Ohio State’s Maurice Clarett: Empty Promise

Defining moments are a part of life. I’m sure Maurice Clarett thought his came on August 20, 2002, when he stepped onto the grass of Buckeye Stadium or “The Horseshoe” as it’s known in Columbus. He was the first freshman running back in 60 years to start at Ohio State University – and with good reason; Clarett entered OSU a schoolboy legend from Youngstown, Ohio. In Youngstown young men don’t dream of becoming Browns or Bengals – they dream of becoming Buckeyes. Clarett instantly became the face of a Buckeyes squad that prior to last season’s Texas/USC thriller played in the greatest National Championship game ever.

Against the University of Miami Hurricanes, Clarett literally dove into OSU history when he scored on a 5-yard run giving the Buckeyes a 31-24 double-overtime victory, and their first National Title in 34 years.

In one season (1,237 yards 18 touchdowns) the legend of Maurice Clarett had grown and his place in Buckeyes’ history was secureâÂ?¦âÂ?¦âÂ?¦âÂ?¦âÂ?¦âÂ?¦for about six months.

For someone who seemingly had the world at his feet, it all came to a halt for good on I-70 in Ohio on August 9th. The fact that Clarett or anyone else wasn’t killed that night is a miracle in itself. Clarett was pulled over after a highway chase that night by Ohio police, who found four loaded weapons including an AK-47 a half-empty bottle of Grey Goose Vodka and several children’s CD’s and just for good measure Clarett was wearing a bulletproof vest, which pretty much told the story.

That night Maurice Clarett decided he was either going to jail or the morgue.

Prior to the chase and arrest he called his former OSU coach Jim Tressel, his close friend LeBron James and ESPN columnist Tom Friend. During their conversation Clarett revealed to Friend that he has a daughter just a few weeks old, he talked about how he cries when he holds her. Clarett says, “He’d do anything for that little girl, that he’d go to jail for 30 years for his little girl.” Clarett talked about “growing up, taking responsibility”

The question now is how did this happen? How does someone with unlimited potential throw it all away? I can’t answer that; but I have plenty of blame to throw around and it starts with Clarett.

Maurice Clarett

Some will point to the fact that Clarett was raised by his grandmother because his natural parents were not a part of his life for whatever reason. I won’t undermine the effort she put forth to raise him by saying that he ended up this way because he was in her care. That’s the easiest excuse to give and once again it absolves Clarett of any wrongdoing. I’m sure everyone wasn’t waving pom-poms as Clarett ran his way through adolescence. I find it hard to believe that no one told Maurice going into young adulthood that he was going to be held accountable for his actions regardless of what hand he was dealt in life. No coach, no teacher, no guidance counselor, not even his Grandmother? C’mon now! I don’t know if that lesson was skipped, ignored or suppressed from the years of preferential treatment and him reading his own press clippings.

Whatever the reason; he simply didn’t get it.

It was made clear to Maurice Clarett at a young age that football was going to take him places he could only dream of. In Youngstown he was the entire show, no warm up act, no preliminaries just watch Maurice do his thing. He was different and people treated him as such from the time he was a teenager, no one said no to Maurice Clarett because he was the entire show. When you’re anointed the next big thing and you haven’t seen your 17th birthday it’s hard not to develop an ego. Your life goes from 0 to 60 in no time flat and everyone wants a piece of you, they don’t care about the person, all they see is the potentialâÂ?¦âÂ?¦âÂ?¦..for themselves.

Even after his dismissal from OSU, Clarett still had opportunities to continue his collegiate career. I’m sure some Division 1-A programs would’ve taken a chance on him, and any Division 1-AA program would have. It was obvious that Clarett wasn’t down with that. Who? The man that led OSU to the National Title sit out a year to go to a 1-AA program? Never! In September 2003, Clarett would challenge the NFL’s ruling that a player needed to be three years from high school before he could enter the draft. Clarett was ruled eligible but that would later be lost in a federal appeal, Clarett would have to wait until the April 2005 NFL draft. After a poor showing at the NFL Combine which he left early because of poor 40 times he was selected by the Denver Broncos in the 3rd round. The fact that he was in the NFL only made Clarett’s ego swell to the point where he ordered Broncos GM Ted Sundquist to fire team trainer of 11 years Rich Tuten for a heated argument the two had in the training room because he (Clarett) missed a training session. After Sundquist refused to fire Tuten Clarett asked to be traded before even signing a rookie contract. Eventually he signed an all or nothing deal and was cut after a groin injury kept him out of action.

Ohio State University

Ohio State for all intents and purposes used Maurice Clarett until they had no more use for him. Once the hoopla from the National Championship died down, school officials began to go after Clarett. In July, 2003 a teaching assistant is quoted in the New York Times that Clarett walked out of a mid-term but passed the class because he was later allowed to take an oral exam. That was just the beginning, later that month Clarett informed police that his car had been burglarized. He claimed that $10,000 in clothes, cash, CDs and stereo equipment was stolen from a car he had borrowed from a local dealership. In September, Clarett is charged with falsifying the police report of the burglary. The following day Clarett is suspended for the season by athletic director Andy Geiger. Geiger goes on to say that Clarett received thousands of dollars from a family friend and repeatedly misled the investigation. When it hit the fan, word began to leak out about how Clarett yelled at coaches and players in practice with Coach Jim Tressel turning a blind eye to it all. When it hit the fan OSU turned their back on him saying that he acted alone in receiving benefits from the university. Just like that, with no Vaseline.

The Others

Tom Friend states in his article that in the months leading up to the draft Clarett hooked up with some guys in the “rap community” guys that recognized Clarett knew of his situation and saw a potential cash cow once Clarett was drafted. So they decided to put their newfound “investment”âÂ?¦I mean friend up in a plush mansion and even gave him a BMW 745 to drive around Los Angeles in. To make sure Clarett stayed in shape they hired personal trainer Chad Ikei. Clarett had ballooned to 256 pounds and was a few months away from the combine. He couldn’t deal with the being pushed by Ikei so he ultimately asked Ikei to ‘give me what David Boston was getting, and I’ll do whatever.’ Ikei gave him Boston’s trainer’s number and was out of the picture. (Boston has been suspended by the NFL after testing positive for steroids).

He hooked up with Charles Poliquin, who denies giving Clarett HGH or Steroids. They worked together for about 6 weeks in Phoenix before he began to miss his friends and moved back to L.A. Once he arrived back in L.A. he was partying wherever he could L.A., New Orleans name it, he was there. He was living a Hollywood lifestyle on Youngstown credit.

When it all blew up in Denver who knows how these guys who sponsored Clarett may have reacted. Maybe this all ties in with what went down on August 9th. Maurice Clarett is out of football, out of money, out of friends, and out of time.

The real sin in all of this is that his daughter will know her daddy about as well as he knew his.