This past year, there’s been talk in the pro football world about some supposed “character concerns” over Iowa Defensive End Adrian Clayborn.
NFL teams are more careful than ever in this era of Roger Goodell’s attempts to legislate morality. However, there are no doubts about Clayborn’s ability on the field. The All-American Honorable Mention had 11.5 sacks last year, and took home the Orange Bowl MVP and National Defensive Performer of the Year Awards.
But a racially-charged incident with an Iowa City cab driver has put his character, and therefore his NFL Draft Stock, into question. After reading this interview/article, all concerns of this sort will be alleviated.
By Paul M. Banks
First off, Clayborn is a three year member of Iowa’s Leadership Council; an honor reserved strictly for high character guys. Also, each Big Ten team is only allotted three players to represent their respective program at Media Days, so each school only brings players they believe will make their school look good.
(This is why Ohio State refused to bring Terrelle Pryor in back-to-back years, despite his status as THE conference player that EVERYONE wants to talk to and about)
Not only was Clayborn selected to represent Iowa; the school handed gave the media notebooks with his image on the cover. And Head Coach Kirk Ferentz often reaffirms that Clayborn is a high quality individual.
So here’s what happened, according to the Gazette Online’s “On Iowa” blog.
Clayborn plead guilty in an assault case this winter. Clayborn was charged with assault causing bodily injury after he allegedly punched a taxicab driver who honked at him in January 2009.
There was more to it than just the honking. Clayborn said Tuesday the incident turned racial and the N-word was used.
“It’s a racial slur and I’m pretty sure I’m going to get it again, being on the stage that I am,” Clayborn said Tuesday. “Now that I know how to handled it, it’s something I learned from. I regret doing it, but I wouldn’t take it back. I think it made me a better person.”
Clayborn is from St. Louis. That was the first time he heard that word used toward him in Iowa.
“It was a shock to me and I never dealt with that situation,” he said. “Now that I’ve dealt with it, it’ll never happen again.”
On the same day Marc Morehouse’s blog was published, a group of reporters (including myself) discussed the same topic with Clayborn. Here’s what Adrian said about holding back his anger.
“I just knew that there are things to do in my career, and I knew that taking that situation to a whole ‘nother level is not smart. There’s things I want to do and places I want to go.”
I followed up by asking point blank: “Is there anything about this situation that you believe is misunderstood by the public, and you’d like to correct it? Is there anything you would want to say right now to possibly set the record straight?”
“I would not rather put it all out there. But there were words exchanged that somebody shouldn’t say,” he responded.
Clayborn (who in this incident, was basically the anti-Patrick Kane) has put that situation behind him, as well as his decision to put the NFL off another year.
“I think I made the right decision. Can’t go back on it now, so why think about it?” He said.
The former Missouri state high school player of the year, who finds himself everybody’s preseason All-American, as well as on the watch lists for the Lott, Lombardi, and Hendricks awards, didn’t even put in the paperwork for the NFL draft last spring. But he did take out the NCAA insurance policy protecting his potential future earnings from the catastrophe of a career ending injury.
Written by Paul M. Banks, President and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru