As frustrating as this all is, I'm inclined to believe that this isn't enough to get too worked up about. Sure, it's annoying Mo is acting like a petulant child who needs a good ass beating to straighten up his attitude and approach to everything. Yes, I don't pass up many opportunities to shit on the media as a whole, and I do think we'd all be better served to turn them into soap. But at the end of the day, all of us (myself included) give Mo and the ESPN tools exactly what they want by getting so worked up about it. If we did something wrong, then we deserve to get slapped, otherwise this is just a lame attempt by a man with the mind and attitude of a child to lash out at those he thinks wronged him.
Clarett made some horrific decisions, and was betrayed by the very people he trusted to advise him. Rather than face responsibility for his own actions and direction, and rather than face the reality that his mother, Jim Brown, his idiot foolhardy self-absorbed cat-molesting lawyer, and tools like Vince Morrow encouraged him to mortgage his future against a chance at "making the history books" -- he'd much rather believe that Andy Geiger and Jim Tressel are the evil ones, and part of convincing himself is trying to convince everyone else. Or maybe it's all much more simple than that. Maybe the fool is just lonely and misses the attention. Either way, it's all pretty pathetic.
This stinks of simple mudslinging. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but there's NOTHING in that article that worries me. Certainly not the sources; the convicted felon, the pothead transfer who abhorred work and effort, not the bitter manchild who has fallen from questions about him being the "best ever" to a running joke and "what could have been" story. Yeah, I'm shitting on them, and so what? They've bought and paid for the scrutiny and contempt.
Had the article quoted Mike Doss, Kenny Peterson, Will Smith, Darrion Scott, Ben Hartsock, Craig Krenzel, Alex Stepanovich, LeCharles Bentley, Matt Wilhelm, Will Allen, or even guys like Derek Ross or Tyson Walter -- had it used ANYONE without a clear bias against the program, then maybe I'd be worried. Were the suggestions about something worse than getting assigned a mission focused tutor, and taking advantage of local businesses (frankly, the article only seems to suggest that Clarett himself was much more corrupt than he led everyone to believe) -- then I'd be more worried. The question is how much did the coaching staff know, and since this was all seemingly addressed in the prior NCAA and internal investigations, I'm not really sweating. In fact, with all of this brought to light, OSU can stop taking shit from people who claim we were unfair or too harsh towards him. By his own admission, he was as dirty as they come. Neither Geiger nor Tressel were free to discuss the details, but suddenly, that harsh suspension doesn't seem harsh at all.
The reality of I-A football is that shit goes on at every school. I mean, it's just the nature of the game. Kids away from home for the first time, tossed into something of a celebrity status, people willing to do or give things to take away something from a meeting, girls/women throwing themselves at them, no request all that far away from met, yeah, shit goes on. I bet a couple of players have (*gasp*) smoked weed or consumed alcohol before 21. I bet a few have had overzealous fans or boosters give them gifts or even money, and have been understandably conflicted about not taking it. I mean, the bottom line is that there's ALWAYS some dirt. Doesn't make it right, just means that anyone who claims outright to have a completely clean and compliant program is full of shit, and probably deserves a little more scrutiny just for the sake of his denial. What I expect from Geiger and Tressel is that we hold ourselves to a higher standard than most, and that there's a good faith effort to keep even the little "no big deal" problems in check. That we never cover anything significant up. That when someone starts slinging mud, we say they are and go about our merry (even with 3 losses, we're still merry, damn it) way.
The last thing Maurice wants is to be nobody, and he just bought himself a few more minutes in the spotlight. Doing this for the NFL GMs? Lol, yeah right. What are you proving to them, Mo? That if things don't go your way, you'll try and drag everyone around you down with you. There's the type of character *every* GM and NFL owner wants as part of their asset.
Anyway, I know I'm just pissing in the wind here, but I can't help but think how great a response no response would be to all of this. Clarett just isn't relevant anymore. On any level really. So what?
Just felt like venting. Go on about your way, just be fucking merry about it.
