{"id":686152,"date":"2026-01-18T10:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/686152\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T10:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:16:16","slug":"matt-leinart-posts-emotional-reaction-to-major-life-event-i-am-not-okay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/686152\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Leinart posts emotional reaction to major life event: ‘I am not okay’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Leinart posts emotional reaction to major life event: ‘I am not okay’<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart shared a rare, emotional glimpse into life away from football this week. He posted about a milestone that resonated with many far beyond the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son left for college yesterday. I\u2019m on my way out there now. I am not ok,\u201d Leinart wrote on X. This is the hardest thing that I have ever done. There\u2019s a million emotions running through my mind just hoping I did enough as a dad to prepare him. I think that\u2019s just human.<\/p>\n

“I already miss the daily stuff we take for granted , getting him up for school, hanging in our garage playing video games , making him breakfast, etc. Be there for your little ones, soak up every moment you have , never say no and enjoy because it goes way too fast!”<\/p>\n

For a quarterback who once thrived on the sport\u2019s biggest stages, the moment carried added weight. Leinart won two national championships at USC during the program\u2019s dominant 2003-05 run, when the USC Trojans ruled Los Angeles, and really college football at large. Now, more than two decades later, time has come full circle.<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Indiana’s Curt Cignetti spends an unhealthy amount of money at Chipotle<\/a><\/p>\n

Leinart\u2019s son, Cole, a quarterback from Redondo Beach, California, has left home to begin his own college career with the SMU Mustangs<\/a>. Cole is Leinart\u2019s oldest child and his first. He was born in 2006 shortly after Leinart was selected 10th overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL draft.<\/p>\n

Leinart now has four children. He married actress Josie Loren in 2018, and the couple share three more kids, including a baby girl born last year.<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0Marcus Freeman secures a new job amid NFL rumors<\/a><\/p>\n

For a former star accustomed to beating defenses, this moment proved different and was a reminder that we are no match for time. I guess it’s true parenthood delivers its toughest tests.<\/p>\n

More college football news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Leinart posts emotional reaction to major life event: ‘I am not okay’ originally appeared on The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[390,331,7,12812,4436,49,48,85321,100195,8242],"class_list":["post-686152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-college-football","tag-football","tag-heisman-trophy-winner","tag-matt-leinart","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-playing-video-games","tag-running-through-my-mind","tag-usc-trojans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115915586670777310","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}