No-Show Leaf Helps Manning Standing Up Indianapolis May Alter Who Goes No. 1

Ryan Leaf may have eliminated himself from consideration as the No. 1 pick by the Indianapolis Colts after standing up the team at the NFL scouting combine, coach Jim Mora said Sunday.

Mora told television station WRTV that Leaf, of Great Falls, Mont., did not show for a meeting scheduled Saturday night with the Colts and gave no explanation for his absence.

The move may mean the Colts will use the pick on Tennessee’s Peyton Manning.

“We spent about two hours talking with Peyton (on Friday). We were supposed to meet with Ryan last night. He didn’t show,” Mora said. “So we didn’t get a chance to visit with him. But, we did have a real good interview, get-to-know-each-other type session with Peyton Manning. He’s a very impressive young man.”

Earlier Leaf and Manning said there was no rivalry over who should go 1-2 on April 18. In fact, they’ve become good buddies.

“People may try to create that, but that’s not the case,” Manning said. “I’ve gotten to know Ryan … there is no question he is really a good player and a good person as well.”

“It’s great because we know that it doesn’t matter who is first or second,” he said. “His dream was to play professional football, and so is mine. I think a lot of that now gets distorted, with the money issue.

We’re not competing with each other until we have to play each other.”

The two have been talking regularly for months.

“The media was starting to make Ryan vs. Peyton deals and I didn’t want it to get put on a hostile level,” Leaf said. “I called the University of Tennessee football office and left my number and he called me back that same night.

“We talked on the phone every week throughout the season. We know each other pretty well… . The more we got to know each other, we realized we have a lot of things in common.”

The Colts and other teams will have to wait until next month to look them over on the field. Manning, who was hospitalized before the Orange Bowl with a ruptured sac in his right knee, said he wanted to more time to heal.

Some 30 doctors cleared him during his physical Saturday. Leaf had planned to work out in the RCA Dome on Sunday, but chose not to because of a cold.