Former 2004 Heisman Trophy winner and now NFL quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, Matt Leinart knows the pain and punishment of contact sports. It is hard to imagine that there would ever be another sport that is every bit, if not more grueling than playing professional football in the NFL. Well that day is here and Leinart believes that cross-training in MMA gives him an added edge over the competition. Although still a relative newcomer to training in MMA, Leinart said that he saw the physical advantages of the sport shortly after he became a fan.

“A lot of my teammates have always been into it,” said Leinart. “They’ll have a fight on at their house, and we’ll watch it. It wasn’t until this summer that I started training – boxing training and MMA training. That’s when I really started to get into it. Then when I would watch it, I knew what was going on and I kind of understand some of the terminology, and that kind of stuff.”

A friend turned Leinart on to the idea of cross-training in MMA. The young NFL pro saw an opportunity to expand his athletic threshold and took advantage of it.

“I have a friend in Arizona. That’s how I got started – doing a little boxing and some MMA. I’ve been doing it for about three months.”

Less than a fourth of a year into his training, Leinart made the wise choice to visit Las Vegas, Nevada to learn from the UFC legend – Randy Couture.

“I came out here this week (to Xtreme Couture) because this is the best; Randy is the best obviously. Patrick Willis is here. He’s a good buddy of mine who plays for the 49ers. I came just to see and to get some training in; watching the pros is pretty cool.“

“I just have so much respect for these guys and how they train and what they do. I mean, it takes a different kind of guy to do this stuff. This is completely different training than any other sport.”

These are pretty impressive remarks coming from a man who stands in the pocket and stares fear in the face with every snap of the ball. To give you an idea of his toughness, Leinart overcame two (near) career-ending injuries in his first two NFL seasons after only being sacked five times.

“You can’t duplicate this in football. There’s things that you can do in this type of training that will help me on the football field. Whether it’s loosening up your hips with kicking or whatever; there’s definitely things that will help. The type of training we do in football is more strength training obviously because we have to be bigger. In this stuff they have to be big, but they also have to be flexible, quick, and agile. It’s a completely different animal. There’s comparisons because these guys are great athletes and what they do is damn near impossible sometimes.”

Leinart, like everybody else, has his UFC favorites. Although he is a relatively new fan to the sport, it did not take him long to decipher who the major players are in the MMA game.

“I like watching them all. I like GSP. He is pretty fun to watch. Chuck Liddell, Randy – I didn’t get a chance to watch them as much because I wasn’t as involved with it when I was younger. Frank Mir; Brock Lesnar is a monster in the sport. And then the guys that I train with in Arizona, Ryan Bader and Jamie Varner – all those guys are great guys that I had a chance to get to know them for three months. It’s kind of cool when you get to know those guys and then you get to watch them fight,” Leinart said.