NFL Leinart's life has some normalcy

The team that drafts Leinart will get a ready-made star.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
LOS ANGELES -- One of the most famous college football players in history isn't looking too famous one recent afternoon as he chills with a few buddies at a fast-food joint near campus.
Matt Leinart is wearing gym clothes from a just-completed workout, his magazine-cover face is unshaven and his wavy brown hair is threatening to jettison the Washington Nationals cap from his head. He's slurping an Oreo-cookie milkshake and picking at a plate of fries, enjoying a simple, dressed-down moment with friends.
He could pass for Joe College Student or, in a different time, a character from "Happy Days," one of the guys sharing a booth with Richie and Potsie at Arnold's.
"I'm just a normal, 22-year-old kid," Leinart says. "People say, 'He's Hollywood, he's the King of L.A., blah, blah, blah.' I'm just Matt Leinart, quarterback, someone who's had a great opportunity to meet a lot of cool people. It's really that simple."
Yeah, right.
The celebrities
What normal 22-year-old hangs out with Nick Lachey, attracts mobs of fans in shopping malls, reads about his love life in the gossip pages and gets asked by women to autograph their bare breasts?
Does anybody know a typical kid who filmed a promo for "Desperate Housewives," posed for a picture with Muhammad Ali and Jim Carrey at a black-tie affair and partied with Jessica Simpson, Alyssa Milano and Vince Vaughn at his 22nd birthday bash?
And, can someone name another Big Man on Campus who is a client one of the most influential talent agencies in Hollywood?
"My entourage," Leinart says, jokingly.
Although he insists he doesn't crave the spotlight, Leinart, hardly a recluse, acknowledges he's "a celebrity in a celebrity-filled city." That's what happens when you're an enormously successful, good-looking, charismatic quarterback for the hottest team in the nation's second-largest media market -- the Southern California Trojans.
The team that drafts Leinart in two weeks, whether it's the Titans or the Jets or a darkhorse such as the Raiders, will get a ready-made star. If Leinart winds up with the Jets, who own the fourth pick, he'll be the franchise's most marketable rookie since Joe Namath swaggered/hobbled through the door 41 years ago.
Broadway Joe to Madison Ave. Matt?
Dream come true
"It would be a dream come true for Leinart if he's focused on endorsements," says Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based consultant on sports business and marketing. "Playing quarterback for the Jets is still one of the glamour positions in the NFL, going back to Joe Namath. Even if he has only modest success on the field, he'd be huge off the field."
Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, Leinart's predecessor at USC and a close friend, says his buddy would make a seamless transition into the New York pressure-cooker.
"He knows how to handle himself with a big media crowd and a lot of attention, because he's done it most of his career," Palmer says.
"He's great at it. From that standpoint, you have to feel he'd do very well in New York."