A Cautionary Tale: Maurice Clarett

I've been thinking about this story since I heard about it yesterday. Four years ago Maurice Clarett was the top college football player in the country and he knew it. He decided that he wanted to go into the NFL after his freshman year at Ohio State. Unfortunately for him the NFL has a rule that says you cannot be drafted into the NFL until at least 3 years after you graduated high school - this is an effort to get kids to stay in school and get an education that can support them when their football career is done. Well, Maurice thought the rule was good for other people but not him, so he took the NFL to court.... and lost then he appealed...and lost. Anywho, in the mean time he was convicted of breaking NCAA and Ohio St. rules for taking stuff and was promptly expelled, which was fine for him because he didn't want to be at that stupid school anyway. Once he was eligible to be drafted by the NFL he was given another chance by the Denver Broncos. He showed up overweight and with an alcohol problem, which got him promptly cut from the team. Then this January he was charged with robbery and two days ago he was arrested by police for driving erratically. In his vehicle they found 4 loaded guns, an open half full bottle of Vodka, a hatchet and he was wearing a bulletproof vest. At least one of the weapons was hidden in the vehicle which will bring concealed weapon charges and at least one was an illegal assault rifle. He could now be facing decades in jail because of this one arrest, never mind the previous robbery charge.

As I said before, I've been thinking about this story for about a day now and I don't know what angle to take. In an age where sports heros are the equivalent of the Greek Pantheon, it seems clear that a greater effort needs to be made at teaching humility in sports. Clarett honestly thought that he was better than everybody, which is nothing new for an athlete, but also thought that because of that he was above the rules. While, I'm not a fan of the theory in sports that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, only that you tried your hardest (it does matter, this is sports - somebody wins and somebody loses and you play to win). In that theory is something important, what matters most is that you try your hardest not your place in history. When the media, family and friends start talking about an athlete as the best ever or comparing him/her to the greats of the sports an entitlement mentality can be developed and that's what happened in this case. The problem for Maurice is that he isn't above the rules or the law and neither is any athlete. At the end of the day athletes are only human and they are all replaceable.

I've always thought that it was great that Michael Jordan was cut from his freshman basketball team, it brought reality to his game and it made him work that much harder to be the best and never get cut again. In the end that is why people will remember MJ for a lot longer than Maurice - MJ worked hard to get to be the best, MC expected it to be given to him.