Amidst an orgy of media overreporting and unconcealed glee over Maurice Clarett's NFL combine performance, ESPN The Magazine, the outfit that always wants to give Clarett one more benefit of the doubt, has the inside story of why he ran a fullback-like 40 yard dash time on Saturday. He had lifted weights, he had bulked up, he was weakened by last-minute weight loss, he was stressed out, he was nervous, blah, blah..
It was a little more difficult for the ever-credulous magazine to come up with an excuse for Clarett quitting and refusing to complete the combine drills after the bad 40 times. Reports from coaches and scouts had them far more concerned about this recurring character flaw than they were about the slow 40's.
The press does give undue weight to Clarett's every move. There were some other players at the combine, yes? (We Buckeye bloggers on the other hand, are expected to report on MoC's antics, out of spite if nothing else.) I've been sensing a kind of league-wide NFL vendetta against Clarett that had me wondering the other day if it might even extend to some slow stopwatch fingers at the combines, so surprising were the 40 times. But that's just nuts, right? OK, right.
I still think that Clarett has 1st round talent. Some coach will decide that he can reach this kid and tap into that talent, and take a flyer on him. At some point along the way, that coach will probably regret having done so, because Clarett isn't likely to stop being a combative, angry, self-centered media hound overnight. But if it's a good match, he will become a productive NFL back
Posted by dan at February 28, 2005 10:24 PM