[QUOTE=Lissa]
Let’s face it, many of this kids playing football at all major schools, would likely not be in college if it were not for their athletic ability. Many of them are filled with encouragement to be stars, and they get drunk on this minor celebrity status. I always think it is so sad when I see players like Maurice Clarett, he made his bed, now he has to lie in it (likely in Hubby’s prison), but I still feel so much compassion and wonder if he would have had better mentors and friends (or chose better ones) he would be experiencing a much better life.
[/QUOTE]
I feel genuinely bad for Maurice Clarett.
He goes to Ohio State, a freshman out of High School and is by far the best freshman running back OSU has ever seen. He almost single handedly wins the national championship game. His stock could not have been higher.
I think it’s incredibly likely Ohio State was all but paying Clarett to play football for him. When he got in trouble in 2003 and it looked like he could cause NCAA interest in dirty dealings within the program (such as preferential academic treatment and outright paying of players) they revoke his scholarship. This guy had basically one shot in life, and that was football.
I have no idea if he ever could have developed into an NFL caliber player. But he rushed for 1200 yards as a freshman and 18 touch downs. Years later he had an embarrassing 40-time at the NFL Combine, but that was at twenty pounds over weight and years of being away from proper training.
With his scholarship, and future prospects gone, he throws a hail mary pass and attempts to get NFL regulations overthrown judicially, this doesn’t work. So he can’t play football anymore. At this point he gets influenced strongly by the “wrong crowd” he’s given money, accommodations and etc by people with strong gang-ties. He ends up being represented by David Kenner in his lawsuit against the NFL, ultimately living with Kenner.
Amazingly, when all is said and done and Clarett has been out of high school for three years, he actually gets drafted in the third round and could have gotten aroudn $500,000 guaranteed. Instead, Kenner advises him to take a contract with no guaranteed money, but millions in incentive bonuses if Clarett manages to become a star in his early years in the NFL. Everyone around Clarett managed to convince this kid that he could be an NFL star pretty quickly. That the $500,000 in guaranteed money was peanuts compared to what he would be getting once he was rushing for over 1,000 yards a season in the NFL. The real probability of that happening before Clarett spent years in NFL-level training is near zero, he hadn’t played football in years and was out of shape.
At this point he supposedly owed Kenner over $1m in legal fees, so it is no surprise Kenner advised him to take the incentive laden deal as opposed to the guaranteed money. When Clarett was released by the Broncos he was left without any hope whatsoever. No money, deep in debt, and the only people who had really helped him out since being put on suspension with Ohio State had been friends and associates of his with strong gang ties. It’s really no surprise this guy turned towards crime.
I don’t forgive him for the crimes he committed or his bad judgement. But I think when a major college football program like Ohio State recruits a kid who is obviously not that bright, solely because he’s a great football player and will make them millions in revenue, they owe him something. They owe him guidance, they shouldn’t entice him with incentives that violate NCAA regulations and put his college football career in jeopardy. And they certainly shouldn’t take away his scholarship in an attempt to fend off an NCAA investigation into their own corruption.