Maurice Clarett -- Biggest Waste of Talent

I'm still not certain of Musing Chick's identity, but it's important that we figure out who we're dealing with here. A NASCAR proponent who needed nine tries and two fake screen names to send me her comments that are in the entry below. Initially, I thought it was Dave's girlfriend Kristin, but it's now clear that she's someone with an agenda far more sinister.

So Amy, I tell you this -- Maurice Clarett is indeed the biggest waste of talent in the history of professional sports. Though he never played one professional down, he, like Len Bias, had the potential to be dominant at the highest level. The world was his rooster.

Why a bigger waste than Bias or Mike Tyson? Because Tyson already had fulfilled a lot of his potential concurrent with his legal troubles. He was a champ before doing jail time. He enjoyed moderate success after his time behind bars. Certainly his behavior the last decade has been freakish, but only after he was on top of the boxing world for nearly just as long.

And though Bias also was a superstar with nothing but sunny skies ahead, it took him a little while to develop. Not unlike Michael Jordan, Bias certainly was highly touted before coming into the ACC, but I don't think either entered that league with nearly as much hype as Clarett did before his first game at Ohio State. And Bias definitely didn't command the national spotlight in his freshman year.

You might remember, Clarett actually was in the Heisman race until the season's midpoint when he started missing chunks of games and even sat out a full game or two -- if memory recalls -- because he was banged up. Even still, he rushed for 1,200 yards and just under 20 touchdowns.

It didn't hurt that his friends on the other side of the ball shut down four other guys who were Heisman candidates until they squared up against the OSU D. Carson Palmer was the wise choice that year, but had Clarett played a full season, he might have pulled off a most unprecedented feat as a freshman.

Had the troubled Ohioan steered clear of trouble, the Buckeyes could have contended for a repeat title the following season and just for the sake of conversation, he certainly would have been enough of a difference-maker to turn the tables in OSU's two losses last year, in what would have been his senior season, though he obviously had no intention of staying in Columbus that long.

But now, all he'll be remembered for is his dead-on impression of Lawrence Phillips.