Even for a dummy like me it seems like just yesterday that Maurice Clarett was leading the Ohio State Buckeyes to the college football national championship. Nearly five years later just the mention of Maurice Clarett will immediately bring a bad taste to even the most-loyal Buckeye fan.

The Clarett saga is about as sad as any in recent memory (even if my memory IS artificial). You see, Maurice never played another snap at Ohio State after his glorious, freshman year. He dropped out of school and later lost an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to allow him early entrance into the NFL. Criminal behavior followed until there appeared to be a silver lining. Clarett was drafted, rather surprisingly, a year ago by the Denver Broncos. However, three years out of football left him out of shape and cut before the season began. Thus, more criminal behavior followed. It all culminated in a late night police chase a month ago in which he had to be physically subdued by officers.

Today Maurice enters a new phase of life - prison. His guilty plea today guarantees that he will be behind bars for at least three and a half years.

I guess the trappings of fame and fortune are not as difficult for a literal dummy like myself. Other than those (cough - sellout!) crash test dummies from the commercials, we're pretty much a fade-into-the-background people. Unless my blog ever blows up into Oprah-ific proportions, I probably won't have to deal with the watchful eye of the paparazzi.

Every dummy has his day though. It's how much you let that day of fame go to your head that matters in the long run. Maurice's day has obviously come and gone. Now he's famous more for his fall, than his rise.

As far as this dummy is concerned, someone please intervene if you think that I'm about to strap on a bulletproof vest and plow through a police roadblock. A dummy is only as smart as the friends around him.