Former Ohio State RB Maurice Clarett claims to have been paid more in college than pros
Maurice Clarett only spent one season in Columbus, but apparently he was enjoying far nicer things than the average freshman dorm on campus.
Or on any campus. Or, really, in many homes of hard-working Americans.
At least, that’s how he himself described his freshman year at Ohio State.
The Bush League Chronicles got a hold on an excerpt of Monte Burke’s book 4th & Goal: One Man’s Quest to Recapture His Dream.
“Away from class, anything you can think of I did in my 13 months at Ohio State.” Drugs and women were two of the things. Cars were another—he owned three of them at a time, including a brand-new Cadillac and Lexus. “I was living the NFL life in college,” he says. “I got paid more in college than I do now in the UFL.”
The excerpt illustrates how easy it can be to lose sight of one’s responsibilities as a mere 18-year old.
Clarett set an Ohio State freshman record with 1,237 yards in only season with the Buckeyes. He also scored 18 touchdowns and was instrumental in helping the Buckeyes win the 2002 national title.
However, it was all downhill from there. Clarett was suspended for the entire 2003 season after being charged with filing a false police report. He had reportedly claimed that more than $10,000 in clothes, cash and stereo equipment were stolen from a friend’s car he was borrowing at the time.
Yeah — that never happened.
From there, Clarett sued the NFL to allow him to play in spite of the league’s rule that no player can until he has been out of high school for three years.
He lost, and after not playing a game in years, he was drafted, surprisingly, by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft. What did not come as a surprise was the fact that Clarett reported to training camp 20 pounds overweight and never saw a down in the NFL.
In 2006, he was arrested after, according to Columbus Police Sgt. Mike Woods, the officers discovered a katana, a zanbatō, a loaded AK-47 variant and two other loaded handguns in his vehicle along with an open bottle of Grey Goose vodka.
Clarett did surface with the United Football League’s Omaha Nighthawks in 2010. He finished the season with 154 rushing yards on 37 attempts with a touchdown — his only score recorded as a professional.
The totals were not exactly indicative of a premier running back — but he still should have been making more money than he was at Ohio State.
The Buckeyes were unable to take on Notre Dame in the 2013 BCS National Championship game despite having compiled a perfect, 12-0 regular season record. Transgressions committed under Clarett’s coach, Jim Tressel, kept first year head man Urban Meyer’s team out of the postseason.
It remains to be seen in Clarett’s claims of basically playing pro ball while at OSU will result in any further NCAA sanctions for the school.
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