How Sad

Ok, so I'm a Buckeye fan. Anyone who has ever even heard of this blog should be aware of that by now. Truth is, I have a passion for OSU football that rivals most any other in my life. Perhaps that is why I am so deeply saddened by how Maurice Clarett has thrown his life down the tube. Or maybe it's something more.

Clarett threw his life away the moment his head got too big to fit in his helmet. Arrogance fueled his greed, and driven by greed he made one bad decision after another. He got mixed with the wrong crowd, got in over his head, and out of desperation he was driven to a life of crime. Sad indeed. Most people who see him in the news fall into the same mold: They see his life as a such a waste of football talent, and they call him names for being such a "thug." Then he is simply dismissed and left to be yet another sad statistic of today's troubled urban youth.

Me? Yeah, I fit into that category...at least, to an extent. Yes, it is a terrible waste of football talent. I mean, the kid would've won the stinking Heisman as a Sophomore and would now be raking in millions of dollars in the NFL if he had played just one more year! And yes, I think he's a thug. He clearly has a criminal mind, and I am all about people reaping the consequences for their actions. Truly, the death penalty should be considered for people who kill. And certainly, President Mahmoud Ahmadallynaggadinajadashush in Iran needs to be hung upside down by his toenails and have his head stuck in burlap sack full of slithering pythons. And yes, Maurice Clarett should go to jail.

But I am not prepared to dismiss him. Many people, whether or not they are OSU fans, talk about him with such disgust and contempt. They think he's worthless and should rot away behind bars. I simply feel sorry for him, not at the expense of justice, but because he is a snapshot of what a life bent on fame and fortune ultimately becomes. Whether or not those determined to have the things of the world end up in a literal prison is not the point, because in one way another they somehow become imprisoned by their obsession for wealth and glory. For those who have chosen this path for their lives, I offer these wise words of the old Crusader, "You have chosen.....poorly." How tragic.

So try to think twice from now on before you treat Maurice Clarett with such disgust. The criminal needs to pay for the crime, but that doesn't mean that he has any less value as a human being, or that he could never truly be reformed.

Maurice, I haven't given up on you.