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RB Maurice Clarett (B1G Freshman of the Year, National Champion)

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MoC in Texas

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/football/ncaa/08/20/bc.fbc.where.smaurice.ap/

Clarett hides out in Texas, prepares for draft
Posted: Friday August 20, 2004 1:48PM; Updated: Friday August 20, 2004 1:48PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The last time Maurice Clarett touched a football when it counted, he helped end 34 years of frustration for Ohio State fans and began two years of isolation and disappointment for himself.

His 5-yard touchdown burst up the middle in the second overtime provided the Buckeyes with the final score in a 31-24 victory over top-ranked Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and their first national championship since the 1968 season.


As Ohio State prepares for what could have been Clarett's junior season, he is a long way from Columbus and the glory of his freshman season.

Clarett is living a low-profile life in Texas these days, working out and preparing to answer a lot of tough questions in next spring's NFL draft. He does not talk to reporters. Neither does his mother, Michelle, who still lives in the family home in Youngstown, Ohio.

"He needed to get away," said his cousin and childhood best friend, Vince Marrow. "Now he seems like the kid who I knew when he was 14 years old."

It's hard to believe Clarett is only 20. In just two years, he took the college game by storm, rattled the foundation of the dominant league in professional sports, then took his legal battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

He does not talk to his college teammates because he has distanced himself from them and Ohio State.

"It's just depressing," Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger said. "It's a story of missed opportunity and failure."

"It's a tragedy," said Thom McDaniels, Clarett's football coach at Harding High School in Warren, Ohio. "It could have been prevented. It didn't have to be this way for that boy. And that is sad."

Clarett grew up in Youngstown, a place with a flourishing past that has fallen on hard times. Life wasn't easy; he once said he knew three people who were gunned down, including one who bled to death before his eyes.

Selected as USA Today's national offensive player of the year as a senior in high school, he came to Ohio State and helped turn a good team into a great one, rushing for 1,237 yards and 16 touchdowns, despite missing all or parts of five games due to injuries.

Midway through the season, a magazine profile included a photo of him tossing aside his Ohio State jersey. He said in the article that he was considering jumping to the NFL after his freshman season.

That revelation was met by a flurry of hateful e-mails from Ohio State fans who felt betrayed.

In the days before Ohio State met Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, Clarett made headlines again when he called Ohio State officials liars for saying he had not filled out the proper paperwork to temporarily leave the team to attend a friend's funeral in Youngstown.

The national title game against the Hurricanes was his last shining moment as a Buckeye. Not only did he score the game's final touchdown, but he made its signature play, ripping the ball from a Miami defender's arms after an interception to drastically alter momentum.

Then things went sour.

After a workout at Ohio State in the spring of 2003, Clarett filed a police report saying that a car he had borrowed from a local used-car dealer had been broken into and that he had lost thousands of dollars in CDs, cash and clothing. An investigation led to charges he exaggerated the value of the items, and he eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

At the same time, NCAA and Ohio State officials were looking into charges that he accepted improper benefits from a family friend and then lied about it to investigators. That led to Clarett's suspension from the team. He then began a legal challenge to the NFL rule that players must be out of high school three years before they are eligible to be drafted.

He won a lower federal court ruling, seemingly forcing his way into the 2004 draft, then lost a subsequent decision. The U.S. Supreme Court twice batted down appeals. Another appeal is awaiting a decision in the 2nd Circuit.

Clarett's attorney, Alan Milstein, said Clarett fully supports the ongoing legal battle. If Clarett wins, he could walk away with millions in damages from the NFL. That is an NFL-sized if, however.

Clarett stayed away from the Buckeyes during his suspension from the team. He stopped going to class at Ohio State in January. There were rumors that he had torn up a knee, that he wasn't recovering from a chronic shoulder injury, that he might jump to the Canadian Football League for a year. None of it was true.

After so much time spent in the glare of flash bulbs, Clarett stepped back into the shadows. Those closest to him -- or who used to be, at least -- still have strong feelings about what went wrong for Clarett.

"His advisers didn't have a Plan B," an angry McDaniels said. "They should have because there was no guarantee that the suit was going to be successful.

"Certainly some of the burden for what went wrong rests with Maurice, but I also think there are some adults around him who ill-advised him and who bear a ton of responsibility, too."

Marrow, a former NFL player now teaching and coaching at the high school level in Columbus, said Clarett is in the best shape of his life, that he's happy and content and "living like any other 20-year-old."

"Some of my buddies work in (NFL) player personnel, and all of them say that if Maurice is in good condition, is healthy and can run a 4.6 or a 4.5 in the 40, he should be picked in the top two rounds of the next draft," Marrow said.

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel is preparing for another season, hoping to duplicate the success he had just two short seasons ago with Clarett in the backfield.

Asked what comes to mind when he hears Clarett's name, Tressel quickly said, "Sadness."

"I rooted for him hard, for all his dreams to come true," Tressel continued. "He made some decisions and wanted to take an opportunity that he thought was going to happen. And it didn't.

"What I really respect about him is, it didn't work out and he's gone back to work knowing he has to train like crazy because his day is going to come pretty soon."
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Just in case you missed reading about MoC :tongue2:
 
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here.....let me fix that article:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The last time Maurice Clarett touched a football when it counted, he helped end 34 years of frustration for Ohio State fans and began two years of isolation and disappointment for himself.

His 5-yard touchdown burst up the middle in the second overtime provided the Buckeyes with the final score in a 31-24 victory over top-ranked Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and their first national championship since the 1968 season.

Selected as USA Today's national offensive player of the year as a senior in high school, he came to Ohio State and helped turn a good team into a great one, rushing for 1,237 yards and 16 touchdowns, despite missing all or parts of five games due to injuries.

The national title game against the Hurricanes was his last shining moment as a Buckeye. Not only did he score the game's final touchdown, but he made its signature play, ripping the ball from a Miami defender's arms after an interception to drastically alter momentum.
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ahhhh. much better.
 
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tibor75 said:
"It's a tragedy," said Thom McDaniels

Yes, stupidity is certainly a tragedy. :roll1:
Korey Stringer is a tragedy. Jayson Gwinn is a tragedy. MoC deserves everything he's gotten.
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Actually stupidity is a tragedy. The original Greek tragedies were about a person with superhuman skills, a hero, eventually being brought down by an inherent character flaw. So the fall of MoC is technically a tragedy, and the events surrounding the deaths of Korey Stringer and Jason Gwinn, no matter how awful they were, weren’t.
 
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KentStateBuck said:
Actually stupidity is a tragedy. The original Greek tragedies were about a person with superhuman skills, a hero, eventually being brought down by an inherent character flaw. So the fall of MoC is technically a tragedy, and the events surrounding the deaths of Korey Stringer and Jason Gwinn, no matter how awful they were, weren’t.
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Quite correct, Kent State. Or as some have dubbed you, Can't State.

Although Korey's weakness as a football player was clearly his weight and that certainly played a role in his death.
 
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"His advisers didn't have a Plan B," an angry McDaniels said. "They should have because there was no guarantee that the suit was going to be successful.

"Certainly some of the burden for what went wrong rests with Maurice, but I also think there are some adults around him who ill-advised him and who bear a ton of responsibility, too."
Click to expand...
Nailed it with that statement...

Is Jim Brown in Texas too or did he vanish when the spotlight did?
 
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Brown had offered his "services" to Winsblow to "help him" sign with the Browns, but now that is over, so I imagine he will either pick up the Quincy Carter grievance or go "help" another unsigned pick, like maybe Phillip Rivers! Uh, wait, that won't happen...
 
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The whole MoC saga is one of the most disappointing stories that I can remember. As much as I resent what he did and represented, I do believe to error is human and he was young, so I wish him the best. Hopefully he can get his career turned around and make something of himself, because in the big picture he is a man who has failed more than he has suceeded in his short adult life, he deserves a chance to turn it all around. I do not take joy in beating people when they are down, I feel that he has suffered enough.

I don't want to start any crazy MoC. conversation, but those are my true feelings with his situation.
 
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Why Rugby you know one?

J/K I couldn't resist.

He may need a lawyer to sue for all the bad advice he got.
A college career and potential Heisman squandered. Not to mention at least another N/C.

Maybe a year away from football will allow him to get his head straight and his body ready? Maybe not.
 
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