Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett made some surprising statements Wednesday.
He blames athletes, rather than coaches and boosters, for the problems facing the Ohio State program.
“I definitely believe it’s more of a cultural problem in regards to just basically young guys, myself, being one of them who comes from the inner city, who comes from a basically impossible situation, who just comes from places where we glorify ignorance, nonsense, and just not being responsible,” Clarett told Dan Partick. “I think when we step to the plate are we going to cite these universities the Ohio State’s, the Penn State’s, Miami, USC, anywhere.”
He added: “I just don’t think that the way guys are raised or the way that we are brought or just the way or the things we glorify or the things that we prioritize they are not conducive to what goes on at universities. Then when you began to bring up just the dynamics of what the NCAA expects of you, the university expects of you, it kind of just doesn’t correlate. I think there has to be a more responsible system put in place to just kind of help guys succeed.”
Clarett was on The Dan Patrick Show, Wednesday, when he said that college football was hypocritical. Clarett questioned the universities making millions of dollars, paying the players nothing and then punishing the players who accept a small amount of cash on the side.
“A lot of them guys, [inner-city] kids come from nothing,” He told Patrick. “Like I said I’m sure when Coach Tressel rolls out to recruit these guys from inner-cities they come from nothing. People don’t realize how much your family, your cousins, aunts, uncles, everybody depends on you and your athletic ability and they say this is the only way you can make out because when they wake up everyday, everyday of their lives, they don’t see anybody who has went to college. They don’t see anybody who’s graduated and went on to have success on a scholastic level, so they don’t believe in it. People only believe in what they see. That’s on any level, so when they come to college and they are using to having nothing and they didn’t. Like I said I’ll have a $100 dollars in Columbus,Ohio, and I told you if you want to stay in a reputable place you are going to pay $750 dollars for your rent. You’re going to pay another $4 dollars a gallon for gas that’s another $100/$150 dollars a month. I said don’t have a girlfriend and don’t just live a normal life and $1100 dollars is not enough, but in Columbus,Ohio, you are treated like a celebrity, so it’s not a Terrelle Pryor problem. It’s not a Jim Tressel problem. It’s just a culture, not of inner-city youth, just a culture of the whole system.”
As a freshman in 2002, Clarett led Ohio State to the national title. He was eventually suspended by the NCAA for accepting improper benefits and attempted to enter the NFL Draft, early. After being drafted one year later, he was cut from the Denver Broncos.
He ended up serving 3½ years in prison for a holdup outside a Columbus bar.
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