New Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich is tough.

Want proof?

As a quarterback at Marshall, he once played on a broken leg against Akron, forever cementing himself into football lore.

In 2013, complex.com ranked his performance on Nov. 2, 2002 No. 16 on its list of the 25 gutsiest performances in sports history.

They wrote: “After being pulled out of the game, taken to a hospital, and being diagnosed with a broken left tibia, Leftwich did what anyone else would do: leave the comfy hospital bed and drive back to the game. FOH. By time he returned, Marshall was down 27-10 in the third quarter. Remarkably, he threw for 208 yards on a broken leg, but Akron still held on 34-20. What everyone remembers though are the images of Leftwich being carried downfield by his linesmen, totally unable to walk.”

Leftwich was named the MAC Offensive Player of the Year twice, as he completed 939 of his 1,442 passes (65.1 percent), with 11,903 yards, 89 touchdowns and 28 interceptions at Marshall.

He flaunted his drive to compete in that 2002 game against Akron, when linemen Steve Sciullo and Steve Perretta carried him between plays after he stayed on the field with a broken tibia. While Marshall still lost, that desperation to win at any cost can serve the Cardinals well.

Twitter remembered the performance when Leftwich was announced as the Cardinals’ new offensive coordinator on Friday, replacing the fired Mike McCoy.

Leftwich had a 10-year NFL career as a quarterback.

He joined the Cardinals staff as an intern in 2016, when Bruce Arians was still head coach. Then, he was hired full-time in January of 2017. After the Cardinals’ dismal 1-6 start, he got his next promotion to offensive coordinator.

Good luck trying to make excuses for not being on the field with Leftwich, Cardinals players.

azcentral sports’ Katherine Fitzgerald contributed to this story.

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