I tell people this all the time, but they never believe me.
There was a time Maurice Clarett was bigger in Ohio than Lebron James.
I was on my way out of The Ohio State University when Clarett was making his way in. Everyone in the state knew boom/bust potential of his personality, but we all hoped for the best.
I will say Ohio State got what they wanted out of Clarett (a National Championship, his strip of Sean Taylor RIP after an INT most important play of the game), but Clarett didn’t get what he wanted which was to be a NFL superstar.
Most people knew that Clarett’s story might now end well, I don’t think anyone thought he would end up in jail for almost 3 1/2 years on various charges.
He is out now and to his credit is trying to get his life back in order.
Sometimes you have to revisit your greatest failures because you can see new successes. Clarett has re-enrolled back at OSU here are the details:
Former football player Maurice Clarett is allowed to re-enroll at The Ohio State University Monday after he was granted early release from prison in April 2010.
Clarett was granted early release from prison Wednesday, April 7, 2010, after serving 3-1/2 years of his 7-1/2-year sentence.
“This is a surreal feeling to be back at Ohio State in such a supportive environment. I have looked forward to being back in school, and I’m doing my best to fit in with other students. I don’t want to be a distraction or nuisance to the football team or to students on campus,” Clarett said in a media statement Monday.
During his parole hearing, Clarett had said he hoped to become involved in geriatrics and gerontology, the comprehensive study of aging and the problems of the aged.
In prison, he started a fitness program for inmates older than 50.
I wish him all the luck in the world. I knew him personally a little bit and it wasn’t that he was a bad guy, he just had everything handed to him on a platter since he was a kid to the point he never really developed any life skills.
When OSU tossed him aside, he had no one to really guide him and like a lot of young African-American men he took the wrong path and ended up in prison.
But he is still a very young man with his whole life ahead of him.
Definitely rooting for his success.
Thanks to @wdunn248 for letting me know about this.