When Jim Brown first appointed himself as the spokesperson for Maurice Clarett and his family, I remember wondering why so many football fans in Ohio grimaced and groaned. Now I’m beginning to understand why.
“I think Mr. Geiger wants to start a revolution. He’s acting like a slave-master,” Brown said Thursday night. “If Andy Geiger wants to act like God, than this ball game is over.”
I’m pretty sure that all Slave-Master Geiger (OSU’s Athletic Director) wants is for your “client” to stop changing his story so that Ohio State can finally propose a fair punishment for him to the NCAA. Slave-Master Geiger didn’t make Maurice accept that 2001 Monte Carlo packed full of goodies. Slave-Master Geiger didn’t make him lie to the police when said goodies were stolen. Slave-Master Geiger didn’t make him lie to the NCAA when they understandably asked why Maurice had so many goodies to steal. And Slave-Master Geiger hasn’t made Maurice change his story several times since.
Geiger, one of the most respected ADs in college sports, is merely trying to run the largest college athletic department in the United States in accordance with the NCAA’s very strict regulations. He is certainly in a position of authority over Maurice Clarett, and that position certainly requires Geiger to ask some questions and propose some penalties. But that doesn’t mean that Geiger either thinks or is acting like he is God or an antebellum slave master. For one thing, he’s entirely too much of a nerd to pull that off.
It’s interesting that Jim Brown, of all people, would go so quickly to the race card. Brown certainly did see enough real racism in the 1960s and in his admirable gang-related work since. You’d think that he’d be fairly careful about playing the race card now, but whatever. I wonder if Brown thinks that any of this is Maurice Clarett’s fault.
By the way, Brown’s assertion — made yesterday — that Ohio State is making Maurice Clarett a scapegoat to protect others is particularly laughable. Maurice is too intelligent, well-spoken, self-assertive, and high-profile to be a decent scapegoat candidate. Besides, what else does Ohio State have to hide? No other Buckeyes were caught with free cars, and the academic fraud charge was an apparent dead end.
So why is anybody even listening to this paranoid, washed-up crackpot? Because the public is genuinely interested in this case, Jim Brown is talking, and Andy Geiger and Ohio State aren’t saying crap. That much is Geiger’s fault. Say something already. What did the NCAA accuse Clarett of? Does Ohio State agree with all of those accusations? I mean, defend yourself and your university, dammit. You were just called a slave-master, fer chrissakes.
And, of course, the scariest part of all of this is that now Clarett seems to want to challenge the NFL’s early entry rule. This threatens the entire college football landscape as we know it. Clarett’s past actions embarrass me as an Ohio State alumnus. Clarett’s proposed actions terrify me as a Ohio State fan, a Pitt fan, and a college football fan in general.
Hail to Slave-Master Harris’s Suspending Rutherford
