I don't get why people think Clarett's a headcase.
Going all the way back to the original ESPN Mag article about him leaving school early, all he said was that it's hard not to look at the $100 million contract that McNabb had just signed and not want some of it. Quite frankly, I can't disagree with that. He never said he planned on leaving early, it just got spun that way because of his honest answer to a question.
In the more recent article where he aired out some of the Buckeyes' dirty laundry, he may have been a little naive in terms of the feedback he expected to get. However, even the AD admitted that there was probably some truth in what he said. So if you believe what he said that he lied to protect the program, then he was misguided, but at least showed some integrity in trying to take the heat for the team. If you don't believe that he lied to protect the team and was just looking out for himself, I ask what you think there was to gain from it? The groundwork was already there for him to challenge to leave early anyway.
All he did was take some cash and get some free rental cars. It's not like he was beating his girlfriend or selling drugs. Granted, I don't look lightly on academic fraud or falsifying police reports. However, I don't think there are many people, NFL'ers or not, who want all of the mistakes they made as 18 and 19 year old kids documented on ESPN for eternity. The kid was an absolute stud as a true freshman in the Big 10. He can play ball. Is he guilty of listening to some bad advice? Yes. I don't see what any of this has to do with his ability to carry the rock for the Cardinals and, like Skkorp, I doubt he'll last past the second round and I'd be glad to see the Cards pick him up there.
