Houston Texans v Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals released quarterback Matt Leinart just two days ago but the writing for his desert departure had been on the wall for quite some time.

If you subscribe to the Malcolm Gladwell school of thought that individual success is not a personalized outcome and is instead  the result of beneficial hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities, then Leinart’s unavoidable dismissal was likely of no surprise to you.

Nor should it be.

I’m here to tell you that what transpired over the weekend was put into motion as far back as the 2005 BCS National Championship.

Had Leinart and Co. outplayed Vince Young and the Longhorns on that serene winter night in Pasadena, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner would have heard his name read third in the 2006 draft by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue instead of falling to No. 10 (to the at-the-time hapless Cardinals).

At No. 3, Leinart would have been a Tennessee Titan -- a situation that would have afforded him the opportunity to grow under the watchful eye of USC alum Jeff Fisher and former Trojan offensive guru Norm Chow.

Instead, Leinart landed under the tutelage of YouTube sensation Denny Green. Within a year, the organization decided to let the tirade-spewing Green off the hook -- a move that would ultimately lead to Leinart’s slow, impending exit.

Ken Whisenhunt was chosen to replace Green in 2007, a decision that generated a complete facelift for a franchise in desperate need of a culture change.

The offensive-minded Whisenhunt had proven at his previous stop in Pittsburgh that he could win a Super Bowl mentoring a young, up-and-coming quarterback: Ben Roethlisberger. But from Day 1, the Whisenhunt-Leinart duo lacked the mutual feelings of admiration and respect that often come with a master-apprentice relationship.

Whisenhunt, who was born just miles away from the first tee at Augusta National, has a stern, disciplined approach to coaching. His principles, which are based on his Southern upbringing and professional stops in the Midwest (special teams coach with the Browns and offensive coordinator with the Steelers), conflicted with Leinart's easygoing approach.

It was clear the head coach’s personality was an uncanny fit with the type of character Kurt Warner had illustrated during his made-for-TV movie-like NFL career, but Whisenhunt was pressured into beginning the 2007 season with Leinart (the “franchise” quarterback) at the helm.

Four weeks and two impressive wins later, Leinart appeared to have a steadfast grip on the starting quarterback position for the first time in his young career. But again circumstance reared its ugly head.

Seven days after he impressively led the Redbirds to a win over the Steelers, Leinart was sacked by Rams linebacker Will Witherspoon and suffered a season-ending collarbone injury, putting the the kibosh on any Hollywood ending for the USC graduate in the Valley of the Sun.

The rest of the story is simple.

The 2004 Walter Camp award-winner played the dubious role of clipboard holder for the next 32 games while Whisenhunt’s guy, Warner, led the Cardinals to an 18-14 record, their first division championship since moving from St. Louis to Arizona in 1988, and their first trip to the Super Bowl in franchise history.

Leinart made just 29 pass attempts during Warner and Co.’s magical run in 2008, and just 77 in eight appearances in 2009.

Entering the 2010 offseason, it seemed Leinart's wait would finally be over. Amid news that Warner would be calling it quits after 12 seasons in the NFL, the stage was set for a passing of the torch from the Super Bowl-winning quarterback to the California Golden Boy.

Leinart had spent his days in waiting bulking up at a Hollywood gym using an MMA regime but that mattered little. The quarterback had quietly KO’d his professional relationship with Whisenhunt long before the summer.

Call it a clash in ideologies (old school vs. new school, Southern morals vs. laissez-faire California swagger), Leinart and Whisenhunt simply did not mesh.

As Whisenhunt tirelessly tried to mold his team around a “nobody believes in us but the 53 men in this locker room” mentality, Leinart chose to live by a different tenet: “Nobody believes in me but one guy in the locker room.”

On the surface, Rod Graves’ decision to sign Derek Anderson (who in 2009 threw three touchdowns and 10 interceptions, all while amassing a whopping 42.1 completion percentage) looked like nothing more than the acquisition of a backup quarterback. But behind closed doors the Cardinals knew better.

To make matters worse, Leinart, who had a chance to squelch the rumors and feelings of ill will inside the organization, was not shy about getting chummy with the media.

From the tiresome rhetoric of “I feel like I've outplayed the competition, training camp, preseason” to publicly and shamefully imploring his head coach to explain what he needed to do to win the job, training camp was the final illustration of why Matt Leinart had no business being a part of the Cardinals’ 53-man roster.

Simply put, he wasn't getting it.

There is no debate the Mater Dei High School legend has all the physical tools to be a top-flight quarterback in the NFL. But what the former Trojan has time and again missed the mark on is that NFL teams aren’t typically led by the coddling, rah-rah personalities of someone like Pete Carroll -- a list of recent Super Bowl-winning head coaches illustrates this point: Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin, Tom Coughlin, Tony Dungy, Bill Cowher and Bill Belichick.

If you subscribe to Gladwell’s belief that personal achievement goes hand-in-hand with the conditions an individual deals with during his lifetime, then maybe Leinart’s desert departure is the perfect momentum-shifter from the downward spiral that has existed since the night of January 4, 2006.

The Matt Leinart we see today is the poster child for skill without substance.

Circumstance dealt him a bad hand in Arizona but if he is to truly resurrect himself from the bowels of irrelevancy, it will take more from Leinart than a powerful left arm and a trophy case full of amateur accolades to win over his teammates.

It will take something that clearly got lost in the shuffle from the pearly gates of USC to the Grand Canyon State: A genuine passion for the game.

To reach staff writer Dave Dulberg, click here.