Clarett's story a sad one
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by user Rizzo42789
Maurice Clarett's life is spiraling out of control and he appears to be on the path to self destruction. Early Wednesday Clarett was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon after being chased down on a highway by the police. He was subdued with mace after the police tried to tazer him, but the bullet proof vest Clarett had on prevented the tazer from working. The police also found a shotgun and three hand guns in his car, everyone of them was loaded. The former Ohio State running back is self destructing, but the NFL and Ohio State could have prevented this.
After becoming the first true freshman running back to open the season for OSU since 1943, expectations were high from the outset. Clarett was nothing short of brilliant his freshman year as he set a school record for rushing yards as a freshman with 1,237 and scored 18 touchdowns. Clarett's success helped lead the Buckeyes to a 14-0 record, which included an upset of the University of Miami where Clarett scored the winning touchdown in the second overtime.
Even with all of his on field success, Clarett was already beginning to have troubles off the field. His first problem was with the NFL, Clarett believed he should be allowed to enter the NFL after his freshman season in college. Some Ohio State fans were unhappy with his decision and began to send him hate mail because of an article written by ESPN magazine. (ESPN.com) Then Clarett decided to take on OSU officials because they did not let him fly to Youngstown to attend his friends funeral, but officials said he did not file the correct paperwork, to which Clarett childishly responded by calling the officials liar.
Before the next step on the path to Claretts's self destruction, I must impose for a minute. Why did the university not step in to help this kid. Clearly he was troubled and needed help, but the university seemed content to let him continue his antics as long as they were not conflicting with NCAA regulations. Clarett was bringing the Buckeyes a lot of money, everyone thought he was going to be the next Archie Griffin, who would tear up the NCAA for the next few years and possibly win a Heismann and another national title.
The next problem occured when the New York Times said he was getting treated differently from all of the other students. Reportedly, he walked out in the middle of a midterm, but passed the class because the professor gave him an oral exam. (ESPN.com) First off, why was anyone suprised that a player of his magnitude got preferential treatment from other students? It is commonplace in college for big name football players to breeze through college because most teachers pass them because they are big football fans. God forbid players having to work hard in order to graduate- like all of the other poor schmucks who have to have to work hard for four years and pay for their own education- for example, Matt Leinart graduated from USC by taking ball room dancing his senior year. But yet again, the OSU brass ignored another sign which proved Clarett was not meant to be in college.
Clarrett then had to face the NCAA after a car which a dealership had "loaned" him was ransacked leaving $10,000 worth of Clarett's stuff was missing. The NCAA actually pretended to investigate the situation, knowing the whole time the car was a gift to the running back. If they did not know that it was a violation of the rules, then they are not an organazation which should be running college sports(they are especially bad with football does BCS ring a bell?).
Then on September 9, 2003 Clarett was charged with his first misdemeanor offense of falsifacation of a police report. Now here is the point where OSU officials should have stepped in and helped Clarett with his life, but instead athletic director Andy Geiger supsended Clarett for his sophomore season at OSU. Clarett, now had no choice but to try and petition the NFL for early entry into the league.
Clarrett experienced minor sucess as a U.S district judge rules Clarett eligible for the NFL draft, the ruling however was soon overturned by a federal appeals court. Soon Clarett would be shut out of the NFL because the Supreme Court refused to intervene meaning Clarett would not be allowed to enter the supplemental draft and would have to wait until 2005 draft to enter the league.
Since Clarett had nothing to do during his long lay off from football, he decided to rip former coach Jim Tressel a new one by saying the coach had arranged for him to get passing grades, cars and money for bogus jobs. No one is suprised because coaches at nearely every college do this, Lou Holtz- former coach at Notre Dame- was known to do this often and many of his players made a lot of money while in college. Geiger denied the allegations, but no one really cared about what Clarett had to say because he no longer was a star football player. Everything he said made him seem like a cry baby, who was upset because he was not receiving any attention.
When Clarrett was finally drafted into the NFL, he was the 101 pick by the Denver Broncos in the 2005 draft. He went much higher then expected, Clarett was projected to go in the sixth or seventh round, but Denver decided to pick him in the third. However, if Clarett would have stayed at OSU he would have been a top five pick.
Things in Denver were bad from the start for the former Buckeye. He reported to camp overweight at 248 pounds and had lost much of the speed which made him so good in college. However, the reason his career in Denver was over so quickly was because of his aloof attitude. Some of the veterans attempted to become friends with Clarett, but he wanted nothing to do with them and one day was found drinking booze in the weight room. Add in his hamstring injury and his NFL career was over before he could ever play in a real NFL game.
But after he was kicked out of the league, he made headlines again by alledgedly robbing two people at gunpoint on New Years day 2006 outside a bar in Columbus, Ohio. Including his recent brush with the law, Clarett's life is beginning to head down a dangerous path. Before the arrests Clarett was trying to get in shape to make another run at playing in the NFL, but with this arreset it seems like his NFL dream is over.
Clarett is reponsible for his actions, but few have tried to help him. He is beginning to resemble Mike Tyson after his trainer died. The only person who ever actually loved Tyson, Cus D'Amato died in 1985 the only father figure Tyson had ever had. Tyson not having a person he could trust like D'Amato became the catalyst for his many troubles later in life. Clarett not having anyone who actually liked him for who he was also may have harmed him.
Ohio State officials probably promised him the world and gave him whatever he wanted, but it would only last as long as he played for OSU. The minute he began to cause programs for the program, Maurice became expendable and needed to be kicked off the team. No matter what his future was, OSU was not willing to take the risk of having a person like him on their team. Not that the University is the root of all of his problems, but they deserve to take on most of the blame.
The NFL also deserves some of the blame for not trying to help a kid who was desperately needed a fresh start. When it became clear OSU was not going to let him come back, why would the NFL have given the kid a chance? If he would have failed, it would have discouraged other kids from trying to make the leap at a younger age.The NFL made a smart business decision, but at least one player life was forever changed by their actions.
Maurice Clarett needs help and hopefully after he spends sometime in jail he will be able to straighten his life out. Imagine what Clarett would have been like if the NFL would have let him in...
Date
Thu 08/10/06, 7:04 pm EST
