no mo’ money

now that maurice clarett has been dropped like a rock by the broncos, he leaves training camp with no paycheck, no team, and no prospects.

here’s a kid (and he is still just a kid) who’s been forced to make some major decisions early on in his life… only he’s made all the wrong ones. from accepting “gifts” from boosters, to suing the NFL (which, even if he had won the appeal, would never have made him any friends in the front office) and signing an incentive-only contract worth a fortune on paper, he’s taking risk after risk in the hopes of winning the jackpot. in reality, however, no performance = no money. and that doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon.

still, there’s plenty of teams with mediocre running games. if he were like any of the other hard-working running backs in the league, his chances of making a team would still be pretty good. no-names and high-round draft picks have been known to shine where first-rounders have been major busts.

but by all accounts, clarett is not the team player he claimed to be:

Clarett, who was described as a loner by some of his former Ohio State teammates before the draft, also withdrew from the Broncos. Several veteran players, including running back Ron Dayne, running backs coach Bobby Turner and other team officials, tried to reach out to him with little success.

was it the pressure getting to him? the fans around here are notorious for having little patience for failure – one misstep and they’ll turn on you in an instant. clarett is no stranger to this, and if he’d hadn’t been heckled to death in every paper and radio show in ohio for the last 2 years, things may have turned out differently.