Taking Responsibility
by J. Daniel Janzen

For anyone who hasn't seen a sports page or a "SportsCenter" in the last few weeks, Ohio State halfback Maurice Clarett is suing the National Football League. His case is the football equivalent of Spencer Haywood's 1970 lawsuit against the National Basketball Association, which opened that league's doors to kids fresh out of high school, maturity and development be damned.

Clarett was a rising star at Ohio State until a series of unseemly disclosures clouded his eligibility. In addition to cheating regularly with the help of team tutors, it seems he walked out of class halfway through an exam, then passed anyway thanks to a specially contrived oral exam. Some would say the NCAA's academic requirements are a farce, a relic of some Gipper-era myth of the student athlete. The same people might say the shameless plantation system run by universities and TV networks justifies the $1,500 or more in petty funds that Clarett pocketed from a booster. He's hardly Chris Webber.

But what about when a car dealer lent him a car, and then the car was stolen, and Clarett told the police that it had been packed to the headliner with thousands of dollars worth of stuff, the provenance of which he couldn't discuss, much of which turned out to be made-up? You can say one thing: This guy seems like a natural for the NFL.

At any rate, Clarett is through with the NCAA. He was suspended for the year by Ohio State, Nixon-like, more for the cover-up than the crime. He's suing them, too, for having the temerity to tattle on his poor behavior.

The premise of Clarett's lawsuit against the NFL is that, given that he's ineligible for the NCAA, the pro league holds a monopoly on the market for his labor, and so is liable to Sherman Anti-trust Act enforcement. A guy's got to be allowed to earn his living, right? Especially given the injustice of his circumstances. In the words of his crusading attorney Alan Milstein, "The bottom line is that Maurice doesn't have the opportunities that most other college players do because of the actions of Ohio State."

See? I'll bet you thought it was because of the actions of Maurice Clarett, all those NCAA bylaws and Ohio state law-laws he broke. Nope. All the university's fault. Clarett is far from alone in his studied abdication of personal responsibility. Surely no one has yet managed to forget about Jayson Blair, try as we might. That was all Howell Raines's fault, and the fault of the Gray Lady herself. It was a black thing the rest of us, including Howell Raines, wouldn't understand.

It's not only gifted young African American whiners who dodge accountability. Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., also the state's former governor and one of its most respected citizens, was driving his Cadillac at 71 mph in a 55 mph zone when ran a stop sign and killed motorcyclist Randy Scott. Charged with second-degree manslaughter, reckless driving, speeding and running a stop sign, Janklow has pleaded not guilty on all counts. He told investigators that, although he had seen the stop sign, he was going too fast to stop. Oh, well in that case.

The shirking responsibility problem goes all the way to the top. Remember last spring, when everyone was so sure there were all these weapons of mass destruction lurking out there in the Forbidden Zone of remotest Iraq? Remember when we just couldn't wait for the inspectors to finish their work, come up with a plan for afterwards or take the time to build a credible coalition, all because it was so urgent?

Having shrugged off the United Nations, NATO and international law, we proceeded to botch the job. Vital civic, cultural and infrastructural assets were left unguarded and subsequently looted to ruins. With no preparations for restoring and maintaining order after the fact, we let Iraq slide into anarchy as our own servicemen, doing a job they were never trained for, became sitting ducks for retaliation (not to mention the countless Iraqi casualties during and after the war). Now out tens of billions of dollars already with no end in sight, we've finally turned for help to the same countries we scorned just a few months back, and on the floor of the UN General Assembly, no less.

You'd think we might begin by accepting responsibility for the hubris and bullheadedness that created this mess. After all, we spent much of the spring and summer insulting both the national dignity and the intelligence of much of the world community. But no; it's still strictly our way or the highway. All the angels and light are on our side, and if you've got a problem with our policies, you're just as bad as the rest of those Allah-lovers. One has to wonder what Bush the dad, former UN ambassador, thinks of his son's obvious contempt for that body.

The story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree may have been apocryphal, but his wee-voiced confession, "I cannot tell a lie," has been held up to children as an exemplar of all-American virtue for centuries. If only more adults could find such integrity and accountability within themselves.

Imagine how nice it would be to hear these words:

Maurice Clarett: "Neither the fact that everybody does it, nor the blatant exploitation of young athletes by the NCAA, is any excuse for my behavior. Now that my lapses in judgment have cost me my collegiate career, I can only humbly request to begin my professional career and this time, I promise to play by the rules."

Jayson Blair: "You guys got me dead to rights. I was in over my head, and once I started fudging facts the whole thing just snowballed. To demonstrate the genuine regret and shame that I feel, I pledge the rest of my journalistic career to upholding the editorial standards of the Times, even if only from the outside."

Rep. Janklow: "I'm not a bad person, but I've done a terrible thing. No amount of apologizing can bring Randy Scott back; I'm fully prepared to pay my debt to society. I throw myself on the mercy of the court."

President Bush "You know, we were just so sure about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and his links to Al Qaeda, and we were still pretty hot after Sept. 11. On reflection, I wish we'd handled things differently. We can't change the past, but we can sure change the future. Security Council, Old Europe, Arab League I'm all ears. Let's work together to make this right."

It's hard to say you're sorry, to take responsibility for the consequences of your actions. It puts you at the mercy of your judges, like a plea bargain, and we know the attorney general frowns on those. But a little contrition can go a long way toward repairing damaged relationships. Kobe Bryant bought his wife that $4 million ring, and now it's like none of that business at the Colorado spa ever happened, except for the sexual assault trial. And America's apology for slavery — who could forget the impact that had on race relations in this country and around the world?

We did apologize for slavery, didn't we?