Ex-Buckeye Maurice Clarett a perfect example of just how much can go wrong Mike Lopresti Updated 8/9/2006 3:08 PM ET He is still just 22 years old. That is the sad fact about Maurice Clarett. Barely a man, with his life in front of him. Except the most pressing question now about that life is not how far he can go, but how long he might be in prison. This parable of waste grows only darker. Clarett is back in the news, and the fresh pictures are not of him in a backfield, but the back of a police cruiser. Four years removed from being a precocious freshman running back on an Ohio State national champion, he has never been more the symbol of a lost star. How could it go so wrong for someone who had so much? "There's a lot more to my life than just football," he said that freshman season at the Fiesta Bowl. Now there seems nothing but trouble. Better for Clarett that he fade away and fix himself. Be forgotten for awhile. Except he won't let it happen. Police in Columbus say they chased Clarett in an SUV through the early morning darkness, and when they finally caught him, there were four loaded guns to be found. Clarett was allegedly wearing a bullet-resistant vest. It does not sound as if he went out for doughnuts. It is impossible today to miss the gloomy disparity between what might have been with Maurice Clarett, and what is. Given a full college career, he would have been a rookie this summer, wearing a new NFL uniform, with his own page in the media guide. Instead, he is wearing a jailhouse-dispensed tan outfit, and the new photo is his latest mug shot. He should have been showing his ability to stop and change directions in a scrimmage. Instead, when he changed direction Wednesday morning, it allegedly was to cross the freeway median and head the other way to avoid capture. He could have been be running over tacklers instead of spike strips. When someone in an interview said more help was needed to stop Clarett, he would have meant extra linebackers, not Mace. Clarett's statistics could have been touchdowns and yards per carry. Instead, these are his pertinent numbers: Four counts of robbery, two counts of aggravated robbery, one count of carrying a concealed weapon. And those charges are from a previous incident in Columbus which has yet to go to trial. That happened in the early hours of this past Jan. 1, the day before Ohio State would win the Fiesta Bowl in the very stadium where Clarett played his last game. Now he gets involved in this new mess while his peers work in NFL training camp and another college season approaches. You wonder if the ongoing process of the football world that has left him behind somehow pushes a button within him. It might take a battery of psychologists to decide that. As it is, Clarett's age leaves him in the gray area. Too old to be excused for his actions. Still young enough that other adults ? those who handed out bad advice and worse guidance ? must take some accountability for his downfall. He was never commonplace. Not when he ran. Not when he talked. And not now, in his downward spiral. It is tragic and appalling, and though this culture is noted for its leniency with athletes, little mercy can be detected for Clarett. On the website of the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, the poll question was whether anyone felt sorry for Maurice Clarett. As of mid-afternoon on Wednesday, 84% said no. "I kind of like being the underdog," Clarett once said as an Ohio State freshman. "You have nothing to lose and everything to gain." Underdog, he certainly is now. But he was wrong. He has lost plenty. *** Mike Lopresti writes for Gannett News Service
a promising career, into the garbage can. even worse, there is no smilie to express that. maybe this one :sad:
I don't know, I can't find it within myself to laugh at this. The dissolution of a human being is a sad thing to watch, even though it is by his own hand. I said it in the other Clarett thread: I really just don't get this. The guy flew off the rails, but I have to say I'd be COMPLETELY unsympathetic if it was drugs; although what he was doing with guns (again) is rarely as cut and dried as it appears. A shame. He's an adult, but short of babysitting the guy, you'd think he'd have at least one decent friend left in the world to step in to at least point him in the right direction, plant the seed to avert further disaster.
They just showed one of his guns on SportsCenter. I was expecting a hand gun, etc. It was like an AK-47! hmy:
I did manage to go to his first game in a Buckeye uniform. By the looks of the white-haired fans (the ones who could remember Rex Kern and the 1968 team), they were hearing choirs of angels sing when Clarett ran the ball. I have rarely witnessed such a display by a true freshman... everyone thought the Bucks would have a chance and make it to the promised land, and Clarett took them there. I'll say this now: I think there is something wrong mentally with Clarett, and for once, I'm not trying to be funny. Not saying it is from drugs, but his behavior is so aberrant, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that he does have a problem that needs treatment. His life since that freshman season has seemed so delusional, I honestly think the man needs some sort of professional help.
