OT - Clarett Back at OSU
Maurice Clarett, the former Ohio State football player who spent more than three years in prison, is once again a Buckeye, the university announced on Monday.
Clarett started classes on Monday, after the university allowed him reentry, an Ohio State spokesman said in a statement released Monday evening.
His story is a seriously sad one, hopefully he can get an education after all.
http://www.10tv.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/07/26/story-columb…
Hopefully he and Pryor become buddies.
Heard he pulled a gun on his science teacher.
Good for him for (hopefully) turning his life around. But if you're sitting next to him in class and he asks to borrow your cell phone, I think you'd have to give it to him.
What if he asks you to pick up the pencil he dropped?
After how poorly he represented OSU the first time around (not to mention what he did to end up in prison), this just seems like a really bad decision by OSU. I am all for second chances, but maybe they should have helped him gain admission to some other school.
Why? He's not on the football team (his eligibility is long expired). Why not give him the chance to finish his degree and turn his life around?
1. Helping him gain admission to another school would actually do exactly what you are suggesting -- help him finish his degree and turn his life around
2. For the same reason his re-enrollment at OSU has resulted in press coverage and a rehash of his history, every time he does anything while he is there it will do the same (it is not the best PR for OSU every time his story is brought up by the media)
3. If he does even the slightest thing to get into trouble while enrolled at OSU, it will be a major story and once again reflect adversely on the university (whether you like it or not, he is a convicted felon; most quality schools frown on that sort of thing when an applicant puts it on their application)
Well, I look at it as the "You break it, you bought it" philosophy. Clarett's life seemed okay before he enrolled at OSU...
I hate OSU as much as the next guy, but suggesting that OSU was the cause of MC's downfall is more than a stretch. They gave him the opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity most of us would do almost anything for. And there were 84 other scholarship players on OSU's team that year who did not end up in prison (not yet, at least). MC needs to accept the responsibility for his actions on this one.
I was being just a little tongue-in-cheek.
But seriously . . . he's one student out of 50,000 there. If he blows this chance, I think that reflects a lot worse on him than the school.
For all the negatives surrounding his shady time at OSU, the guy got screwed over by the NFL flip-flop (judge said he could come out early only to have another judge say no after he had declared) and got caught up in some crazy shit. Didn't he owe some Russian gangsters in LA a ton of money before he went on his nutso spree in Columbus?
It is easy to forget just how good he was for that one year. If he had stayed on the bench injured in the 2002 game I'm pretty sure we would have won that game in Columbus. They were just a different team with him in the lineup.
Hopefully he can stay on the outside and do something positive with this second chance.
...and in that time he was coddled by a coaching staff and administration that happily looked the other way as evidence piled up about his various "off field issues". Clarett is certainly responsible for the incredibly remarkable run if idiocy he had but the administration, including Tressel, shares some of that due to their enabling.
I hope this young man gets his degree; his experience like Brian Bosworth, Reggie Bush or Rhett Bomar is a cautionary one. He could help some people.
It is tough to get a sense of what really went on while he was at OSU, but I get the impression he sort of got thrown under the bus to save the program. He was in a booster's car with tons of swag but it got turned into a "filing a false police report" charge and he got suspended for the year without any further investigation or consequence for the school (I find it hard to imagine he was eligible during that 2002 season but nobody looked all that hard and they were happy to run him out of town once he made a stink). Then he basically had to sit out of football for two full seasons and predictably wasn't sharp when he finally got his shot in the NFL.
He obviously fucked his life up plenty on his own, but to me he seems like the bizarro Reggie Bush. He ended up in jail with no money and the school that probably had a clearer indication of what was going on walked away clean.
I believe it was he who threw Ohio State under the bus, "coming clean" about all the illegal perks he was given, which included cash, special conditions to take his exams, and a "summer job" at a car dealership where he and teammates clocked in then walked out.
At the time, the mass response was [shrug, NCAA doesn't go after programs like Ohio State] but I have to imagine a little more investigation, by which I mean a USC-level scouring of the program, would have led to a USC-level fisking if this had happened just a few years later.
FWIW, a lot of what he claimed was later proven completely false. Then again, a lot of what he claimed was proven true. Fortunately, most of what was true had to do with boosters, and most of what was false had to do with the university itself. It sucks that he made such bad decisions, because he was amazing for one golden season (and any objective observer ought to agree with that). I have no particular love for the guy anymore, but for his sake I hope he can put his life back on track.
We're talking college football here: the scuzzy is always just below the surface, so when a former player feels he has an axe to grind, he has invariably seen the contents of a few closets, and heard tell of a few others.
There are "bad choices" and then there's Clarett. My feeling on him is that he is a deeply troubled individual who has received many many second chances simply because of how important he was to the 2002 Ohio State National Championship in football.
Any person who has a Clarett story paints the same picture: an unbelievably selfish person, and borderline psychopath (i.e. has trouble feeling empathy for others).
I imagine Ohio State is trying to do the right thing, not to mention help get rid of a truly ugly story from the Tressell era that I'm sure still finds its way to recruits.
But I say this as someone who is almost always on the side of the athlete, no matter the school: Clarett has had enough chances. The NCAA and OSU boosters and the culture of football can shoulder a lot of the blame for what became of Clarett, but Maurice is responsible for more than enough of his life on his own. Nobody owes him anything.
It makes you wonder what would have happened if the NCAA had actually looked at the Clarett situation with the same attention as they did with the Reggie Bush USC concerns. It speaks to the culture of discipline/investigations then vs. now.
I guess now we see where Dantonio learned his philosophy.
poor taste dude
Can you honestly say you've never made a joke at someone else's expense?
the stare of blank dumbness now from Dicktonio in exchange.
Good. A college education can benefit anyone.
Everyone deserves a second chance I suppose. But screw up again and he's gonna have to resort to East Lansing for an...err.. education
Hey man...in case you didn't know, that's in poor taste. I'll give you a second chance though.
good on him.....
I don't see what the big deal is with him going back to OSU to finish his education. Its a hundred times more respectful than staying on the streets making the same mistakes that landed him in prison
Ohio State might feel some responsibility toward Clarett.
Dantonio coached the defense,he was responsible for the chokers and the biters if I recall.
up until now Clarett's been living a GTA lifestyle - i don't remember the college level
If anyone was wondering how he got back into the school, OSU has a program for former athletes who had a scholarship who declared for the NFL to later come back and get their degree. And I'm guessing Tressel had a pretty big influence in this happening.
Kind of weird though. It seemed like Clarett was hell bent on taking down OSU during the investigation until he had to testify. You would think that there would be a clause in that "no early enrollee left behind" rule that makes it so that players that give the school a black eye can't come back. Either way, it was a good thing for OSU to turn the other cheek.
Interviewer: I see here that you served 3-1/2 years in prison. On the other hand, you have a degree from OSU. No, wait -- that's still the same hand.
a month ago, and I wrote one of my two essays on Maurice Clarett embarrassing THE Ohio State University. On the writing section I scored in the 99th percentile.
paid his debt to the citizens of Ohio. I think it's a great deal and a great day for a young guy that really screwed up. I just hope he makes the best of this chance. Hopefully he's matured as much he seemed to when he was writing his blog in prison by proxy.
"But for the grace of God there go I"
I hate OSU but it is kind of sad that most people are all for letting anyone who can run a fast 40 time into Michigan but those same people are talking down Clarett because maybe after spending some time in jail he has matured a little and is trying to improve his life. I also have a great deal of respect for Jim tressel for making this happen as there is no way he would be back in school without the help of Tressel it really shows a coach caring about a person for more than what they can provide on the football field.
I don't like OSU or Jim Tressel (obviously), but classy move on their part.
Damn, they'll really let just anyone into that school.
Considering where Maurice spent the last few years I thought he would hve recieved more transfer credit from Michigan State.
is reformed and has changed his ways for his sake. He was a talented player and it's always a shame to see talent wasted. I hope for the best for him.
as has been mentioned before - your signature doesn't make sense. the 7 streak would be @UM. the 6 streak is on the line in the horseshoe
You know what? There's some deserving kid somewhere that got great grades in high school but did not qualify for a scholarship to get into Ohio State and doesn't have the money to go - and they make room for this stupid schmuck? Let him go to a community college, let him get good grades there and earn his way back in. You know he does not have the brains. You know he does not have the money.
As much as I "hate" all things OSU, and have laughed at Clarett's expense often, I'm happy for him. I think any player who has ever played varsity football at any school should be guaranteed free classes until he obtains a degree after his eligibility is over. Unless, of course, there was criminal behavior involving violence, drug trafficking, or grand theft on campus while attending school.
As much as I have laughed at Clarett and OSU, all I see right now is a young man trying to redeem himself and change his life. Even for a Buckeye, that's a good thing.
I think Lloyd said it best (and I paraphrase): When you become a paradigm of integrity, you can be THE example of what's right and wrong.
One of the things that makes a good coach great is the "fatherly-like" stature they take on for their players. A "father" never abandons his kids, so to speak. Bo, Mo, and Lloyd have pulled countless strings for former players who were in need. There's a connection between player/coach that doesn't disappear once a kid leaves campus. Thank God for that.
It's easy to rip Clarrett, Tressel, or Ohio State, but the fact is, they are trying doing the right thing.
I have two minds here.
1. I would like to see convicts clean up their act and have some chance for a normal life.
2. Clarett hasn't proven he is able to be trusted around a college setting. The university life involves a lot of trust, and smart kids being able to grow in a protected environment. Clarett will be able to tear through them like a shark in a tuna tank.
So, I come down on this being a bad choice.
...not with Clarett, who, good luck, turning your life around. But the University...I mean, they do make you make down if you'd had a felony conviction or not on your application, don't they? I'm guessing if he was Clare Maurett for Dayton just getting out of jail that admissions might have passed this one by.
And for all those fun conspiracy buffs- they're just letting him in and making friends with him so he doesn't go out and spill the beans for cash, fearful after the USC hammer came down. Total nonsense....but I thought I'd throw that out there for fun.
I agree with your statement that if he was not a former football player their would be no way he makes it in, however, I doubt there are a lot of non-athletes at any big ten schools with a 2.3 GPA and an 18 on there ACT yet kids with those types of score get college degree and make a better life for themsleves and there families (even without playing profession sports) I hope Clarett can do the same.