 Christopher Leak was born on May 3, 1985 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Christopher Leak is a an American football quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. In 2006, Christopher Leak led the Florida Gators to a 13-1 record, which culminated with a BCS National Championship 41-14 victory over the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. Despite declaring for the 2007 NFL Draft, Christopher Leak went undrafted, and signed as a free agent with the Chicago Bears.
Chris Leak was one of the top players in the 2003 recruiting class. Chris Leak chose to attend the
University of Florida over top programs such as University of Texas, Tennessee, Florida State, Iowa, Notre Dame,
USC Trojans and North Carolina State.
In high school, Chris Leak starred for Independence High School, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Chris Leak was succeeded by Joe Cox, who is currently a backup quarterback with the University of Georgia.
Chris Leak began his career at Florida as a freshman, seeing playing time in the first few games, and took over as the starter in the game against Kentucky. Chris Leak finished his freshman year with a Southeastern Conference record for a freshman going 6-3 as a starter including wins over Louisiana State and rival Georgia. Chris Leak was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team and Rivals.com’s Freshman All American Team.
In his sophomore year, Chris Leak blossomed into one of the top quarterbacks in College Football. He started all of Florida’s games, including a memorable school record tying six touchdown performance against South Carolina. However, following a disappointing 7-5 season, head coach Ron Zook was fired. In December of that year, Urban Meyer, one of the hottest coaches in college football, was brought on to install his innovative “Spread Option” offense.
Heading into his junior season, Chris Leak was touted as a possible Heisman Trophy candidate. Chris Leak won his first three games, including a big win over SEC East rival Tennessee Volunteers, but has struggled in the option portion of the offense. Chris Leak has recently announced that he intends on returning to the University of Florida for his senior season. While Chris Leak is the starting quarterback for Florida in 2006, he will face pressure from coach Urban Meyer and see competition from freshman quarterback Tim Tebow, who is extremely popular in Florida. Meyer has said Leak will start, but that Tebow will get playing time.
Leak's statistics have generally been solid for the Gators. Chris Leak completed almost 61 percent of his passes, and has threw only 29 interceptions in nearly three years as a starter. .
Heading into his senior season, there was unsubstantial speculation Leak may not be the starting quarterback in 2006 due to the emergence of freshman Tim Tebow.[3] This speculation proved false when Florida head coach, Urban Meyer, publicly endorsed Leak to be the starting quarterback and affirmed that Tim Tebow will play the back-up role. Preseason analysis showed that Florida had the hardest schedule in the country. Florida would have to play Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, and Georgia in back to back weeks. With Chris' leadership and poise, Florida lost only to Auburn as a result of a questionable and controversial fumble by Leak that resulted in a Auburn victory. The 2006 season proved to be a redemption year for Leak: leading the Gators to their first SEC Championship since 2000, and a spot in the 2007
BCS National Championship Game against Ohio State University (their first championship game appearance since 1996). Leak also broke many passing records set by Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel. He eclipsed Wuerffel's record for career passing yards at Florida during the 2006 SEC championship.
When he's not leading on the field, Leak volunteers with children through the Goodwill Gators Program, encouraging them to put school first and stay away from drugs if they want to succeed. At home in Charlotte, N.C., he works with the Boys and Girls Club and the Steele Creek Youth Athletic Association. He served as an inspirational speaker with the Federation of Christian Athletes and spoke at area middle schools encouraging students to stay focused on their goals.
Leak was not selected during the 2007 NFL Draft. The Chicago Bears signed him immediately after the draft.[2] He spent the summer of 2007 working with the team, and working with former Gator Rex Grossman.[3] However, Leak only saw playtime during the final game of the Preseason, where he completed eleven of sixteen passes for eighty-eight yards, an interception and touchdown.[4] He was eventually cut on September 16 in favor of Kyle Orton. Leak is expected to try out for the AAFL spring league, where he would join a team based in Gainesville, Florida.
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