An open letter from the Buckeye Nation to Maurice Clarrett.

 

Dear Maurice:

 

You could have been the next Archie, instead you chose to be the next Robert Smith.  Will you be another one-hit wonder, will you make us wonder what might have been, or will you return to win over our hearts and minds once more? 

 

How can potential be such a burden?  How can success spoil the earliest of fruits?

Where did we go wrong?  We named you the first true-freshman starter at tailback in forever and you blasted your teammates’ work habits, before you had played your first game with them.  The TEAM  won. We cheered you and chanted your name.  You sneered tossed your jersey aside and wondered aloud, in a national magazine, why you couldn’t get out of here and get to where you can be paid.  The TEAM  won. You got hurt and we missed you and eagerly awaited your return.  You fumbled and Coach Spence let you stay in the game.  You fumbled again and you screamed at Coach Spence.  You fumbled again and you pouted and cried on the bench. The TEAM  won.

You played and you didn’t play. The TEAM  won.  And The TEAM  won and The TEAM  won.  The TEAM won so much that you found yourself in Tempe, Arizona playing for the National Championship.  A close friend of yours is tragically killed.

Rightly or wrongly the university does not accommodate your very understandable desire to return to Ohio for the friend’s funeral.  You chose to use the Fiesta Bowl media day to blast the university  and call university officials liars for not catering to your wishes.  Your teammates ignored your tirade, said that you were not creating a distraction.  The TEAM  won.

Someone raises a question as to whether or not you received an unfair academic assist and you choose to claim that cheating was rampant.  Your teammates work out in Columbus all summer and you choose to workout elsewhere.  A NFL Hall-of-Famer reaches out to you and your high school coach arranges a meeting and you chose not to attend.

 

You are, without a doubt, one of the most amazingly talented football players we have ever seen.  You are so blessed, why are you so angry?  People here want to help you, cheer for you, block for you.  I am sure you have worked and sacrificed a tremendously to get where you are athletically.  You have coaches who only want to see you improve and countless others who want only to help you.  Why do you turn your back on them?  Who do you listen to?  What fuels your anger and resentment? 

 

We all hope that you get your problems resolved and return to become a teammate to the Buckeye players.  We will welcome you back.  We know you are young, and that you can learn from your mistakes.  We welcome you to recognize that your youth has provided you with many such leaning opportunities.  We hope you re-write the record book and leave Ohio State, in two years, with a Hummer stuffed with money and more hardware than the guys at Ace.  But if you choose to continue your selfish, churlish ways, if you chose to turn your back on those who would help you, if you chose to try to be bigger than the TEAM and your teammates, then do you know what we will say?…… Then we will say…… The TEAM  won.

Good luck Maurice. Choose wisely.

 

The Buckeye Nation