Former football player Maurice Clarett was granted re-entry into The Ohio State University, following a review by the College of Education and Human Ecology, according to Ohio State Director of Media Relations Jim Lynch.
Clarett originally was enrolled in the College of Education and Human Ecology. Clarett returned to Ohio State to continue his academic career Monday, July 26, for the start of the second half of the university’s summer quarter.
Lynch said he could not discuss further details due to the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act.
Clarett was granted early release from prison Wednesday, April 7, 2010, after serving 3-1/2 years of his 7-1/2-year sentence. “This is a surreal feeling to be back at Ohio State in such a supportive environment. I have looked forward to being back in school, and I’m doing my best to fit in with other students. I don’t want to be a distraction or nuisance to the football team or to students on campus,” Clarett said in a media statement Monday.
Clarett pleaded guilty to two felony offenses Sept. 18, 2006. Those offenses were aggravated robbery with a firearm for the Jan. 1, 2006, robbery of two people in the alley behind the Opium Lounge in downtown Columbus and for carrying a concealed weapon related to his Aug. 9, 2006, arrest after a car chase by the police on the city’s far East Side.
During his parole hearing, Clarett had said he hoped to become involved in geriatrics and gerontology, the comprehensive study of aging and the problems of the aged. In prison, he started a fitness program for inmates older than 50.
Clarett still is living in a Franklin County community-based home, or halfway house, which was a stipulation of his early release. NBC 4 Sports’ Jerod Smalley said Clarett is ineligible and cannot play again for the Buckeyes.
Clarett was drafted by the Denver Broncos but never played a single down.
