*Sigh* Clarrett sues Ohio State......

[Drbio]

Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Lawyers of suspended Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett filed a federal suit Friday accusing the university of violating his privacy rights by giving police information from an NCAA investigation.

Clarett is seeking at least $2.5 million in damages from the university. He also asks for a court order preventing prosecutors from using the information as evidence in a misdemeanor case accusing him of filing a false police report.

Cleveland television station WJW provided The Associated Press with a copy of the lawsuit, filed late Friday in U.S. District Court in Columbus.

Percy Squire, Clarett's Columbus attorney, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. Ohio State spokeswoman Elizabeth Conlisk said university attorneys had not seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment.

Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger, traveling with the defending national champion Buckeyes for Saturday night's game at Wisconsin, said he hadn't heard about the lawsuit and declined comment.

Clarett is suspended for his sophomore season for accepting money from a family friend and for lying about it to investigators. He is separately suing the NFL, asking a judge to throw out a rule that prevents him from entering the draft until he has been out of high school for three years.

Clarett is accused of filing an exaggerated theft report with campus police in April after a dealership's car he was borrowing was broken into. The police report said cash and stereo equipment worth thousands of dollars was taken.

He has pleaded innocent to one count of falsification, which has a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

According to the latest lawsuit, Clarett discussed the police report with Ohio State and NCAA officials while they were investigating whether the running back had violated any NCAA rules.

The lawsuit says Clarett's statements were "protected educational records," and should not have been released without a subpoena or Clarett's consent.

"OSU and the NCAA elicited statements from Mr. Clarett in this coercive environment and released those statements to the city of Columbus, Ohio, law enforcement officials," the lawsuit says.

NCAA spokesman Jeff Howard declined to comment.

Last month, Clarett filed a complaint in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, seeking information from Ohio State to help determine if he should file a lawsuit charging that his rights were violated.

Clarett asked the court to allow his attorneys to take sworn statements from university officials about the charge of lying to police. That complaint said the university, by withholding information, had subjected him to prosecution.

Clarett set Ohio State freshman records with 1,237 yards rushing and 18 touchdowns last season as the Buckeyes won the national championship for the first time in 34 years. He scored the winning touchdown in overtime as the Buckeyes upset top-ranked Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.

[MavKikiNYC]

Former Ohio State Star Clarett Accused of Robbery


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 1, 2006
Filed at 5:31 p.m. ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett was accused of robbing two people at gunpoint in an alley behind a bar early Sunday, the latest trouble for the Buckeyes star who left the school in disgrace and failed to gain early entry into the NFL.

Clarett fled the scene and was wanted on two counts of aggravated robbery. According to police, he left in a white sport utility vehicle with two other men and took only a cell phone from his alleged victims, who weren't injured.

The 22-year-old Clarett fled when the bar owner or manager, who knew both Clarett and the victims, came into the alley and identified him shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, detectives said.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said he was informed of the incident on his way to the Fiesta Bowl news conference in Scottsdale, Ariz.

''Obviously, my reaction to that is it's sad,'' Tressel said, ''because, as I said the last few times people have brought up the subject, my hope would be that he would have an opportunity to go over to NFL Europe and make a comeback.

''I hope it's not true, but beyond that, I don't know much, but my reaction is, I was sad.''
Clarett rushed for 1,237 yards and scored 16 touchdowns as a freshman. He helped the Buckeyes win the national championship in 2002, but has found only hard times since.

Clarett sat out the 2003 season after he was charged with misdemeanor falsification for filing a police report claiming that more than $10,000 in clothing, CDs, cash and stereo equipment was stolen from a car he borrowed from a local dealership. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Ohio State suspended Clarett for misleading investigators, and for receiving special benefits worth thousands of dollars from a family friend.

In an interview with ESPN The Magazine in November 2004, Clarett said coaches and boosters arranged for him to get passing grades, cars and thousands of dollars while at Ohio State. None of the allegations were verified and Clarett never responded to NCAA requests to be interviewed about them as part of its investigation into Ohio State's athletic program.

Clarett also unsuccessfully challenged the NFL's requirement that players wait three years after high school before turning pro in a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Clarett was chosen by the Denver Broncos in last year's draft, but the team cut him in August.
Tressel said he had spoken with Clarett ''three or four times in the last six weeks.''

''It's been along the lines of hoping he would have a chance to get things together and make a run at things with NFL Europe,'' the coach said.

Clarett would have been a senior on this year's Ohio State team, which meets Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl on Monday.

''It's real troubling,'' Tressel said of Clarett's fall. ''Not just with youngsters that it becomes newsworthy, but with any kids who don't go the direction you know they're capable of or hope for them. It's one of the tough things when you compete. Sometimes things work out and you're successful and sometimes it doesn't. That doesn't have you back off from competing and teaching and trying to help people.''

A message was left Sunday at Clarett's mother's home in Youngstown.

[#1MavsFan]

He needs some guidence ,he had (and still has) the chance to be something special in the NFL if he can get it together (both mentally and physically).

[MavKikiNYC]

Originally Posted by #1MavsFan

He needs some guidence ,he had (and still has) the chance to be something special in the NFL if he can get it together (both mentally and physically).

To be honest, even without the possible/probable criminal charges, I think his time has passed.

And there's nothing to suggest that he has the discipline or resolve to get himself into shape to perform at the professional level.

In selecting which thread to post his latest press release, I passed by the results of his combine workout where he posted a 40-time that would only be impressive if he were a 350-lb offensive tacke.

Even when he gets a chance to get on the stage, he doesn't take advantage.

He's settling to his level.

[Five-ofan]

He was never the football player he was made out to be. Was great for a freshman. Lost his ever loving mind. Not worth the headache.

[Drbio]

This kid has serious flaws.

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Originally Posted by #1MavsFan

He needs some guidence ,he had (and still has) the chance to be something special in the NFL if he can get it together (both mentally and physically).

See Leon Smith...Aka (the fighter against Christopher Columbus)

[Five-ofan]

Well now he is wanted for two counts of aggravated robbery. Sad sad story.

[MavKikiNYC]

August 9, 2006 Ex-Football Star Is Arrested; Guns Found in Truck

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:00 p.m. ET
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Maurice Clarett was charged with carrying a concealed weapon after a highway chase early Wednesday that ended with police using Mace on the former Ohio State running back and finding four loaded guns in his sport utility vehicle.
Officers used Mace to subdue Clarett after a stun gun was ineffective because the former Fiesta Bowl star was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, Sgt. Michael Woods said.
''It took several officers to get him handcuffed,'' Woods said. ''Even after he was placed in the paddy wagon, he was still kicking at the doors and being a problem for the officers.''
The complaint police filed when they charged him with carrying a concealed weapon without permit said he had a 9 mm handgun under his legs in the driver's seat of an SUV.
Police also charged him with weaving in and out of lanes on a road before he entered the highway. More charges are possible, Woods said.
Clarett did not speak to police who tried to interview him at the station before he was moved to the Franklin County Jail.
Wearing tan jail-issue clothes, he talked on the telephone in the booking area, separated from reporters by a window. He was to be held at the jail at least until an arraignment Thursday morning, unless his attorneys work out an agreement for his release, police said.
Clarett made an illegal U-turn on the city's east side and failed to stop when officers, in a cruiser with lights flashing, tried to pull him over, Woods said.
Police said they pursued Clarett onto the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70, one of the city's main freeways, when he darted across the median and began heading west. Clarett drove over a spike strip that was placed on the highway, flattening the driver's side tires of the SUV, Woods said. A police helicopter in the area helped track the vehicle.
Clarett exited the highway and pulled into a restaurant parking lot about 10 minutes after police say they saw him make the U-turn. Officers removed him from the SUV after he failed to obey numerous orders to exit the vehicle, Woods said.
After Clarett was placed in a police van, officers discovered a loaded assault rifle on the passenger seat and three handguns in the front of the car, including one in a holster in a backpack on the passenger-side floor.
''We don't have any idea why he had them or what, if anything, he was going to do with them,'' Woods said. Police don't know where Clarett got the guns or where he was headed or coming from in the SUV. Federal authorities plan to trace the guns' ownership.
A half-full bottle of vodka was found in the SUV, but no breath test was administered because police had no indication that Clarett was intoxicated, Woods said. Police also found a compact disc of children's songs recorded by Ohio prison inmates that the state distributed last month to prisoners and their families.
The 22-year-old Clarett is currently awaiting trial on two counts of aggravated robbery, four counts of robbery and one count of carrying a concealed weapon in a separate case. Authorities said he was identified by witnesses as the person who flashed a gun and robbed two people of a cell phone in an alley behind the Opium Lounge in Columbus in the early hours of Jan. 1.
One of Clarett's attorneys in that case, Nick Mango, said he was going to the jail to see Clarett to ''make sure he's OK emotionally and mentally.'' Clarett has not asked Mango to represent him on the new charges.
''I'm shocked as everyone else is about the allegation,'' Mango said. ''Obviously, he's a young man with a lot of weight on his shoulders.''
The home address Clarett gave police was his mother's house in Youngstown. A message seeking comment was left at the home.
Clarett scored the winning touchdown in the second overtime of the Fiesta Bowl against Miami to lead Ohio State to the 2002 national championship, the school's first since 1968. But that was the last game the freshman played for Ohio State.
He sat out the 2003 season after being charged with misdemeanor falsification on a police report, then dropped out of school. He sued to be included in the 2004 NFL draft and lost in court.
A surprise third-round pick in the 2005 draft, he was cut by the Denver Broncos during the preseason.
Clarett plans to play for the Mahoning Valley Hitmen, one of five teams in the Eastern Indoor Football League. The team, based in Clarett's hometown of Youngstown, is to begin play in January.
Hitmen coach and owner Jim Terry said that there was no indication that anything was wrong when he spoke with Clarett by cell phone early Wednesday morning about the team's upcoming tryouts. The call was disconnected around 1 a.m. and Terry missed Clarett's second call about an hour and a half later, which would have been near the time when police say they saw Clarett make a U-turn.
The arrest will not affect Clarett's status with the team, Terry said.
''We gave him a chance and now we'll wait to see what happens,'' he said. ''I've seen far worse situations than this.''
Clarett has not signed a contract with the team yet, pending a fire marshal's inspection of the team's home field. Clarett's proposed contract includes attendance incentives which cannot be finalized until the fire marshal determines the capacity of the team's arena.

[dirno2000]

At what point did Lebron stop taking his calls?

[nashtymavsfan13]

Clarett is really messed up.

[capitalcity]

Motherfing bulletproof.

[Five-ofan]

Was he going to gang war......... By himself?

[#1MavsFan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=2545078

pretty good read on the situation.

1.) Player borrows money from rappers thinking he'll repay them with his "NFL Riches".
2.) Player gets lazy and ruins NFL chance.
3.) Player has a baby he adores.
4.) Rappers get mad, and threaten to go after his baby.
5.) Player loses it.

Pretty much sums it up.

[mmmfast]

He may be nuts but at least he has good taste in his booze.

[Big Boy Laroux]

I guess bullet-proof vests aren't lint proof...

[dirno2000]

nice...you spent way too much time looking at that photo...

[Big Boy Laroux]

ha ha... i was looking at it, and had one of those "one of these things is not like the other" moments...

we've got a rifle, two handguns, alcohol... and a lint roller?

[mmmfast]

Originally Posted by dirno2000

nice...you spent way too much time looking at that photo...

Please....One quick glance at the pic on ESPN is all it took. It's not as if it took the combined efforts of Watson and Holmes to pinpoint the Grey Goose and a lint roller.

Apparently criminals enjoy being well-groomed. Where's Waldo?

[nah-vit-ski]

Originally Posted by #1MavsFan

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=2545078

pretty good read on the situation.

1.) Player borrows money from rappers thinking he'll repay them with his "NFL Riches".
2.) Player gets lazy and ruins NFL chance.
3.) Player has a baby he adores.
4.) Rappers get mad, and threaten to go after his baby.
5.) Player loses it.

Pretty much sums it up.

I just finished reading that article. Best ESPN article not written by Bill Simmons I have read in a long time.

[nashtymavsfan13]

Could someone copy paste it please, for some reason my computer won't load it.

[Dtownsfinest]

Originally Posted by #1MavsFan

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=2545078

pretty good read on the situation.

1.) Player borrows money from rappers thinking he'll repay them with his "NFL Riches".
2.) Player gets lazy and ruins NFL chance.
3.) Player has a baby he adores.
4.) Rappers get mad, and threaten to go after his baby.
5.) Player loses it.

Pretty much sums it up.

That doesn't some it up. First of all the article says "where he befriended members of the rap community, manager types.". Doesn't say anything about rappers.



The article really is a good read. I recommend the lazy people who don't feel like reading it actually give it a read. I had no clue how much of a mess Clarett's life has become. He should be on suicide watch. It seems his life has become this way due to his confidence. His confidence led him to not have any sort of mentors looking over him. Instead of staying at Ohio state he thought he was too good. It also led him to not see a dime from the NFL. I'd like to see this story end well for Clarett. For his family's sake. So the can guy can't even play in the Arena Football League? Doesn't that league take anyone? Clarett can't even get in it? That's out of Clarett's hands. Someone with power is making sure he doesn't set foot on a football field again.

[nashtymavsfan13]

Originally Posted by nashtymavsfan13

Could someone copy paste it please, for some reason my computer won't load it.

Anyone?

[untitled]

Clarett's call came two hours before arrest
By Tom Friend
ESPN The Magazine Special
Archive

On possibly his last night as a free man, Maurice Clarett was calling on the telephone. I hadn't seen him or heard from him in a year, not since the Denver Broncos kicked him to the curb, but I was on his list Tuesday night. Along with Jim Tressel and LeBron James and some arena football coach. His list of thank-yous.

I looked at the clock when he called, and it was just past 11 p.m. ET. He told me he was driving somewhere, and along the way his cell phone cut in and out. He wasn't loud or belligerent. Instead he seemed melancholy and possibly drunk.

AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato
Clarett was arrested near the home of a witness set to testify against him in a separate robbery case, the Franklin County prosecutor said.

He started in with his news: He was a daddy. His girlfriend, Ashley, had given birth to a baby girl on July 17 and he claimed it had changed his life. "F--- Ohio State, f--- winning the national championship, it's more cool having her,'' he was saying. He said he'd cry a lot when he held her, and that just the other day in his mom's house, he'd cried four times holding her the same afternoon. He said he'd do anything for that little girl, that he'd go to jail for 30 years for this little girl. It wasn't clear what he meant, although it's starting to get clearer now.

I asked him how he was, and he said he was growing up, taking responsibility for what he'd done. He admitted "money used to be everything'' to him and he said, "Look how cocky I used to be. Life lessons have put me on my ass.'' I'd heard this sort of rhetoric before, from almost every troubled athlete I'd ever interviewed, but then he got me. He got me when he said he wanted to dump his whole story on me, when he said "I haven't done s---. I have done nothing but f------ run a football. Don't confuse yourself. I've done nothing but run a f------ football. Don't try to make it bigger than it is.''

He started in then with his thank-yous. I had written a column in ESPN The Magazine last January, after his initial arrest on burglary charges, outlining his potential drinking problem, steroid problem and self-esteem problem. He said he'd hated that story, that he'd hated me, but he was calling now to thank me, for waking him up to reality. He said he'd been calling a lot of people that day, that he'd called Tressel -- the same coach he'd once accused of giving him cars and grades -- and thanked him, too.

Tressel had reached out to Clarett months before, having asked Buckeyes QB Troy Smith for Clarett's cell phone number. They had talked, and Tressel had offered to do all he could for him, and now -- late Tuesday night -- Clarett was saying, "Me and [Tressel] have become cool again. I was talking to Jim Tressel earlier, and said, 'Thank you for being real.' He's been real to me, and I've been real to myself. I don't run from nothing anymore.''

He said he'd also called his old high school buddy LeBron James that day -- who knows if it's true, considering LeBron's playing ball overseas -- and that there were more calls to make. It was almost midnight ET by then, but now Clarett was starting to ramble, starting to sound a little skittish, a little paranoid.

He wondered if someone was overhearing the conversation, if someone might be listening. Was he being followed?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who knew Clarett had an assault rifle with him the whole time? Or a 9mm gun between his legs? Or that he had a hatchet? Who knew the next morning I'd wake up and hear he was under custody on alleged weapons charges, that he'd been Maced and tasered, that he'd been wearing a bulletproof vest, that he'd probably been wearing it as we spoke?

His attorney, Mike Hoague, came out Wednesday and said that Clarett has recently received death threats, verbal and written, and, suddenly, his pattern of behavior all seemed to make more sense. The people who know him say he's been alternately strong and unstable recently, that the stress of his court case and his baby girl and his uncertain future have him all over the emotional map.

Does someone really want to hurt him? Is someone bugging his phone? Or is he just delusional? Whichever, you've got to go back to last year, to the mess of Los Angeles.

After Ohio State booted him out of school, he went to L.A., where he befriended members of the rap community, manager types. They liked Clarett; he had an easy giggle, and a face they'd seen in the Fiesta Bowl end zone. He was their ticket to the world of sports, and they were his ticket to a lush lifestyle. Hell, he was broke, and they were driving BMWs and living in beachfront property. This was right up Clarett's alley.

He was one of these kids who'd always looked for shortcuts. His mom, Michelle, had worked long hours at a Sears in Youngstown, Ohio, just to support her family, but he found out early that football brought him all the love and cash he could handle. A caterer named Bobby Dellimuti provided a car, and other amenities, and soon, according to Clarett, Ohio State coaches and boosters had done the same. Clarett wasn't too proud to have his hand out. It's who he was.

But in L.A., it was the last thing he needed. He was spotted driving a 745 BMW and living in a mansion, when he should've been training for the NFL. The people in the rap world were sponsoring him, figuring he'd bring them back millions after he went in the first round, but what did they know? Did they know his 40 time?

The first trainer they hooked him up with, in the fall of 2004, was Chad Ikei, out of Arizona. Clarett was 256 pounds by then. A two-hundred-and-fifty-six-pound tailback! And he had the most peculiar work habits.

"He actually wanted me to shut the gym down, so nobody could train when he was training, so he could focus and get in his intensity level, and all that,'' Ikei told me earlier this year. "I'm like 'You going to tell Coach Green someday at the Arizona Cardinals that nobody can work out when you're working out?' ''

His insecurity was mind-boggling. The harder Ikei pushed Clarett, the more Clarett sulked, and, ultimately, he quit.

"The day he quit, we were on a high school track," Ikei said. "He ran one lap, and these kids came out for PE class, and he was like, 'I'm not running in front of all these kids. It's embarrassing.' I said, 'What do you mean? For what? Who cares? He was like, 'Well, baseball season's not in, football season's going on right now, I'm too short and stocky to be a basketball player, so obviously these kids are going to know I'm not playing in the NFL or I'm not doing anything important.' I'm like, 'Who cares?'

"I told him right there, 'No one knows who you are here anyway. So who cares?' He was like, 'No, no, no.' And what made it worse, though, was when we were leaving, these two or three kids came running all the way out to the parking lot. 'Mr. Clarett, Mr. Clarett, can we get your autograph? And he smiles and signs these pieces of paper and then turns to me and is like, 'Well, you said nobody knows me. These people knew me.' I'm going 'The only reason they know you is because you're on ESPN f------ everything up for Ohio State and everybody else.' "

So Clarett quit right then and there. "Maurice was like, 'Just give me what David Boston was getting, and I'll do whatever,' " Ikei says. "He wanted an easy route out. I said, 'You want David Boston's trainer? Here's the guy's number.' "

So Clarett quickly switched to Boston's guru, Charles Poliquin, who denies supplying Clarett with HGH or steroids. (Boston has been suspended by the NFL after testing positive for steroids). Poliquin and Clarett teamed up for six weeks in Phoenix, but it fell apart when Clarett wanted to move back to L.A., back closer to his rap friends.

"I don't know why, he was living nice in Phoenix,'' Poliquin told me earlier this year. "They gave him the latest Beemer. Whoever was sponsoring him was giving him a real nice, plush life. He was driving better cars than five-year veterans of the NFL. I told his people, 'Make the guy take the bus and stay at Motel 6.'

AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato
Police found four loaded guns, including this semi-automatic handgun, in Clarett's sport utility vehicle early Wednesday.

"And he partied too much, oh yeah. When he didn't report back after the Christmas holidays, we found out he was drunk as a skunk in New Orleans. We kept calling his people, 'When is he going to be back? When is he going to be back?' Because he's the type of guy, if you're not on his ass every day, he'll gain three pounds of fat a day. But there's not a lot of guys that want to play pro football when they have a team of money men backing them up. I mean, he was living in Malibu. Right on the beach. You walked out of the house, and there you were on the beach. I've been to the house. It's a nice place. The guy owned like 10 cars and said, pick whatever car you want.

"And he was training at, I don't know, L.A. Sports Club. One of those stars, rich-and-famous gym. Which I told him you can't train [there]. It's a gym for the young and pretty, but you can't get strong, you know. When I was there, there were a bunch of guys from the TV series '24,' and actors and rappers. I would say Maurice was a classic case of Hollywood fever. Among the rich and famous, and he thought he was there with 'em.''

By the 2005 NFL Combine, Clarett was too slow to turn any heads, and his only blessing was that Broncos coach Mike Shanahan was arrogant enough to think he could save him. Shanahan thinks the system makes the back, instead of vice versa, so he picked Clarett in the third round and found out the hard way.

The minute Clarett arrived in Denver, the team began to sour on him. At the airport, before flying from Colorado to the rookie symposium, he frantically called the Broncos, saying he'd left a brief case in his airport limo. But there was no brief case in there, just a water bag he always carried around. That's all right, he said, he wanted it.

He would take that water bottle everywhere, including the Bronco weight room, and the team started getting suspicious when, before minicamp practices, he'd grab the bottle and say, "I gotta get my Goose on.'' It wasn't a joke; the Bronco players were convinced he was chugging Grey Goose.

There was another incident at the team hotel, where he was accused of making sexual comments toward a guest. He denied it, but it didn't help that he had also begun alienating members of the Broncos staff. That summer, after minicamp, he had missed a weight-lifting session with the team's strength coach of 11 years, Rich Tuten, and he and Tuten had then engaged in a profane shouting match. Offended by it, Clarett marched into GM Ted Sundquist's office and demanded that Tuten be fired. When Sundquist refused, Clarett -- who hadn't even signed a rookie contract yet -- asked to be traded.

By this point, the Broncos were wary of him. They offered Clarett a $416,000 signing bonus, but only if the contract had default language. But Clarett, against the advice of Clarett's former agents, Steve Feldman and Josh Luchs, turned it down. Feldman and Luchs -- who now, as agents for Gersh Sports, represent the Broncos' new star rookie RB, Mike Bell -- implored Clarett to take the signing bonus, but Clarett wanted to replace it with an incentive package that would pay him first-round money if he rushed for 1,000 yards in multiple seasons. It was his ego talking. Clarett even wanted Pro Bowl language. It was a reach, and if he got cut, he wouldn't see a penny. Obviously, the Broncos agreed to the deal. And when he spent 18 days nursing a groin injury, they cut him. He never carried the ball in a preseason game.

And now what? He had no money, although he claims he's made some periodic cash doing autograph sessions. His rap friends had financed him, with the idea he'd pay them back with his NFL riches. But there were no riches. He left for his hometown of Youngstown, thinking he'd go to NFL Europe and get himself back on the field, get himself financially liquid. But then there was his New Year's Eve arrest in 2006, and his pending court case. Not a team would touch him. "He'll never play again,'' said a league executive. So how was he going to pay these people back? How much did he owe? Were these people on his back? Were these the threats his lawyer spoke about?

Does this explain the assault rifle? The bulletproof vest? The phone call to me?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They found a half-full vodka bottle in his SUV early Wednesday morning. Grey Goose. Something was driving Maurice Clarett to drink (although police said they did not sense he was intoxicated) and it was obviously on his mind Tuesday night. He said his thank-yous to me, to Tressel, to LeBron, and after he hung up with me, he called his newest football coach, Jim Terry.

Terry is the head coach and owner of the Mahoning Valley Hitmen of the Eastern Indoor Football League. This isn't even arena ball, it's minor league arena ball. And this was the only team on earth that wanted Maurice Clarett.

According to Terry, Clarett was on the phone with him at about 1 a.m, a half hour after I was on the phone with Clarett and two hours before the gun arrest in Columbus. Clarett was very likely thanking Terry, too, thanking him for being the last football coach on earth to take a chance on a has-been from Ohio State.

So it all makes sense, all the contriteness, all the thank-yous, all the quasi-goodbyes. If someone was coming after Maurice Clarett, that meant someone was coming after his baby girl. And if someone was coming after his baby girl, he was going to do anything he could to stop it. If that meant carrying four guns and wearing a bulletproof vest, so be it. Maybe, Tuesday night, he knew it was over. Maybe that's why he told me, "I'm a young man going through stress. I'm a person who was scheduled to make millions and didn't make 'em."

The more I think about it, maybe he'd decided Tuesday night was the night to tell everyone how he felt, his last chance for a confessional.

And now he's in maybe the safest, best place for him.

The slammer.

[nashtymavsfan13]

Wow, very well written article.

[MavsX]

i am so sick of hearing about clarrett..i hope he dies in jail

[mmmfast]

Originally Posted by MavsX

i am so sick of hearing about clarrett..i hope he dies in jail

Good Grief! Isn't wishing death a little extreme?

[nashtymavsfan13]

It is getting tiring of hearing about him, but wishing death is going overboard.

[nah-vit-ski]

Originally Posted by MavsX

i am so sick of hearing about clarrett..i hope he dies in jail

Then close your ears

[nashtymavsfan13]

Originally Posted by nah-vit-ski

Then close your ears

Lol, I guess that's one option.

[MavsX]

come on guys..its hilarious...clearly im kidding...but seriously though..where can i get a bullet proof vest?

[Flacolaco]

I feel bad for his poor child who gets to grow up reading articles like this about her daddy.

[enervate]

Wow... that's just sad.