Mind of Maurice Clarett

Be Ready When Recess is Over

Would you go to law school if you only had a 2% chance of practicing law after you graduated? Oh, and you’d be lucky to practice law 3 years, and then you’d need to start over and find a different career. What about med school? Nobody would go to med school with only a 2% chance of practicing medicine for 3 years and then looking for another job. So why would anyone go to college, majoring in what I call Eligibility Studies, when even the NCAA admits there is less than a 2% chance of making the NFL, keeping in mind that the average career length is less than 3 years and is getting shorter.

Charles Rogers Didn’t Have to Die

In the hysteria about weekly updates to college football playoff rankings, the suspension of Chase Young (and James Wiseman), and Tua Tagovailoa injuring his hip, there was another college football story that might have been lost in the shuffle. Charles Rogers, a former first-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions (#2 overall), died last month at 38. After a record-breaking career at Michigan State, he was out of the NFL before his 25th birthday and, after that, the story of being a bust in the draft practically writes itself: weed, booze, “brushes with the law.”

Football Players are Dying

Last week, another former football player, George Atkinson III, took his own life. It was less than one year after his twin brother, Josh Atkinson, committed suicide.

Both brothers played football for Notre Dame and George had spent the last 5 years since leaving ND bouncing from one NFL practice squad to another, perhaps chasing ghosts of his father and namesake, George Atkinson II, an NFL pro-bowler.

Maurice Clarett: Nobody Can Teach You How to Be Famous

Everybody is trying to make sense out of what’s going on lately with Antonio Brown but I think the explanation is pretty simple: nobody teaches guys from the ‘hood how to be famous.

Mental Strength is Physical Strength

When you watch movies with guys in prison, there are always scenes with them lifting weights, getting stronger. They are building their bodies physically.
With me it was a little different: I spent my time in prison building my mind. I was getting stronger mentally.
For two years, I participated in something called an integrated cognitive behavioral change program, Thinking for a Change, and after I completed the program, I was a facilitator for it until I was released.
An integrated cognitive behavioral change program like this is built around taking classes every week and doing reading and reflection every night. The classes taught (1) social skills, (2) cognitive self-change, and (3) problem-solving.

This we know. Trevor Lawrence is NFL-ready.

I knew it even before last night’s game. I have followed Lawrence for the last two years and seen his greatness. But everyone else should have seen it last night. Great leaders impose their will on the outcome of big games. I was rooting for the Buckeyes 100% but was worried throughout because I know Lawrence just doesn’t lose and his teammates know that playing behind him means you don’t lose so they flat-out play to win…So why can’t Lawrence, even after this season’s performance, and last night’s heroics, declare himself eligible for the upcoming NFL draft? Collusion. Antitrust violations. Greed. An archaic rule.