How do you know he's stupid....BTW...he took college courses as a senior in high school so he could practice with the team over the summer and spring. BTW...say hi to trent lott for me will ya!
TEMPE, Ariz. -- One day after Maurice Clarett sent fear throughout the Buckeye Nation by saying something other than "Miami's a fine team'' at a Fiesta Bowl interview session, the human distraction was back at work yesterday.
The national news media beat a path to the Ohio State running back's doorstep and peppered him with more questions during team interview day. As you would expect, Clarett didn't disappoint.
By again saying what's on his mind about OSU's role in keeping him from returning home for a murdered friend's funeral, Clarett gave OSU fans a convenient scapegoat for a Buckeyes loss Friday night.
So before we get into today's entertaining he-said, she-said scenario, allow me to make a couple of important statements:
Clarett may indeed be the human distraction, but he is also the team's best player and its best chance to beat No. 1 Miami. And, contrary to what a lot of worrywarts think, whatever happens Friday will have absolutely nothing to do with Clarett's two-day verbal barrage against OSU athletic department officials.
Maybe you'd rather have your star running back brood quietly about a perceived injustice, but I would rather have him get it out of his system before he takes the field in the biggest OSU football game in more than 30 years.
With that said, we defer to Clarett and the media horde:
Was your comment blown out of proportion?
"I don't think it was. I think people just take it the way they want to take it.''
Is this the wrong place to speak on an issue like this?
"You can speak about anything anytime you want to. It doesn't make it any more important that it's a national championship game or whatever.''
OSU officials say you could have gone home if only you had filed the proper paperwork. Do you want to take back your criticism?
"They didn't tell you that I filed all the paperwork already before I left. Go ask Heather Lyke (Catalano, OSU's associate athletics director for compliance services) about that. I filled out the paperwork. So they can't lie about that. I won't sit here and let them lie about that. It's on file.''
But they said . . .
"Ask them. They didn't talk to me. I talked to the coach, and he pointed me in the direction of the compliance lady (Catalano), and the compliance lady said she'd get back to me in my room. But she never called me back in my room, and she never called me back on my cellphone, so that's the real reason I was mad. She told me she was going to call me back, and she never did.
"Of course, they're going to make themselves look better than me. They make me look like I'm stupid.''
Man, I can hear the groans all the way from Ohio, and with them, the echoes of the inevitable criticism: This takes away the players' focus. It hurts concentration. It will hurt the team.
Sorry. I don't believe it, and neither do Clarett's teammates.
"One comment by one person isn't going to distract 105 people, plus coaches,'' linebacker Matt Wilhelm said.
But the sentiment many OSU fans are expressing is clear: With all the American rights that have been trampled because of security concerns since 9/11, couldn't the president have suspended our freedom of speech long enough to get the Buckeyes through Friday's game?
"As a leader, head coach and management-type person,'' OSU coach Jim Tressel said, "while we want things to be orderly and exactly as we like them, let me steal from a guy named Dozier and say life is more tragic than orderly. I guess we'd all like things to be exactly like we want them, but that's not the way it is.
"I know this: Every one of us understands that if Maurice Clarett weren't on our team, we probably wouldn't be here. Now, it's the same thing with Craig Krenzel and Chris Gamble and Tim Anderson and Kenny Peterson.''
None of whom, by the way, seemed the least bit distracted by Clarett's outburst.
A few minutes earlier, Miami's outspoken center, Brett Romberg, was talking about someday having his "own underwear line,'' how much he likes the "wildlife'' of Miami and how teammate "Chris Myers' girlfriend is the butt of every joke.''
Is he a distraction for the Hurricanes?
"Yeah, I guess I am,'' Romberg said.
I didn't hear any groans from Miami.
Bob Hunter is sports columnist for The Dispatch.