I don't get it. In 2003 Jim Brown was all over the place with Maurice Clarett every chance he could get. He's on TV, he's on the steps of courthouses, he's everywhere that theres a microphone.
But...
Now the microphones have gone away, the juice of the story has dried up and all thats left is a poor kid, just 22 years old, hung out to dry by people he trusted.
It would be more tragic if we hadn't seen it before. A young kid, showing otherworldly talent before his 20th birthday, a man-child who captures our imagination for as much what he is and even more what he will become. A dominant force in his sport whose collateral is the riches he is surely guaranteed in the future. His cars, his house, his friends, hell maybe even his wife, all waiting on the payday, all waiting and investing, like the rest of us, for what he will become. And then, like that its gone, and with it, all the trappings of success. But it is not whats gone that is the tragedy, its what is left. A lonely, scared, shell of a man, whose life is over before he has even reached his 30th birthday. Who looks around every corner for the friends, wives, money...he thought he had, just to realize it was built on nothing. All on credit with only what he would do for them as a surety. But now, the pan having flashed, they do not need him anymore.
Ohio State, Jim Brown, The Denver Bronco's, football...
Don King, Robin Givens, boxing...
Maurice Clarett is Mike Tyson.