217 Maurice Clarett has taken over our news

Columbus, Ohio is a football crazy town--or rather Buckeye crazy. So the Maurice Clarett story has even pushed Janet Jackson's breast off the local news radar. I have no opinions one way or the other since I don't follow sports, but Easterblogg for Feb. 6 has some good things to say:

Judges don't order airlines to allow 19-year-olds at the controls, even though age and experience rules clearly place restraints on the bargaining power of 19-year-old aspiring pilots. But then--judges fly on planes, so they don't want them to crash. Federal judge Shira Scheindlin, who yesterday ordered the NFL draft open to anyone regardless of age, knows that if the NFL crashes that won't affect her.

He continues with an explanation of how the quality of play in the NBA has fallen since it began admitting teen-agers, kids who won't listen to coaches and don't know the fundamentals. NFL will appeal, of course. Greg goes on to describe the Maurice we've all come to know here in Columbus.

As for Maurice Clarett himself--if you were an NFL coach, would you draft this jerk? He hasn't played in more than a year. He's a me-first head-case who spends all his time demanding special privileges; now he's surrounded by a retinue of assorted hucksters demanding that they be paid off; at Ohio State they wanted him to leave because Clarett's selfishness had such a corrosive effect on team chemistry. Now, lots of kids fresh from high school are me-first and immature, and gradually grow out of it.

Sure, Greg, but usually Mama can keep them in line. Poor Maurice seems to have a mom who is part of the problem.