Friday, April 23, 2004
As the Maurice Clarett saga played out this week with a last-ditch end run to the U.S. Supreme Court, one can't help but wonder whatever happened to the brilliant student-athlete who drove himself to graduate early from Warren Harding High School?
What became of that discipline and dedication?
Nothing impresses us more than when we find star athletes who excel academically. Clarett once fit that description.
Ohio's Mr. Football in 2001 and the USA Today's offensive player of the year also had the intelligence to graduate a semester early -- how could anyone not be impressed?
Today, the former Ohio State University tailback has become an example of what happens when a star athlete used to getting his way takes too much for granted.
Clarett is learning a hard lesson -- the warranty has expired on the sense of entitlement he adopted as his football success escalated. Without a playing field to show off his gifts, Clarett's aura of invincibility is melting.
How sad.
Legal barrier
Clarett and his attorneys have found an obstacle they can't tame, waltz around or ignore -- the National Football League's eligibility rule.
Thursday, two Supreme Court justices wisely ruled that an appellate court can decide whether the NFL's eligibility rule (three years after high school graduation) is an antitrust violation.
For now, the Youngstown native's quest for early entry into the best-run professional sports league is over. His name won't be called by a NFL team on Saturday.
Or Sunday.
While some may feel blue or even outraged over Clarett's predicament, let's not forget who flushed his NCAA eligibility away. (It wasn't Ohio State coach Jim Tressel or athletic director Andy Geiger.)
It didn't have to be this way.
Two years ago, Clarett appeared to be the model Buckeye, enrolling two quarters ahead of his future classmates.
Has anyone in a scarlet-and-gray uniform ever looked more dedicated in preparing for the challenge of Big 10 football and the national spotlight that accompanies it?
Looks can be deceiving. Clarett and his advisers obviously don't value the free college education he was receiving in Columbus. His cavalier attitude toward his scholarship is an insult to anyone paying tuition for the privilege of higher learning.
Earlier this week, Tressel said academic rules would likely prevent Clarett from ever regaining his football eligibility at Ohio State.
Geiger added that he believes Clarett has not made restitution for the thousands of dollars he accepted as a Buckeye in 2002.
No backup plan
Sadly for the 20-year-old Clarett, he has no backup plan. Because he's painted himself into a corner with his NCAA eligibility, Clarett's football options for 2004 have dwindled to the Canadian Football League.
It's possible Clarett's attorneys will still succeed in overturning the eligibility rule. If that happens, Clarett would be part of a supplemental draft that would be held before NFL training camps open. If a team picks him, they would forfeit that selection in the 2005 draft.
But if his attorneys fail again (and they are on a real streak this week), Clarett will remain on the outside of the NFL, awaiting the 2005 draft like every other player who entered college in 2002.
Had Clarett attended class, studied for tests and followed the NCAA guidelines for reinstatement, he could have had another football option.
Unfortunately, the patience and discipline that served Clarett so well at Harding abandoned him when he needed them most.
Clarett will be invited into the NFL. He'll eventually have money to burn.
The best thing he could do in the meantime is take some business courses and prepare for the future -- even if it means paying his own way.
That probably hurts most of all.
XTom Williams is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write to him at williams@vindy.com.