Many question what Clarett is trying to do
Sunday, February 22, 2004
By TODD PORTER Repository sports writer
AP / Michael Conroy
NFL-BOUND. Maurice Clarett ponders a question during a press conference at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis last week. Clarett, who starred as a freshman at Ohio State, has been allowed to enter the NFL Draft early following a favorable court ruling in his suit against the league.
Whether it be arrogance, confidence or a matter of law, the NFL is convinced it is fighting on a winning side. However, after two court dates, a 20-year-old running back with nine games of college football under his belt is winning.
And maybe changing the landscape of football.
Maurice Clarett arrived at the NFL scouting combine at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis last week ready to impress. Yes, he led Ohio State to a national championship in 2002. Yes, he set the school’s single-season freshman rushing record with 1,237 yards.
This is another level.
At the Pro Bowl, some of the game’s pre-eminent players were against the ruling that made Clarett eligible for April’s NFL Draft. In that setting — a Hawaiian vacation on the NFL’s nickel for the best of the best — would a player speak against the league?
“It’s a slap in our face to have a high school kid come out and think he could step up to a league where 100 percent of the combatants are men,” Miami linebacker Zach Thomas said. “This is a whole different story on this level. I’m really against this.”
“It gives people a false impression that they can be bigger than the league, bigger than the game,” Washington linebacker Lavar Arrington said. “This is some serious stuff. There are some serious killers in this game. ... They have grown-men bodies and speed you’ve never seen before. You have to learn what’s going on physically and emotionally. The NFL is not for kids.”
Clarett cannot be considered a kid, at least not on the outside. His handlers say he is in the best shape of his life. The scale, however, says otherwise.
He is working with a trainer in order to wow NFL scouts with a 40-yard time that pushes 4.5. At a press conference in New York, Clarett appeared pudgy, but former teammates say he has been working out. He weighed 237 pounds, about 10 pounds heavier than he was listed with Ohio State. A session with reporters did not exactly impress NFL writers, and some NFL executives ridiculed the fact Clarett did not work out.
Mentally, is Clarett mature enough to play in the NFL?
“Can they trust me? I think so,” he said. “When I sit down with these GMs and head coaches, I think they’ll have a good understanding of me, where I’m coming from, the certain way I act about certain things, the certain way I feel about a lot of things. There’s so many tests here, they can pretty much find out anything they want. They don’t have the chance to pick up a paper. They finally get to meet me now.”
Clarett does not have to convince 32 teams he is prepared for the NFL. He just needs one team to believe him. Will physical ability cast a tall shadow on mental maturity for a team needing a running back?
It didn’t take long for Clarett to capitalize on his professional status. A Columbus-based memorabilia shop paid him to sign autographs last weekend. A source close to the running back said he earned as much as $25,000 from more than one dealer.
If that is the case, yes, he has turned pro. Two agents said Clarett is leaning toward veteran NFL agent Jimmy Sexton. Clarett said he is between a couple and still interviewing agents. If Clarett signs with Sexton, it could prove to be the best move he has made since becoming embroiled in the NCAA investigation. The NFL Players Association said Clarett has not submitted the necessary paperwork linking him with an agent yet.
It is a dicey move. Even after Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled in Clarett’s favor, he refused to declare for the draft. Only after Scheindlin denied the league’s motion for a stay did Clarett’s attorney, Alan C. Milstein, say he would enter the draft.
It could be a mistake if NFL executives are to be believed. The league is confident of victory in appeals court. Legal experts believe the NFL’s chances of prevailing are slim.
Browns President and CEO Carmen Policy believes the ruling was flawed. A key question is whether or not the league’s rule, requiring three years to have passed since a player’s graduation from high school, is a part of the collective bargaining agreement, thereby exempt from antitrust laws.
The NFL and its players association says it is. Milstein and Scheindlin say otherwise. The rule is found in the league’s bylaws, not directly in the bargaining agreement. However, the NFLPA votes on the NFL constitution and bylaws when the latest labor agreement was put in place in 1993.
“I don’t think it’s going to impact teams in the National Football League because that decision is so preliminary and short-lived,” said Policy, a former lawyer. “It may only impact the league in terms of one player, and that’s Maurice Clarett. I do believe, from a legal standpoint, the decision will be reversed in the court of appeals.
“For that reason, you could almost understand why the judge didn’t grant the stay for the league. Part of the reason is the league had to show irreparable harm, and we had a hard time showing that.”
There are three key parts of Scheindlin ruling. The NFL would have to show each one was flawed in order to convince the appeals court. In addition to the question about whether the rule is part of the bargaining agreement, Scheindlin said the NFLPA cannot bargain away rights of a non-member, in this case, Clarett. Also, in order to be exempt from antitrust laws, the rules, Scheindlin wrote, the agreement has to be restricted to wages, hours and conditions of employment.
“A (bargaining agreement) can take parties beyond the normal restrictions created by antitrust law, and they supersede or trump antitrust law,” Policy said. “It’s just like our ability to say you’re not a free agent until after four accredited seasons. ... It’s all part and parcel to a collective bargaining agreement and therefore should not be controlled by a trial judge.”
Of the three major sports, the NFL is the only one that prevents 18-year-olds from turning pro.
NBA Commissioner David Stern, formerly the NBA’s lawyer, believes the NFL will prevail on appeal. His league accepts teenagers. Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary star LeBron James made the jump and is playing remarkably well.
“The Clarett decision was wrongly decided as a matter of law and will likely be reversed on appeal,” Stern said recently. “The sort of uniform history on cases like this in the Second Circuit court, where the case was decided, and the United States Supreme Court, we think the judge’s decision will be reversed.”
The NBA is a different sport. The NFL is a bruising, often short-lived career on Sunday afternoons.
“This isn’t basketball, where your goal is to come out and throw a ball through a hole,” said Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. “Every other sport is different, because our sport revolves around such physical activity.
“The body has to go through years of maturing against injury. You might catch a phenomenon coming out, but it’ll hurt more than it helps. Maurice is a friend, but ... the longevity of what they are trying to execute is impossible.”
It is too early to say if the Clarett ruling will open the floodgates to teenagers. It has only given two players — Clarett and Pittsburgh receiver Larry Fitzgerald — the opportunity to be drafted this year. The NFL cleared Fitzgerald’s request to enter the draft within 24 hours of the Clarett decision. However, he served a year at a prep school and technically has been out of high school for three years.
The chance to earn millions as a pro athlete may be too big of a dream to pass up. But agents will try to convince players to leave college for the NFL.
Stern bristles at the thought.
“It would be a good thing to somehow use ourselves to focus attention on the fact that a youngster who thinks he’s coming to the NBA is, as Arthur Ashe pointed out, much more likely to become a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon than an NBA player,” Stern said. “I don’t mean to cast aspersions on either the maturity or the basketball capacity of 19-year-olds. I just think it would be a good idea as a league if we were not associated with the prospect of pulling kids who are now 10, bouncing the ball and telling their parents they are going to be the next LeBron James. Everybody ... knows they are not, then they will be left with virtually nothing.”
You can reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail:
[email protected]
My moniker is actually longer on Bucknuts where it also includes "ofdust".
