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08/28/2006: "The Fallen Just Keep Falling"

Note: This recovered entry was originally posted on August 8th ...

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You remember Maurice Clarett - the hero running back from Ohio State's championship team a couple of years back? The 2002 Fiesta Bowl was his high water mark in life, and he's been in free fall ever since. He tried - unsuccessfully - to sue his way into the NFL Draft after he was tossed out of school, and flamed out as a pick of the Denver Broncos (his most memorable moment in the NFL? Getting busted for drinking in the Broncos' workout room). He's been in and out of trouble with the law ever since and, apparently, is in trouble again.

Early this morning, Clarett was once again arrested in Columbus Ohio, this time after a police chase in which he was tazed and maced. Once a spike strip was used to convince him to stop, police found him wearing a bulletproof vest and having four loaded weapons in his SUV - a rifle and three handguns.

We don't have any idea why he had them or what, if anything, he was going to do with them," Woods said. Police don't know where Clarett got the guns or where he was headed or coming from in the SUV. Federal authorities plan to trace the guns' ownership.

A half-full bottle of vodka was found in the SUV, but no breath test was administered because police had no indication that Clarett was intoxicated, Woods said.

Clarett, 22, is currently awaiting trial on two counts of aggravated robbery, four counts of robbery and one count of carrying a concealed weapon in a separate case. Authorities said he was identified by witnesses as the person who flashed a gun and robbed two people of a cell phone in an alley behind the Opium Lounge in Columbus in the early hours of Jan. 1.

My take? This guy is obviously a trainwreck. Assuming he finds a way to dodge this, he'll find another wall to run in down the road - and another - and another - until he finally goes all the way over the edge (remember Laurence Phillips?)

Frankly, it's amazing we don't see more stories like this one. Professional sports and their illegitimate child - college sports - hold out hope and offer the brass ring to anyone they think might help them win. Often, that means taking someone who is totally unprepared from a mental or maturity standpoint and placing them in a high-pressure high-dollar cruicible. Under that intense spotlight, many shine but some crack - and when they do, all the people pulling the strings do is cluck their tongues, wring their hands and talk about what a tragedy it all is.

The real tragedy is that they don't - and won't - take a close look at what they can do to keep it from happening again ... and again.