Analysis: Clarett is taking his only option left
Wednesday, December 8, 2004 By TODD PORTER Repository sports writer
At this rate, nothing surprises Andy Geiger. The Ohio State athletics director has watched his department, and specifically his football program, get raked over the coals not once, but twice because of Maurice Clarett.
The first time, NCAA investigators came to Columbus and looked into just about every nook and cranny where Clarett could have left his muddy footprints. Ohio State was cleared.
Lo and behold, Geiger found himself practically begging the NCAA to come to Columbus again to examine most of the same allegations. That was last month after Clarett spoke with ESPN The Magazine.
That is when Clarett opened his heart to lift the burden he had been keeping inside him all these months: Ohio State cheated, he said, to keep him happy, putting money in his pockets and giving him a car to drive.
The magazine painted Clarett as a down-on-his-luck schmuck who rode out on a bus, leaving Columbus behind in a trail of diesel fumes. A close friend of Clarett’s told us the running back called him from an airport when he arrived in California.
That aside, let’s assume Clarett’s story is true. Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel arranged for him to be paid by boosters, to drive loaner cars and have tutors do his class work.
So why then would Tressel, who Clarett said was behind most of the NCAA rule breaking, not do everything to keep Clarett both happy and quiet?
If Tressel was arranging for a car from a dealership, why was that car repossessed in less than a week? It would only make sense, if in fact Tressel was a rogue coach, that he would shower his star tailback with more gifts, money and cars, not throw him under the heavy NCAA bus.
Clarett said half the Ohio State team received illegal benefits. Mike Doss and Dustin Fox, two Stark County graduates and starters on the national title team, have said that is untrue. If half the team was receiving benefits, why did Ohio State leave its best player out to dry?
Calls came into The Repository from the Dan Patrick radio show and Kirk Herbstreit’s show in Columbus to talk about Tuesday’s story. The news was that someone representing Clarett contacted Ohio State with an offer to patch the relationship.
The rumor of this call had circulated for some time. Former Clarett adviser and Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown was asked Sunday if there was any contact between Clarett and Ohio State. He smiled and walked away with a look that said he might know something.
So the question was put to Geiger: Did Clarett, or a representative of Clarett, call Ohio State and offer to rescind his allegations in ESPN The Magazine, and in exchange Ohio State officials would talk nice of the young man from the bad part of Youngstown?
Geiger didn’t deny the specific situation. He said communication has taken place, but he wouldn’t elaborate.
Fine.
Ohio State, we’re told, said thanks but no thanks. The university wasn’t about to be blackmailed. Ohio State must be pretty confident it will be cleared — again — of any wrongdoing as it relates to Clarett and the football program.
It is peculiar that the only people Clarett implicated by name were Tressel and his brother, assistant Coach Dick Tressel. Clarett said boosters gave him money, but referred to those boosters in the ESPN story as “Mr. Such-and-such.”
You must be wondering: What good would it serve Clarett now to make up with Ohio State and clear his name.
Think about it. How much more damage can he possibly do to his reputation? The ESPN story didn’t help Clarett with NFL general managers like he thought it would. If anything, the message NFL teams got was why draft this kid if he throws the whole team under the bus?
But by rescinding his allegations, NFL teams might look at it as a sign of maturity. The kid is correcting a mistake.
At this point, Ohio State can’t trust him. He was the key cog in the Buckeyes’ national championship two years ago. But the school, and Tressel, are paying one helluva price now.
Tressel knew Clarett came with baggage. He just never thought he’d be zipped up inside it.
In matters of Clarett, nothing should surprise anyone again.
