From arrogant to “humble” and chubby to lean, Maurice Clarett knocked on the NFL door more politely Thursday as the first player ever to go through the predraft scouting combine twice.
“It’s a humbling thing being humble,” Clarett said. “I got a second chance to make a first impression.”
Clarett tried to barge his way into the pros a year ago and won a court case only to be blocked on appeal, leaving him no choice but to conform.
Although he hasn’t been chased on a football field for two years, Clarett demonstrated deft broken field running by professing a 180-degree change of lifestyle.
He even blew kisses at Ohio State, the school he recently accused of improprieties after leading it to the 2002 national championship as a freshman running back and getting suspended as a sophomore for breaking NCAA rules.
“I love Ohio State. I’ve been a Buckeye, I’m going to continue to be a Buckeye and continue to support ’em,” he said.
Clarett refused to address his charges in a magazine article that Ohio State provided improper academic help and phantom jobs. After athletic director Andy Geiger invited investigation, he resigned, lending credence to Clarett.
Clarett credited his lawyer, David Kenner, for “helping me mature as a man.”
“I had to take a look at myself from outside myself,” Clarett said. “Sometimes I kind of looked like a joke to myself. I did do some things I shouldn’t have done.”
Clarett wouldn’t elaborate, except to say he had been reading articles about himself.
“I made mistakes obvious to everybody in this room and I paid for them,” he said.
Although he said challenging the NFL wasn’t one of the mistakes, he said he will try to convince teams in interviews this week “how I’ve toned myself down a whole lot.”
The question now is whether Clarett’s workout Saturday in Indianapolis will cause teams to answer his knock and reconsider him among the top backs in a very good crop for the April 23-24 draft.
On most early lists, he is a forgotten man, projected as a late-round gamble, not among the top dozen running back prospects. But he promised to do “every single one” of the drills here and even volunteered for special teams, adding, “I think I am” as good as anybody else.
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While the Bears and other teams that have a need at running back with a high pick cannot afford to gamble, Clarett was too good as an 18-year-old freshman and remains too intriguing for a good team not to give him a chance, especially if he lasts past Round 2.
A team like the Philadelphia Eagles, for example, will know gambles can pay big dividends. The Eagles got to the Super Bowl after adding controversial receiver Terrell Owens and will remind themselves of how the New England Patriots obtained disgruntled running back Corey Dillon from the Cincinnati Bengals for a second-round pick last off-season.
When Clarett challenged the NFL eligibility rule last year and then refused to work out at the scouting combine, Buffalo Bills general manager Tom Donahoe spoke for many by calling it “a farce.”
A court reversal slammed the door in the face of Clarett and Southern California receiver Mike Williams the week of last year’s draft, upholding the league’s rule that a player isn’t eligible until three years after his high school class graduates.
“I really didn’t expect that to come,” Clarett said.
On Thursday, Donahoe said he wished Clarett well but also was speaking for other teams who have moved on when he said, “You probably should ask somebody who might have an interest in him.”
Donahoe’s Bills have no interest solely because two years ago Donahoe made Miami’s Willis McGahee a surprise late first-round pick while he still was rehabbing from a knee injury that would cost him his rookie season. McGahee was injured in the 2002 national championship game in which Clarett starred.
Clarett said teams will discover “a more positive person, a greater work ethic, more determined.” He said he weighed 234 pounds and “never” has been in better condition. He was 237 last year but was out of shape.
“He has gone from a fuzzy bear to an Adonis,” said Gil Brandt, former Dallas Cowboys’ personnel chief who helps run the combine.
Clarett said he felt sorry Williams “got caught into my web” and tried to follow him prematurely into the league.
Williams missed only one season and remains projected to be a first-round pick.
“One year out, there’s a better feel for him,” Bills coach Mike Mularkey said. “Plus, the non-football issues help him more than they do Maurice.”
Said Clarett: “I don’t know who makes the rankings. [When] you step on that field, it doesn’t matter where you were drafted, you can be Tom Brady for example, Priest Holmes, Kurt Warner, you can go on and on. It doesn’t matter where you were drafted. That matters financially. But when it comes to playing on that field, you can ask anybody I’ve ever played against, I don’t joke around. I handle my business.”
Mike Nolan, new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, has the first pick in the draft. If Clarett had stayed in school and progressed normally, he might have been a candidate to be the first pick for a team with the 30th rushing offense. Not now.
“He’s a very interesting player because he’s a very good player, he has a lot of skills, a lot of upside,” Nolan said. “But there are also some issues. People have to decide how much does that weighs in our decision in taking that player.”
Nolan also shed light on the interview process, which never is a good substitute for playing the game.
“A lot of them have been schooled on how to answer,” Nolan said. “They know what the questions are going to be and they have the answers, so sometimes it’s difficult to find out actually if you’re getting the truth all the time.”