A few thoughts on one of my favorite topics…Maurice Clarett.

Now, I know that in football sanctuaries worldwide, this week is one of the most sacred weeks of the off season, following shortly the actual Draft Weekend. (of course, all of you baseball fans know that it is a DISTANT 28th behind March 1st when Pitchers and Catchers report, but still, some of us don’t like baseball that much.)

Recently, people have asked me where I think Maurice Clarett, formerly of (THE) Ohio State (University), should go in the draft. With him finally having run the 40 for a combine that he’s DEFINITELY able to get drafted in (Editor’s Note: last year he was too young for the minimum age requirement to play in the NFL — Age 20 or 3 years post high school graduation), I feel very confident in saying this:

Maurice Clarett will not be drafted above the 20th pick of the 6th round or the 7th round, if he is drafted at all! (Not really going out on a limb, considering just 2 months ago, I was saying he wouldn’t be drafted above the 7th round at all, but still.)

Now before I begin to lambast him, I will give Maurice Clarett this, he showed up in really good shape. He was able to lift the weight bar (225 pounds) 22 times. He resculped his body in a professional way during the year since last year’s combine. That is really impressive. I’ll give that to him.

So, on what do I base my opinion? Well, beyond a “healthy hunch?” Not much. His 4.82 and 4.79 wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, except that he was beaten out by 3 Offensive Linemen, all of whom are more than 100 pounds heavier than him. And, he had another workout at OSU on March 8th or so (which, actually comes as a shock to OSU Athletic Staff, but that’s not important now. “Mo, did you even ask them?”) before he even went to the Combine, showing how little faith he had in himself for this weekend.

Clarett still shows the same public distrust and contempt that comes with being immature and arrogant without cause. One month ago, he had the chance to play in one of the post-collegiate season (all-star) games (of which there are like 20), and chose not only to pass on the game, but not inform the game planners until the friday before the game itself was scheduled to be played (that saturday!). Now mind you, they invited him, even though they were under no obligation to, nor had he played a game in more than 25 months (since the NCAA title game in 2003), he could have showed just a little bit more class than that.

Does it make sense for him to pass up an opportunity to play in a meaningless game? Well, I’ll grant that he wasn’t COMPLETELY out of his gord. He could have risked major injury, and for someone with fewer than 11 games under his belt (ie - a full season), that is a major chance to take, BUT, no one has seen you play in over 2 years, there, Mo. Why not get out there and show ‘em you still got some game? “Because you’re an idiot?” Yes, that sounds about right.

While we’re talking about other things that Mo hasn’t done, let’s talk about the other Combine drills….

Nope, I can’t, because he didn’t do them either. Had he performed well at the drills, his time could have been written off — its not as if he was much of a burner before anyway — but, he decided not to do them after his second run. Now, he’s relying on his performance at OSU as his make-or-break moment? “Uh…hey there, Mo, you sure that’s a good idea?”

I mean, seriously, who is this guy talking to for advice? Is he going to the Lawrence Phillips school of marketing? (”Well, at least I didn’t get arrested for cocaine before the draft”) Supposedly, he got himself one of the best agents and he already had a smart lawyer, but here he is pulling amateur hour at the Combine again.

Its really a surprise to me. Did he not realize how low the bar was for him to hurdle before? It was like all he had to do was show up with 2 arms and 2 legs, and be able to move forward, backward, left and right, and people would have granted him a pass into the 5th round. Instead, he shows up and embarasses himself, again!

I quote William “Bill” S. Preston from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, you’re “so totally screwed, dude!”