 4, 2010.

Leinart played collegially at the University of Southern California. In 2004, he led the Trojans to the BCS national championship and was named that year's winner of the Heisman Trophy as well as the winner of the inaugural Manning Award, which is awarded to the country's top quarterback. The championship was vacated by the BCS on June 6, 2011.

The left-handed passing Leinart was selected tenth overall in the 2006 NFL draft by the Arizona Cardinals. Despite possessing what draft experts believed was a good frame for a quarterback (6'-5", 230 pounds), they believed his lack of a strong throwing arm, such as that possessed by his predecessor, Carson Palmer (now with the Cincinnati Bengals), would be a detriment in his professional career.

After Kurt Warner's retirement, Leinart was named the presumptive starter. However, he lost the starting job in training camp to veteran Derek Anderson, who signed with the Cardinals as a free agent before the 2010 season.

After some speculation, Leinart agreed to a one-year deal with the Houston Texans on September 6, 2010.

Matt Leinart was born in Santa Ana, California. He was born with strabismus ("crossed eyed"), as his left eye was not aligned correctly with his right. He underwent surgery when he was three years old and was fitted with special glasses to correct the problem, but the eyewear combined with Leinart's already-overweight frame made him an easy target for ridicule at the hands of other children. "I used to get made fun of for being cross-eyed. It's just a terrible thing because kids are so cruel to the fat kid, to the kid with the glasses. So I turned to sports," he would later say.

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