maurice clarett...what happened?

In case you missed it, Maurice Clarett (former star running back for the Ohio State Buckeyes) has been arrested yet again. Apparently early this morning he performed an illegal u-turn in his SUV and Columbus police began persuing him...and he ran! After stopping him and getting into a wrestling match with him, the police attempted to taser him--ineffectively...because he was wearing a bullet-proof vest! Not only that, but when they searched his vehicle, they found, get this:

• A loaded assault rifle
• Three loaded handguns
• A hatchet
• A bottle of vodka

They ended up having to mace him before it was all over.

Clarett is already awaiting trial on two counts of aggravated robbery, four counts of robbery and one count of carrying a concealed weapon in a separate case.

Here's a guy who could have had it all...so to speak. Star player on a national championship team...could have won a Heisman trophy, another national title, been a 1st round NFL draft pick and made millions...if he'd have just kept his nose clean.

But this guy keeps making one bad decision after another. And he doesn't seem to be learning. His decision making keeps getting worse and worse.

Here's my take on the whole thing: I think it's a situation where Clarett feels a sense of entitlement...meaning that he's entitled to a plush lifestyle where everything is handed to him on a platter. He was tracking that way and then he screwed up as a freshman and has just kept digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole.And the sad thing is that he seems to blame everybody but himself. In his mind, he's a victim...and the NCAA, the NFL, or whoever, robbed him of all the "stuff" he was entitled to. And then he looks at his buddy LeBron James--a guy who it's all worked out for (talk about polar opposite career/life paths)--and he can't believe his misfortune...and so in his mind, he has a right to get it back...by whatever means possible. In his mind, he's not wrong, because he's been wronged to begin with. And all along the way he keeps getting bad advice and he keeps getting himself in more trouble and it just exacerbates the whole thing.It's sad. And everytime he gets in trouble, I'm thinking, well maybe this will be his wakeup call...and then there's just more of the same later on. He needs help and I don't know what it'll take to convince himself of that.

My buddy Kevin and I were talking about how, in life, there's always this fine line we seem to be walking where we're just one, seeminly small, bad choice away from disaster. Sometimes it could be merely seconds away from things turning out differently and were in not for the grace of God, my life could be on a trajectory similar to Clarett's. I look back at some dumb decisions I've made and I think, if that would have gone that way instead of this way...missing disaster by only inches or seconds...who knows where I'd be.

It's easy for us to look at a guy like Clarett and think: idiot. Loser. And assume he's so incredibly unlike us. But is he really? What about your life? I'd bet you can look back on bone-headed things you've done and think...Wow! I was headed for disaster!

Stuff like this is like a wake-up call for me. There's a fine line between what could be and what will be. We've got to guard our hearts!