Maurice Clarett, who three years ago this week led Ohio State’s football team to the national title, was sought yesterday by the police in Columbus, Ohio, as a suspect in an armed robbery.
A police spokesman, Michael Woods, said that felony warrants were issued for Clarett’s arrest. The police have filed two counts of aggravated robbery related to an incident in an alley behind the Columbus nightclub Opium Lounge at 1:45 a.m. yesterday.
According to a police report, the club’s owner, Tashona Corvi, identified Clarett as the person who displayed a .45-caliber handgun by raising his shirt and then took a black cellphone from a couple who were behind the club.
According to the police report, the victims said Clarett “was drunk and might be sick.”
The police report said that after Clarett allegedly took the cellphone, Corvi went outside and Clarett “hugged her and began dragging her down the alley toward the vehicle he fled in.”
Clarett was said to have left with two others in a white sport utility vehicle.
“We don’t know where he is right now,” Woods said. “He doesn’t have a Columbus address. As with any warrant, especially a felony warrant, officers are out looking for him.”
Clarett, 22, was considered one of the most talented players in college football when he was a freshman running back at Ohio State. But after he scored the game-winning touchdown in the 2002 national title game, the Fiesta Bowl against Miami, his career sputtered.
He was suspended for the 2003 season at Ohio State because of a variety of off-the-field problems, left the university and, in an effort to gain a quick entry into the National Football League, went to court in an unsuccessful attempt to invalidate league rules requiring that players wait until three years after high school to be eligible for the draft.
The Denver Broncos drafted him last April in the third round, then let him go in the first round of cuts, a rare move for such a high pick. Broncos Coach Mike Shanahan called the pick a mistake.
Clarett’s agent, Steve Feldman, said in a telephone interview last night that Clarett had planned to sign with an N.F.L. team today, anticipating an assignment to play in N.F.L. Europe next summer. Feldman, who said he had not talked to Clarett since the incident yesterday morning, declined to name the N.F.L. team.
Feldman said that Clarett had been working out in Los Angeles but recently returned to Columbus. He said that Clarett was in good financial standing.
“The situation is not beneficial,” Feldman said. “The allegation is not beneficial.”
Feldman acknowledged that Clarett already faced a long road to return to the N.F.L. because of his off-the-field issues.
“But, it was a road he had the physical ability to travel,” Feldman said. “Once again, at this point it was a question more of his personality than his ability. We were hoping and still hope we could send him to Europe and he could show he’d fit in socially and physically.”
Clarett has not played in a game since that national title game in January 2003.
But he made headlines when he accused Ohio State and its boosters of arranging for him to receive cars, passing grades and money. None of the accusations were proved.
“His behavior has never been criminal,” Feldman said. “He’s made some foolish decisions and opened his mouth when he shouldn’t have and stood up when it was wiser to let it go. But his behavior has never been criminal.”
Clarett was, however, charged with misdemeanor falsification in 2003 in connection with filing a police report claiming that more than $10,000 in items and cash had been stolen from a car he had borrowed from a local dealer. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
Ohio State is now in Tempe, Ariz., preparing to play Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl tonight. Tempe was where Clarett reached the high point of his athletic career as he scored the winning touchdown in the second overtime when Ohio State stunned Miami, 31-24, for the national title. If Clarett had stayed at Ohio State, he would have been a senior this season.
“I don’t know what happened; I feel bad about it,” the Buckeyes senior free safety Nate Salley said in a telephone interview. “It’s a sad situation.”
Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel, who had a rocky relationship with Clarett, was in contact with him many times over the past few weeks as Clarett tried to get a job in N.F.L. Europe.
“Obviously, my reaction to that is it’s sad because, as I said the last few times people have brought up the subject, my hope would be that he would have an opportunity to go over to N.F.L. Europe and make a comeback,” Tressel said. “I hope it’s not true.”
Thom McDaniels, who coached Clarett at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren, Ohio, said, “I just hope it’s a case of mistaken identity.” Clarett’s mother, Michelle, reached by phone, declined to comment.
Source; New York Times
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