First, former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett is arrested for carrying a concealed weapon after leading police on a highway chase where he crossed the median on Interstate 70 before blowing out his tires on a spike strip.
Now, the prospective starting tight end of this year’s OSU football team, junior Marcel Frost, is suspended by coach Jim Tressel for the upcoming season for violating team rules.
You might think we are headed down a similar road, but not so fast. No, I do not think anyone thinks Frost is going to turn into another Clarett, but the latest news out of OSU has to be unnerving.
Can’t Tressel and company keep themselves out of the negative headlines?
Well believe it or not, Frost’s year-long suspension is a sign of change in the OSU football heirarchy – change that was precipitated by Clarett three years ago when his transgressions began.
While we do not know what team rule Frost broke, it is a good sign to see Tressel flexing his muscle over his team as they head into this season.
I doubt Clarett would have been suspended for violating team rules his freshman year in 2002. Things were quieter back then. Whether it was leniancy shown by Tressel or covering up by the department of athletics, negative news hardly came from the football team.
That all changed when rumors surfaced in 2003 about Clarett and others receiving “preferential treatment” in academic classes. Then Clarett filed a police report claiming items in excess of $10,000 were stolen from his 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, which Clarett happened to be borrowing from a dealership. The NCAA and school investigations began and things changed.
Now the OSU football team and the rest of the department of athletics are quick to act when players and coaches commit violations.
We saw it first in June of 2004 when basketball coach Jim O’Brien was fired for loaning Yugoslavian player Aleksandar Radojevic $6,000.
Was the firing unjustified? Not to me, but last week the Ohio Court of Claims ruled OSU must pay the former coach $2.2 million for the firing. Yeah, it is a lot of money, but the firing was the right thing to do for the department of athletics to clean up its image.
Now, heading into one of the most exciting football seasons in recent years, Tressel suspends a player, a prospective starter in fact, for violating team rules.
Good move. It is impossible to keep all OSU programs free of all problems, be it academic, legal or both, but the key is to make athletes responsible for their actions. I can only hope that similiar moves will be made in the future, even if its costs OSU some games in the standings.
Kevin Bruffy Kevin Bruffy is the Lantern sports editor. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
