Watching Youngstown Boys, the prevailing thought I had...

jcdawgman18

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Jul 1, 2008
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while they were talking about Clarett's exit from OSU was how I would react if our AD basically did everything he could to remove our star player from the football team. Bracky-Redmond doesn't have anything on Geiger-Clarett.
 

TBone.sixpack

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Feb 2, 2011
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I didn't finish watching but I felt really bad for Clarett with the way Tressell and Ohio St handled the situation. Changed the guys entire life. He def had his demons but maybe they wouldn't have surfaced as strongly with the proper handling.
 

Thrl595

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Jul 2, 2013
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No, the real problem was when Jim Brown and Jesse Jackson got involved. Glad OSU's AD stuck to his guns and refused to get bullied my two colossal douchebags.
 

esplanade91

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Dec 9, 2010
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Jim Brown is a douchebag? For the record, Jesse Jackson was minimally involved. And the extent that Jim Brown was involved had nothing to do with race. C'mon man. You're stretching.

Andy was the douche.

A guy challenged the 3 year rule and lost, but I respect him for challenging it. He had a lot of valid points. I just wish someone would have told him he had a 3rd choice to go to an FCS school and play immediately instead of spending 2 years hanging out.

The 30 for 30 was spot on about the NFL having a free farm system, even getting some former NCAA execs to admit that most athletes can't even afford basic needs of college students. It's not a perfect system. Nothing gets fixed without a guy losing out.
 
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LilSebastian

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Sep 13, 2012
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No, the real problem was when Jim Brown and Jesse Jackson got involved. Glad OSU's AD stuck to his guns and refused to get bullied my two colossal douchebags.

It isn't "sticking to your guns" when you're throwing a 19 year old under the bus. I don't care if Jim Brown and Jesse Jackson both went and personally beat him, if he were a man he would have been able to separate the Clarett situation from his own ego -- he's a child as far as I'm concerned.
 

TheStateUofMS

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Dec 26, 2009
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No, the real problem was when Jim Brown and Jesse Jackson got involved. Glad OSU's AD stuck to his guns and refused to get bullied my two colossal douchebags.

That's ridiculus. Clarrett was hurting and wanted to go home for a couple days to be at his best friend's funeral, but that would get media attention, and everyone would know Clarrett was bf with a drug dealer, and OSU didn't wanna deal with that. The AD lied to Clarrett, and Clarrett called him out for it. The AD was embarrassed, so basically ruined his career. He made it so he wasn't going to play at OSU again, and Tressell couldn't do anything or it would have been his ***, and he was a brand new coach. The whole thing was so fishy to me when I was watching the next season and never knowing exactly when Clarrett's time table to return to the team was.

The poster who said he should have gone FCS was spot on tho. He had poor advisors obviously. He should have gone FCS, maybe even Youngstown State or JUCO, and then gone to the draft.
 

CEO2044

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May 11, 2009
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I keep missing the start, but I've pretty much seen it all now.

Tressell IMO really let him down. Yeah, the AD's to blame for treating him the way he did, but your coach has to stand up for you. He's sitting there telling you he didn't agree with the punishments but he was too scared to do anything. I get it for your job, but one of the core pieces of coaching is to put your players before yourself. I remember thinking at the time the 1 and done thing was selfish, but you know, I think you let the kid and their parents sign a waiver saying they know what they're getting into with the NFL, and let them have a go at it.

Yeah, Clarrett is responsible for his actions. But it's sad to see someone with a lot of potential have a few bad breaks and take the path he did. I just feel like he felt like he couldn't say anything (Tressell) until Clarrett had already committed freaking felonies. That's pathetic to me. I think the best thing that could have happened to him was getting into the trouble he did later. He's probably a good guy, but he let his boss run him over in spite of things he knew to be wrong.

I don't know. I don't ever want to see a school treat a player like that. For all of his transgressions, Clarrett does seem to be like a genuinely good person now, and it seems he's found himself, and I'm happy for him. I've been a coach, and there's just so much going on sometimes with some of the kids.. it irritates me to see people not treating that job the way it should IMO. You never want to see one of your kids end up in a situation you feel you could have prevented.
 

CEO2044

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May 11, 2009
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Also, I second the "Jim Brown is a clown" when he gets involved with politicking and legal matters. You can't go around comparing present day matters to slavery and expect someone to work with you- every situation I've seen him put his voice behind usually ends up worse for what he says.
 

shoeless joe

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Aug 27, 2009
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At the end clarret made the statement, "show me your friends and I'll show you your future". And I immediately thought back to who his best friend was in college.

The thing is that this sort of thing happens all the time with great athletes, on a much smaller scale. Young kids with no positive male influence repeatedly make bad decisions and it Costa them an opportunity to better themselves. Whether to play pro sports or use sport to get an education. But at the end of the day people have to be accountable for their actions.
 

CEO2044

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May 11, 2009
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At the end clarret made the statement, "show me your friends and I'll show you your future". And I immediately thought back to who his best friend was in college.

The thing is that this sort of thing happens all the time with great athletes, on a much smaller scale. Young kids with no positive male influence repeatedly make bad decisions and it Costa them an opportunity to better themselves. Whether to play pro sports or use sport to get an education. But at the end of the day people have to be accountable for their actions.

It does, which is why I wish coaches took a stronger stance than a lot of them do. They know their influence.

To his credit, he takes full responsibility, and I respect that. What he did was HORRIBLE, and could have ended really tragically- and that's what should scare people- especially the system we have in place. Honestly, I think if they'd just handled it all up front and gave him some normal punishment, he wouldn't have turned out that way.

Like I said, that just makes me mad that people in charge of kids and young adults don't take more responsibility than they do. I've just seen it too much, maybe. Had a guy that I went to HS with- GREAT guy. Likable, hard worker, smart, motivated. Good basketball player. Single mom that worked a few jobs to let him go to Catholic school to keep him away from bad influences. But they were poor and lived in the bad part of town.

Got to JUCO, coach kinda mis-led him about how he wanted to use him, really mis-used him IMO (I was there playing another sport and watched). The coach really wasn't very good and had a lot of problems outside of his job and didn't help his players much. Kid got kinda fed up with it, transferred to another school. Had a baby with his girlfriend. Had to drop out of school because he didn't have a scholarship anymore. Ended up robbing a dollar store (inside job) to help feed his family. Going to school with him, NEVER could have seen that from him- I think he really just got in a bad spot and did something totally stupid with no intent to hurt anyone but take money. We were all shocked.

And really, if his coach in JUCO had only kept him in school long enough to stay on the honor roll, the guy could have had a full ride to the school he transferred to. But he didn't know that. Just makes me mad. And yes, it's ultimately his fault and he shouldn't have done it. But when you're young and life comes at you really fast, some are going to mess up. I just don't think he would have done it had he felt he had any way out- and what's sad is I think a lot of people would have helped him had he asked, but I guess he was either too proud or just felt trapped.

I don't know. I can see Tressell feeling the heat, but you have to be there for him.
 

coach66

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Mar 5, 2009
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Clarate was a freak of nature. He must have

Been doing unbelievable amounts of drugs and alcohol during his layoff. It was hard to believe he could regress that dramatically in such a short period of time.
 

Tin Cup Cowboy

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Sep 14, 2012
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Living in Cincy I was surprised at how many OSU co-workers were shocked at his treatment. Lots of them had never really heard his side of the story.

The most telling thing to me was the retired NCAA guy that said something to the affect that he wasn't shocked by Geiger's willingness to make it personal between him and Clarett.