As an Ohio State fan, I was dreading what Maurice Clarett might say when I heard that he would be appearing on the Dan Patrick radio program this morning. The bad news has been coming out daily regarding Terrelle Pryor, and the last thing Buckeye fans needed was more allegations from Clarett.
Instead, Clarett defended Jim Tressel and Ohio State, laying the blame instead on the culture surrounding college football and the difficulty have putting inner-city kids in a situation where they’re treated like gods but have to live on a modest stipend that doesn’t cover the real costs of living in a place like Columbus.
Here’s Clarett on Tressel:
“People respect Jim Tressel because he’s a man,” Clarett said. “He’s a man’s man, you know what I mean? The guy has integrity. He has class. I look at Jim Tressel every day and just Google his name and see articles come up with reputable people sticking their necks out for him. He’s a good man who got caught up in a bad situation. You can’t be a fraud for 30 years. It’s impossible, you know what I’m saying? People could smell a fraud within the first few months. You’re going to be exposed. But for 30 years that man has been respected by the people who are very respectable throughout the country. It’s not right for that man to get done like that.”
This one is surprising, since Clarett made all sorts of allegations about Tressel in the past. Has Clarett grown up? Is he able to see Tressel’s entire body of work now that he has some perspective? Is he trying to win back favors from Ohio State fans? Life in Columbus can be very lucrative for former Buckeyes who were winners, and Clarett blew that opportunity in the past.
More importantly for Ohio State, Clarett doesn’t implicate the university in the recent scandals or with his own problems in the past:
During a sometimes rambling 13-minute interview on the Dan Patrick Radio Show on Wednesday morning, Maurice Clarett insisted there is no organized system of providing extra benefits to Ohio State football players.
“There’s no secret regime, no secret congregation of people who sit around at Ohio State and give young guys money, who say, ‘Let me give you X amount of dollars or thousands of dollars,’ nothing like that,” Clarett told Patrick on his nationally syndicated show. “Anything that any players goes and gets is all based on him and who he meets in the community. When he goes out and meets a fan or he meets somebody, he’s going to meet that person himself and create a relationship himself and do what he does. A coach has no control over what the young guys are doing, know what I’m saying?”
In light on the NCAA’s absurd decision to vacate USC’s national championship, some Buckeye fans have been dreading any news from Clarett that might stretch an investigation all the way back to the 2002 National Championship. Ohio State will face some stiff penalties, but the Buckeyes need to contain the damage.
In the end, Clarett adds to the drumbeat of players, coaches and commentators saying that the current system is deeply flawed. The flawed system doesn’t exonerate Pryor or Reggie Bush, guys who seem to have gone well beyond minor violations for petty cash, but guys like Clarett have a point when they describe the circumstances that will inevitably lead to violations in every major program.
