Well shit. I'm in the midst of compiling that info right now. Here's what I have so far. Add what ever you find and try to include a link:
Stories ESPN Has Run
Souls of the departed haunt Youngstown - ESPN
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Booster money train at OSU - ESPN
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'Somebody will take a shot at him at someplace' - ESPN
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Special to Page 2 - ESPN
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Buckeyes chime in - ESPN
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My Side - ESPN
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Holding Fire - ESPN
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Geiger says he's not surprised by the accusations - ESPN (AP)
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Vote: Maurice Clarett Talks - ESPN
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Clarett claims cash, cars among benefits - ESPN
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Extra Credit - ESPN
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HE SAID (Quotes From the original ESPN Articles):
Maurice Clarett
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919258
Still Working ...
Rafael & Sam Maldonado
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919255
On a fall Friday morning, Buckeyes coach John Cooper sat down with Sammy's family in their living room. Rafael Maldonado, a street-tough native of Puerto Rico who'd gone from washing cars to owning a chunk of 55 New York City parking garages, didn't pull any punches. "You're getting a very good football player," he said. "But you're also getting a pain in the ass."
Despite a solid spring and summer that got him up to No. 2 on the depth chart before that next season, Maldonado was on the sideline when August camp opened. He was asked only to participate in sprints at the end of practice, while Wells, now the starter, and freshman Lydell Ross, one of Tressel's first recruits, shared the running back duties. "I didn't know what I'd done wrong," Maldonado says. "I think Tressel wanted the guys he recruited, not the players who were already there."
Sammy's mother, Nereyda, came to campus in September and videotaped two weeks of her son standing with his arms crossed during all the drills. Then Rafael flew to Columbus for a face-to-face with the coaches. He says when he asked Tressel why his boy wasn't playing, the coach told him Sammy made too many mistakes in practice. Pressed again, Tressel insisted the kid sat because of blunders.
"You're a liar," Rafael shot back. "I've seen two weeks of tape, and Sammy hasn't even put on his helmet."
The Maldonados say that Tressel looked stunned when running backs coach Tim Spencer (now with the Chicago Bears) confirmed that Nereyda had attended practice, and they add that the head coach quickly shuffled them out of his office. Sammy barely spoke with the staff the rest of the season; he finished with 39 carries for 168 yards. "I was just some body," he says, "basically a walk-on." (Ohio State has declined to discuss anything about Maldonado.)
IN SIX academic quarters at Ohio State, Maldonado had earned a decent number of credits (his 57 were the equivalent of about 40 at a semester school). He compiled a 2.3 GPA and had never lost his eligibility. But his coursework included four credits for playing football, three for Tressel's Coaching Football class, 10 for remedial reading, 10 for remedial math and three for Issues Affecting Student Athletes. Six other credits wouldn't transfer because he earned D's in two classes. Maldonado couldn't understand how he had earned only 17 transferable credits in two years. Even today the number pinballs around his head. "What kind of degree can you get from Ohio State if none of your classes count at other colleges?" he asks.
Not much of one, according to The Drake Group, an NCAA watchdog. Members of the organization refer to schools like Ohio State as "football factories" that offer soft courses designed to keep players on the field. "The purpose isn't to educate and graduate," says Drake Group associate director David Ridpath. "They're eligibility mills."
Maldonado figured that Friedgen wouldn't even offer a spot once the coach got wind of his transcript. The player needed to crunch the equivalent of 43 semester credits into one year just to become eligible at Maryland. He underestimated Friedgen, but just barely.
The coach told Sammy he had to get B's in six credits of summer coursework. If he was late, or missed one class or a study hall, there would be no scholarship. Assistant coach Dave Sollazzo, another Harrison native, repositioned his desk to overlook the steps outside Byrd Stadium. Every morning at 7, Maldonado climbed down the 50 steps from the street above, gave a tired wave, then wobbled over to study hall. Sammy got his B's-and his scholarship.
Friedgen was impressed. He had seen his share of transfers over the years, but none with such a barren transcript. "It wasn't his fault," the coach says. "They had him in a bunch of classes that he shouldn't have been in."
Maldonado says the curriculum was not his idea. "Over there, they just put you in classes," he says. "I let them take care of my schedule.
I wish I wouldn't have."
Marco Cooper & Curtis Crosby
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919258
Marco Cooper, a linebacker suspended after two drug-possession arrests, says he enjoyed perks described by Clarett. When Cooper needed wheels, he says he went to a local Dodge dealer, got keys to a car and was allowed to return it whenever. Cooper never paid or signed papers. "There's no records for that stuff," he says. "There can't be." Just as there are no records for signed helmets and balls he says players use as currency around town for cars and clothing. "It starts at the No. 1 locker and goes all the way around the room," he continues. "You don't even know who you're signing for."
Cooper says a teammate once came home with a friend and some furniture for their apartment. The friend, an OSU student, was the son of a prominent booster. "He gave us furniture all the time," Cooper says. "At least $2,000 worth of nice tables and couches."
In an interview last December, Curtis Crosby, an ex-Buckeye cornerback from Columbus, said he and other players accepted the same friend's generosity. He claimed that five to 10 teammates would go out to eat, none of them seeing the tabs for meals that cost hundreds of dollars. Several former players say there are benefits to playing for OSU and coach Jim Tressel. Like Clarett, Cooper says he worked a no-show landscaping job set up through the football staff and would come and go as he pleased. He says he was paid $10 to $12 an hour and always put down in for 30 hours. "I never worked 30 hours." He adds that he received at least $2,600 in cash and never filed paperwork or went through the compliance office. He knows at least eight teammates who did the same. Crosby also says he worked bogus jobs.
Richard McNutt
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919258
But Cooper's account differs from that of Richard McNutt, a cornerback who worked on another landscaping crew. McNutt says he did anything his crew manager asked. "I can only speak for myself. All I know is I worked." (After an ankle injury ended his career, McNutt became a student-assistant for head coach Jim Tressel; he now coaches the secondary at D3 Washington & Jefferson in Pennsylvania.)
Chris Vance
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919258
Chris Vance, a star wideout in 2001-02, also denies seeing any improper benefits but says he believes Clarett. "I don't think he's lying. If he feels it's right to speak out, then I'm behind him 100%."
LeAndre Boone
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919258
In two years at OSU, LeAndre Boone says he took whatever courses his athletic adviser suggested: "He'd say, 'Take this class; this professor loves football players.'" After two years Boone left for D1-AA Hampton, where he could play right away. But he went from academic junior at Ohio State to barely a sophmore at Hampton. After playing one game he was found to have a career-ending heart condition, and he's since moved with his wife and two daughters to the one place he knew he could get a degree: Ohio State.
Fred Sturrup
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919258
Despite acing courses like Officiating Softball and Power Volleyball, Fred Sturrup (in car, left) became academically ineligible for 2001 and lost his scholarship. He thought about leaving and met with Youngstown State coaches, but after hearing transcript horror stories from teammates, he asked for a chance to stay. To get through spring ball while he got his grades in order, he unloaded furniture for $7.50 an hour. He'd ask teammates for quarters to make phone calls, then spend them once a day on Wendy's 99-cent menu. For four months he lived in his 1971 Cadillac. If Sturrup made a mistake, he says, coaches ran him until he was exhausted.
"I thought they were going to kill him," Crosby says.
Sturrup has given up on being a Buckeye, but not on his education. He hopes to graduate from Ohio State this spring. "They stuck their foot in my ass," he says. "But I'm not letting them stop me from getting my degree."
THEY SAID (Quotes from sources outside of ESPN, responding to the articles)
Richard McNutt
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1919258
But Cooper's account differs from that of Richard McNutt, a cornerback who worked on another landscaping crew. McNutt says he did anything his crew manager asked. "I can only speak for myself. All I know is I worked." (After an ankle injury ended his career, McNutt became a student-assistant for head coach Jim Tressel; he now coaches the secondary at D3 Washington & Jefferson in Pennsylvania.)
Troy Smith
http://www.centralohio.com/ohiostate/stories/20041111/football/1574393.html
"It was a shock to me as it was to my teammates," said quarterback Troy Smith, one of Clarett's closest friends at OSU. "It's sad to finally hear from him through some negative things."
Smith said he had no way of knowing if Clarett fabricated all of his allegations and was too busy preparing for Saturday's game to analyze the motivation behind the damaging comments.
"I haven't talked to (Clarett) in such a long time, I can't speak for him right now," Smith said. "When I was interacting with him, I couldn't speak for him then because he's sort of unpredictable in some situations.
"But I sit down sometimes and pray for him because you never know what can happen to somebody."
Simon Frasier
http://www.centralohio.com/ohiostate/stories/20041111/football/1574393.html
Defensive end Simon Fraser said he is totally oblivious to his teammates' mode of transportation.
"I get in my car and go home because I'm tired and hungry," he said. "I really never noticed anything out of the ordinary. I never noticed a jet plane landing in the Woody Hayes parking lot."
Dustin Fox
http://www.centralohio.com/ohiostate/stories/20041111/football/1574393.html
"I don't really know him as person to say much about him," senior cornerback Dustin Fox said when asked about Clarett and the rip job he's doing on Ohio State in this week's issue of ESPN The Magazine.
"He's almost like a legend because you don't see him often and you answer a lot of questions about him. He was only here for a year ... so it's kind of strange."
By recruiting Clarett, Ohio State traded one year of dominance for three years (and counting) of disruption.
Arguably the MVP of the 2002 national championship team, Clarett is now accusing Ohio State of setting him up with high-end cars, palm-greasing boosters, easy classes and bogus jobs in a bizarre attempt to clear his name with NFL owners and general mangers.
He claims coach Jim Tressel "sold me out" after the temptestuous tailback lied to NCAA investigators to cover up wrongdoing in the program. The investigation resulted in Clarett's banishment from the team before he played a down in 2003.
"It's a little disheartening, just because of the experiences I've had with coach Tressel, knowing him on a personal level and the way he treats his players," Fox said. "I could never imagine a situation where he would do that to myself or any player I know here."
If Clarett was receiving thousands of dollars in hand-outs from boosters, he apparently was running in different circles than the other Buckeyes.
"I'm so confused by it," said uber-kicker Mike Nugent, apparently willing to wait until he's in the NFL next year to cash in. "I have friends on other teams that will tell me about things they've heard happened in the past on their teams. They'll say, `Yeah, I bet a lot of that goes on at Ohio State.' I'm like, `Absolutely not.'"
Clarett makes it sound in the article as if his "free ride" at OSU meant more than just being on scholarship. He said Tressel arranged for loaner cars, including a Chevy Tahoe and Ford Expedition. When he got bored with one car, he'd move on to another.
"I noticed one or two different cars, but I'm one of those people so in the dark, I don't know much about (Clarett's) family history," Nugent said. "It's not the first thing on my list. If I see a nice car outside (the Woody Hayes practice facility), it's not like, `OK, who's driving that car? I've got to find out how he got it.'
"If I work hard, maybe I can have something like that, maybe I can get to that point someday. But I just worry more about what I have to do and helping the team get better."
Ivan Douglas
http://www.dispatch.com/football/football.php?story=dispatch/2004/11/11/20041111-E1-00.html&chck=t
Ivan Douglas, a teammate of Clarett’s on the 2002 team, said he was among those who took advantage of the summer-job program.
"I did mostly landscaping jobs," said Douglas, an offensive tackle whose career was cut short by blood clots in his lungs. "The company I was with (Warwick’s Landscaping) is no longer there, but it was a pretty good job for me.
"All the stuff I’m hearing, I didn’t experience any of that. From my standpoint, those jobs were straight up. I worked my butt off. I made $10 an hour. It was decent."
Scott McMullen
http://www.dispatch.com/football/football.php?story=dispatch/2004/11/11/20041111-E1-00.html&chck=t
"The only thing I can say is that I wish I was in (Clarett’s) shoes," joked Scott McMullen, an Ohio State quarterback from 2000 to 2003. "I drove a Nissan Altima for five years. During the winter, I had to put plastic over my windows so it didn’t get too cold. I could have used some of that money."
He added, "I wouldn’t have taken it because it would have been a violation. In my five years, I never was offered any benefits."
Marco Cooper
http://www.dispatch.com/football/football.php?story=dispatch/2004/11/11/20041111-E1-00.html&chck=t
Cooper, who was suspended from the team in April 2002 after two arrests for drug possession, said he landed a summer job with M/I Homes in 2001 in which he did a little painting and a little landscaping. Emphasis on little.
Phone calls to M/I Homes yesterday were not returned.
"I had to be there. I had to be around. I might not have always been doing work," Cooper said, disputing some details of an ESPN The Magazine report that he had a bogus landscaping job, received furniture from a booster and borrowed cars from a Columbus dealership in exchange for signed Buckeyes memorabilia while he was a player.
In Cooper’s case, he said, a member of the football staff provided the contact, but it was his responsibility to follow up on it.
"I had to call them and get in touch with them. It was not, ‘Do you want to work?’ Basically, it’s initiative," Cooper said.
Robert Smith
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=1920711
"Absolutely I think that (Clarett getting paid by boosters) happened," he said. "I believe that it's happened. But there's a difference between fans providing it or members of the university. There's a huge distinction. I don't believe members of the university provided for him."
Robert Smith believes there has been booster-player financial interaction at Ohio State.
Why does Smith believe that Clarett is being truthful about the money?
Because Smith listened to teammates talking about the same sort of payments when Smith starred as a tailback in Columbus from 1990-92.
"I know players who played there who talked about it," he said. "It's not the kind of thing that was seen, but I know players I played with that talked about it."
Smith's description of the booster culture surrounding Ohio State's football program in the early 1990s fits with Clarett's statements about the current one. In the Nov. 22 issue of ESPN The Magazine, Clarett said before he left events where boosters were present, they would pull him aside. "When you'd leave, (the booster) sets you straight," Clarett said. "They say, 'You got any money in your pocket?' They make sure your money's straight."
Now a businessman living in Florida, Smith said that he knew which boosters gave players money. He would not comment on the booster names or the names of teammates he says accepted money.
But when asked if he heard about Ohio State teammates talking about, in his words, "$100 handshakes," Smith said: "Yeah."
Smith, who twice led the Buckeyes in rushing before playing nine seasons with the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, says a booster never offered him money. He believes that was because he was a pre-med major who once got into a dispute with a coach over high-level classes Smith took.
"I think that if players are looking for that kind of thing they can find it," he said. "You know what I mean? Some more than others. I really think, though, I had the kind of image at Ohio State where I may have been the whistle blower type. So that wasn't shoved in my hand."
Clarett said Tressel helped him get cars during his playing days by calling local dealerships. Smith said that he never witnessed anything like that when he was in school, however he heard similar stories from Buckeyes who played before him.
"I heard about car dealers, but that was like back in the '80s and even in the '70s actually," he said. "I didn't hear anything about that from current guys or guys that I played with."
Clarett also told the magazine that he would have been ineligible for Ohio State's 2002 national championship season if the football staff had not "aligned" him with academic advisors who simply had to maintain his eligibility by putting him in classes with handpicked teachers and by providing him with tutors who told him what to write for assignments.
Smith, 32, did not see or hear of any of those academic allegations during his time at Ohio State.
"The only thing I ever heard about -- I mean I heard easy A's from certain classes just because they were easy classes, and I heard it from regular students as well -- but I never heard about people getting tests or anything," he said. But, he added, "I'm sure there were some teachers that liked football players."
Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger has denied Clarett's statements that Tressel or his staff provided illegal benefits for Clarett.
Smith said that he could see both sides of the argument.
"Yeah, we know this stuff goes on, but at the same time, like I said, I think that it's highly doubtful that the university was directly involved," he said
Smith said that he spoke with Clarett once, during the 2002 season, when Clarett wanted advice on handling the pressure as a player in Columbus. Clarett broke Smith's freshman rushing record that year. He also indicated he didn't believe Clarett's allegations would help a future career in the NFL.
"If he thinks it's going to help his standing with the NFL, he's got another thing coming," he said.
Tim Spencer
http://www.suntimes.com/output/campus/cst-spt-spencer11.html
Spencer, Clarett's position coach and an Ohio State assistant for 10 years, wanted to switch the focus to Bears running backs Thomas Jones and Anthony Thomas, but he was more willing to explore the topic.
''As an ex-Buckeye [player], you never want to see your school in trouble,'' Spencer said. ''I'm not saying they are. I don't know if what he said is true or not. That's for somebody else to try to decide or investigate or whatever they are going to do. I just move on.
''If some of that stuff is true, wouldn't I know about it? Well, I know what I know. If you know anything about a coach's schedule, you know we're in the dark about a lot of things. In terms of academics and stuff like that, we know as a coach how a guy is doing in class. ... But if you're asking me, wouldn't you be able to see if a guy has cars or stuff like that? We come out to practice like we do here, we go back in and it's dark when we leave, so we never know what's going on.''
Spencer reiterated that an investigation needs to determine whether Clarett's allegations in ESPN The Magazine are truthful. Spencer had hoped Clarett would regain his eligibility in 2003, when Clarett said coach Jim Tressel told him he had to maintain a 3.5 grade-point average and attend 6 a.m. workouts.
''I wanted to see him do everything right, and I wanted to see him come back and correct some of the things that had happened,'' Spencer said. ''I was on his side. There wasn't any Maurice's side and Tressel's side. It was about trying to get the kid right, get him in the right direction. There were stipulations, if I remember right, that Maurice had to do. Let's face it, he got himself into the academic situation.
''It's not for me to comment whether Maurice is credible or not. He's made some allegations and said some things. People need to do their due diligence and check those things out.''
Craig Krenzel
http://www.suntimes.com/output/campus/cst-spt-spencer11.html
Former Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel and running backs coach Tim Spencer tried to steer conversations toward what is going on with the Bears, but accusations by Maurice Clarett of widespread improprieties -- including academic fraud and cash gifts -- in the Buckeyes' football program reached Krenzel and Spencer on Wednesday at Halas Hall.
''I don't know what's going on with the whole situation,'' said Krenzel, who was Clarett's teammate on Ohio State's 2002 national-championship team. ''We never did know a whole lot of the information; we never wanted to. I'm here to talk about the Bears and Titans.''
When pressed on the matter with the suggestion that the Buckeyes could be stripped of their title, Krenzel didn't flinch.
''No. 1, I don't have time to think about it,'' he said. ''No. 2, I know there's been an investigation that took forever a long time ago, and they concluded nothing was to happen. I would be surprised if anything else was to change that.''
Will Allen
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/1100169146227680.xml
Former OSU players Craig Krenzel and Will Allen both said Wednesday they could not substantiate Clarett's charges.
Allen, who plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said "if anything did happen, I'm not sure. I walked the straight and narrow when I was there, which is why I'm not really worried about it. I got my degree. I got what I was there for."
Sam Maldonado
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/1100169146227680.xml
Former OSU player and current Maryland running back Sam Maldonado said his interview with ESPN was never intended to corroborate Clarett's charges.
"The interview that I did was with ESPN The Magazine and was about me," Maldonado said in a statement released by the school. "I said nothing about - and have nothing to say about - Maurice Clarett or anything that was mentioned in the article."
The Plain Dealer incorrectly reported Tuesday that Maldonado had been suspended at Maryland. He has not been suspended. That erroneous information, supplied by another news organization, was published due to reporter error.
Alex Boone
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/1100169146227680.xml
Clarett's accusations didn't hold much weight with three of the area's top high school prospects, two of whom have orally committed to play at OSU.
St. Edward All-Ohio senior offensive tackle Alex Boone said the controversy has not swayed his decision to sign a national letter of intent with the Buckeyes next February.
"Personally, I don't think it is true," said the 6-8, 320-pound Boone. "The Tressels are not the kind of people who would do something like that. . . . I'm a Buckeye, 100 percent."
Thom McDaniels
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/10152651.htm
His lack of credibility might be OSU's best defense. The talented Clarett has a history of making mistakes and blaming others. ``A victim of circumstances that he helped create.'' That's how Clarett's high school coach Thom McDaniels, of Warren Harding, so succinctly phrased it a year ago.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13340633&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46370&rfi=6
Anyway, it happened somewhere. Maurice Clarett changed. And those left in his old life wonder where he went -- and where he went wrong.
''This isn't the one I know,'' said Thom McDaniels, his old high school coach at Warren Harding. ''I don't know who his counselor is or who his advisors are, but if they think this is a good thing for him to do, then they're stupid.''
http://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/osu/daily/1111osufb.html
''I'm hurt, because this is not the way I would want him to behave,'' McDaniels said. ''But apparently it's the way someone wants him to behave. They have his ear now, I don't. And I haven't had it for a long time. I feel bad for him, because this only further damages the kid.''
McDaniels doesn't even have to think about it. He believes Tressel.
''I have a better relationship with him than I have with Maurice, I can tell you that,'' McDaniels said. ''And I know him to be noble, honorable and a man of great character and integrity. He's at the top of the list of people I know in the business. Maurice has put his reputation (on the line) and challenged Jim's with his own. And who's going to win that matchup? That seems foolish.''
Jim Brown
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/10152611.htm
Jim Brown considers Maurice Clarett a friend, but the legendary Browns running back admits to being out of touch with the latest allegations made by the former Ohio State tailback.
Brown said Wednesday he has not spoken to Clarett in three weeks and offered him no advice on whether to talk to reporters from ESPN The Magazine.
``I have no idea what all of this is about,'' Brown said. ``I am Maurice's friend, but I don't keep daily tabs on him.''
Brown said he had not read the ESPN The Magazine story in which Clarett accuses OSU coach Jim Tressel and members of his staff of arranging improper benefits such as loaner cars and no-show summer jobs. Clarett also charges the university with academic fraud and says he took thousands of dollars from boosters connected to the coaching staff.
Ray Isaac
http://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/osu/daily/1111arch.html
Tressel has a sterling reputation among OSU alumni, fans and the high school coaches who send him talent. Dealing with the hundreds of players he does, there are bound to be some disgruntled charges — ESPN has four other former Bucks making claims — and Tressel has faced the failure of a primary player before. At Youngstown State, his star quarterback Ray Isaac — who, like Clarett, was said to be closer to the coach than any other player — ran into trouble because he got money, cars and grades he wasn't supposed to get.
Last year, Isaac — like Clarett now — claimed he didn't tell investigators the scope of the problems in order to spare the coach. "If I told everything," Isaac told the Dayton Daily News, "Youngstown State would have gotten the death penalty."
http://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/osu/daily/1111osufb.html
Ray Isaac, the quarterback on the 1991 Youngstown State team that won the I-AA national championship, admits to taking more than $10,000 and several cars from Mickey Monus, a former YSU board of trustees president who is now serving a lengthy prison sentence for fraud and embezzlement.
The allegations first arose in 1994, when the NCAA urged Youngstown State to do an in-house inspection. It did, but turned up nothing. In 1998, the case exploded and all the details came out.
But conveniently enough, by then it was beyond the NCAA's four-year statute of limitations. The school self-imposed a number of penalties, the NCAA commended its thoroughness and the school was allowed to keep its national championship.
In an interview with the Dayton Daily News last year, Isaac said Tressel ''never, ever'' knew about the benefits and called Tressel his best friend in the whole world.
''Mickey assured me Tressel wouldn't find out and I don't think he did,'' Isaac said last year. ''I didn't stick it in his face.''
Steve Snapp
http://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/osu/daily/1111osufb.html
"(Compliance director) Heather Lyke made a courtesy call to them to make sure they were aware of it," Snapp said. "They seemed to think there was nothing new here.
"The NCAA knows most of it was a rehash of things they've already investigated."
An NCAA spokesman declined to comment.
Vince Peterson
http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/sports/story/1111202004_spt02burcham11.asp
Warren's Vince Peterson, who played for Tressel at YSU where he was a co-captain, expressed disappointment that such a charge would be leveled at his former coach.
"I've talked with several of his former players and everybody is feeling the same way about it. Nobody believes any of it.''
Peterson said he didn't put any stock into the accusations made by Clarett. "The only person his remarks are going to hurt is Maurice.
"Coach Tressel's integrity is going to hold up,'' said Peterson.
*
Mike Vrabel
http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2004/11/11/against_clarett_vrabel_lines_up_alongside_osu/
Which is why Maurice Clarett's recent claims that he accepted money, cars, bogus jobs, and was involved in other improprieties that could get coach Jim Tressel and Ohio State in a lot of trouble with the NCAA if they're shown to be correct, has left a bad taste in Vrabel's mouth concerning the running back, who led the Buckeyes to the national championship in 2002.
"That's a tough situation," Vrabel said yesterday. "You look at what went on. It throws everything off of him and back on the university, and the university now has to go back and defend themselves again after they just did it with the whole NCAA investigation. Anybody can make a claim. Now they have to go back and open all their stuff up at a time when their focus is trying to get their season turned around."
"It was a [expletive] move," Vrabel said of Clarett's timing. "Those guys [current Ohio State players] could care less about Maurice Clarett. They've moved on. Yeah, if he was on the team he'd probably be helping them."
Clarett's possible motive?
"He's trying to figure out what GMs and owners and coaches think about him in this league. They don't care if you took money or cars, if you can help them win and they think you can stay out of trouble, there are organizations who could care less about this. If you can help them win, that's what they're looking for.
"To make a comment that, `I'm just trying to come clean with the owners and general managers that are making the decisions on draft day,' those guys don't care if you were driving a loaner Expedition or a Hummer. I feel bad because nobody wins in situations like these. It's frustrating."
Vrabel is active in the university community and spends time in Columbus, Ohio, in the offseason. He has become a fan of Tressel, and feels the coach doesn't deserve the heat he is getting because of Clarett's allegations.
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"I know Jim Tressel and he's a stand-up man," said Vrabel. "He's a man with a lot of faith, a good Christian man. This is the last thing he needs during the season when he's trying to get a young team that lost three Big Ten games in a row. Now, it gets the lawyers and the university lawyers involved again. It's a big distraction for them."
"[Clarett] thinks they sold him out and he told Andy [Geiger, the athletic director] that he vowed, `I'll get back at you.' [Clarett] stands to make nothing off of this, while the university stands to lose players, eligibility, bowl game appearances, and everything that Ohio State has stood for over the years."
Vrabel said Ohio State has always been very conscious of its image, and the way players and coaches conduct themselves on and off the field. And Vrabel hates to see that image tarnished.
"I think the NCAA is coming along a little bit where you can help the player out where you can give a kid a meal," Vrabel said. "You can have a casual dinner with a booster. To sit there and say, `Yeah I gave the kid $1,000,' and to have a player say, `I took $1,000,' that's kind of crazy.
"It's really too bad. Like I said, nothing is gained from this. I feel bad for the kids there and having to see this stuff opened up again."
