Matt Leinart on Anthony Richardson asking out of game: 'Never seen anything like that'

The Indianapolis Colts made the decision this week to bench second year quarterback Anthony Richardson in favor of 39-year-old backup Joe Flacco. Richardson’s overall performance this season was likely enough on its own to warrant a demotion, but one particular moment from Indianapolis’ Week 8 meeting with the Texans raised additional alarm bells.

With 3 and a half minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter and the Colts trailing Houston by a touchdown, Richardson asked out of the game on a key 3rd and goal admitting afterward that it was because he felt “tired.”

“I've never seen anything like that in the history of football, especially at that position” stated former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Matt Leinart on this week’s episode of Throwbacks.

“You tap out because you're tired and we've seen quarterback after quarterback over the years play hurt, play with pain, play with injury. You look at Matt Stafford, you look at even Kirk Cousins... You tough it out. You do everything you can to stay on the field, that's like the number one rule in football.”

After starting just 13 games in college at the University of Florida, there was some concern over Richardson’s readiness to thrive at the next level. Unfortunately for the former 4th overall pick, those concerns have been validated as he currently ranks last in the league in both completion percentage (44.4%) as well as quarterback rating (57.2). In Leinart’s opinion, those statistical struggles along with this most recent “tap out” incident made the Colts decision on Richardson an easy one.

“Being benched and going in a different direction, it’s not surprising to me, it’s just not. You can’t do that. It’s one of those things, it’s like a no-no in sports.”

The question for Richardson now becomes whether he can recapture the Colts starting job, but as Leinart points out, this won’t be easy. “These teams understand what they have within those walls and usually when decisions are made like this, it's not great for a young quarterback.”

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