Thursday, October 31, 2002
Some OSU fans turned on the freshman running back after his comments about going to the NFL.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Maurice Clarett has distinguished himself as the top freshman running back in the nation -- yet every few days he gets dozens of hate-filled e-mails from Ohio State fans.
In a lengthy interview Wednesday night, Clarett said he expects to play Saturday against No. 21 Minnesota despite an injured shoulder. He also said he isn't bothered by the reaction to his statement in ESPN The Magazine that he would take the money and run to the pros if it were offered to him.
"I still get e-mails that say, 'I hate you ... this, that and the other thing,' " Clarett said after Wednesday's practice. "There's hate mail in my locker."
In the magazine article, Clarett says he is considering challenging the NFL rule that prevents underclassmen from coming out for the draft.
That was seen as disloyalty by No. 6 Ohio State's fervent fans. Many turned on him, writing letters to the local newspaper or calling radio shows to berate him.
His position
"That's the main thing -- like you're not loyal, you're not a Buckeye," he said of the theme of the letters and e-mails he gets. "But I can't control what other people think, write or say about me. So I don't really care about it too much."
So far this season he has rushed for 1,019 yards and scored 15 touchdowns. Despite missing one game after arthroscopic knee surgery and most of last week with an injury to the nerves in his left shoulder, he needs just 108 more yards to break Robert Smith's Ohio State rushing record for freshmen.
He said all he did was tell the truth when he was asked if he would be interested in a contract similar to that of Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback Donovan McNabb.
In the article, Clarett is quoted as saying, "You can always come back to school. I don't think there's a job in the world where you're gonna make $113 million in 12 years."
His view
Clarett said Wednesday night that he was just being honest.
"Anybody around this round table right now, if you had a chance to get a contract like that coming out of high school, man, you're going to leave," he told reporters. "That's the way the question was put. He took it all way out of whack. It was like, 'I'm about to leave college right now!' It was totally wrong how he stated the whole thing."
Gene Wojciechowski, who wrote the article, said a transcript of the interview with Clarett appeared on ESPN The Magazine's Web site.
"Anyone who reads the transcript of the tape-recorded interview I did with Maurice will have no questions about who initiated the conversation regarding Donovan McNabb and contracts," Wojciechowski said. "Never once did I pose a hypothetical question to Maurice regarding the NFL."
No changes
Wojciechowski said he gave Clarett the opportunity to look over the story before it was published and Wojciechowski said Clarett "said he wouldn't change a thing."
Clarett said he hoped that everyone understood that he intended to stay at Ohio State for at least another two years. At the same time, he said he knew that wouldn't stop the hate mail.
"This is like a life lesson learned," he said. "I'm glad it happened now because it gave me an opportunity to learn from what went on and to be more careful of what I say when I talk."