Kosar: Clarett should be able to play in NFL

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said he could see both sides to the argument.
& lt;a href=mailto:richesson@vindy.com & gt;By BRIAN RICHESSON & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
MAYFIELD HEIGHTS -- Let Maurice Clarett play football.
That's the feeling of former Cleveland Browns quarterback and Boardman native Bernie Kosar.
"It's a tragedy that he didn't play football last year, and right now he's not allowed to play football anywhere next year," said Kosar, a presenter at Thursday's scholar-athlete awards banquet hosted by the Northeastern Ohio Chapter of the National Football Foundation.
"I mean, come on," Kosar added. "We're talking about 19-, 20-, 21-year-old kids. Let them play somewhere. It's kind of ridiculous; we're talking about a football game."
Setback
Clarett's attempt at entering the NFL draft early took another hit Thursday when two U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled against his appeal.
"They're going to be ruled ineligible in college, and they can't play in the NFL," Kosar said. "That's incredibly unfair."
Oklahoma football coach and Youngstown native Bob Stoops can see both sides of Clarett's situation.
"The NFL has a right to determine what their criteria is to play in the league," Stoops said. "But there's also the right to work. In the end, the courts will decide."
Unique circumstance
If the courts ultimately rule in Clarett's favor -- and negate the NFL's rule that players must be three years removed from their high school graduation to be drafted -- Stoops doesn't believe the college game will suffer.
"There will be very few guys who will be capable of playing in that league, that the NFL will draft at that age," Stoops said.
"I believe the NFL wants more proven products," Stoops added, "because the physical nature of the game doesn't allow you to develop people for very long."
& lt;a href=mailto:richesson@vindy.com & gt;richesson@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;