Jeremiah Masoli is back in hot water. The former star quarterback for the Oregon Ducks has been kicked off the football team by head coach Chip Kelly. This coming after multiple charges were filed against Masoli on Monday night after a traffic stop for failing to stop at a sidewalk or driveway led to possession of marijuana and driving with a suspended license.
Masoli had already been suspended from the team for the entire 2010 season after he had pleaded guilty to a burglary charge from a January 2010 incident. Now the team has said that Masoli has been dismissed from the team for “for a failure to adhere to obligations previously outlined by head football coach Chip Kelly.”
Masoli, who once had a bright future ahead of him, will now have to come to the realization that football as a career is almost over. His teammate LaGarette Blount made a mistake, took his punishment like a man and returned to the team. He even got drafted into the NFL in this year’s draft, despite his poor judgment. The point I’m making is that when you make a mistake, you take the punishment and keep yourself out of trouble. Why on earth would you get behind the wheel, save for an emergency, when your license is suspended? Furthermore, why would you get into a car while having drugs when you know you are a high profile person?
Jeremiah meet Maurice, Maurice meet Jeremiah.
These two athletes have no one on this planet to blame for their downfalls except for themselves. Both had an enormous amount of talent but lacked the proper amount of prowess between the ears. Hopefully Masoli can straighten his path before it gets the best of him. Clarett is the living embodiment of how things in your life can spiral out of control if you do not get a grasp and get on the straight and narrow.
Clarett, Ohio’s favorite athlete to hate, was similarly suspended for the 2003 season after he made the stupid decision to accept a car from a local dealership, then make false claims of stolen property from said car in the amount of $10,000. Hello insurance fraud. Clarett did not cooperate with investigators but eventually plead guilty to a lesser charge of failure to aid a law enforcement official. After learning that he would not be playing football for a year, he tried, along with Mike Williams from USC, to challenge the NFL’s rule of being 3 years removed from High School in order to enter the draft. The result was not in their favor and they were barred from the 2004 NFL Draft. Unfortunately they had both taken on agents before learning they had lost the battle. Therefore the NCAA revoked their eligibility to return to their respective schools to play football.
Mo was never the same after that. He did get drafted in 2005 with the last pick in the 3rd round to the Denver
Broncos, but after signing one of the biggest bonehead contracts (READ: Incentive based) in recent memory and his lack of discipline and plethora of disrespect, he was cut in August without even having played a preseason game or making much money. Things continued to spiral downward for him after that. In 2006, An aggravated robbery charge followed by a carrying of a concealed weapon without a permit charge. He got the latter charge after being pulled over and found to have an AK-47, a Katana and a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka in his car. Clarett was sentenced to 7 and a half years in jail. He was released to a halfway house in April of this year.
The good news is that Masoli is only 21 years old and with hard work and dedication for the next year, he has the opportunity to train for the NFL Combine. If he can get himself into football shape, assuming he is out of it at this time, he has a shot of at least being signed as a free agent if not getting picked up in the later rounds. If he can keep focused and stay away from the “friends” he has surrounded himself with in Oregon, I think the kid still has a shot at making something of himself.
Take heed, Jeremiah.
