Jimmy Clausen Finally Pays For Being an Insufferable Jerk

From the moment he arrived at Notre Dame, we detested this punk. No, wait, check that.... from the moment he arrived at the College Football Hall of Fame in a limousine (presumably thinking it was like his prom), flashing high school championship rings (exactly four years to the day before he didn't get selected in the first round last night), and announcing he was going to Notre Dame, we loathed this douche.

We get accused of being too negative sometimes. We get accused of hating and not representing Purdue fans well. However, most of you, we think, come here at least partly because you like the sarcastic, sharp-tongued nastiness we sometimes espouse. And this is one of those examples where, I think you'll see the record reflects, we were right....again.

Jimmy Clausen was projected to be a star. He was going to be perfect for Chuck Weis' system, since it would basically be like playing in the NFL but against college teams. And then Jimmy barely survived his freshman year and the Domers went 3-9.

"But just wait until we get some guys for Jimmy to play with!" we kept hearing. Then you'll all be sorry. And then Jimmy went on to have two .500 seasons, following one with a bowl win over a less-than-mediocre Hawaii team, to run UND's record in the JC era (that's Jimmy Clausen, not the other JC, though I'm sure Jimmy sees them as similar) to 16-21. Wow. Impressive.

Jimmy, on one of his last weekends as a college football player, then managed to get his lights punched out in a restaurant/bar in South Bend. Of course, the story is that he was jumped by hoodlums (or an "irate fan"), because, as I'm sure we can all agree, this guy is just too damn sweet to have said or done anything obnoxious that might have precipitated someone wanting to spin his head around.

On his way out of office, Emperor Weis advised Jimmy Heisman and Golden Tate to declare for the draft. You know the cliches...they were "ready" and had "nothing more to accomplish." Nothing more than, you know, having a season with fewer than six losses. Or a regular season over .500. Or a win against USC.

Jimmy-boy then went and sat down with Jon Gruden for Gruden's Draft Camp routine, where Gruden -- I guess -- gives the kids advice and they watch some film, etc. From what I understand, the exchanges in this video (and some that aren't included in the clip I was able to find) were definitely talked about at the draft. Namely, the part where Pickles blames pretty much everyone else besides himself when things go wrong. Gruden clearly doesn't like what he's hearing in that regard and is doing his best to warn Clausen that isn't going to fly with the adults. Of course, Jimmy yes-es the Super Bowl winning coach and doesn't maintain eye contact -- dismissive, much? And where do you think Jimmy learned how to throw teammates under the bus?

Why, the master himself, Chuck Weis. The guy who loved to hear himself drone on and on during press conferences, saying things about certain guys didn't do this or that and then saying, "but it's on me." You know, the most disingenuous douche out there.

The point of all this rambling? Well, it's just that character has become a bigger deal to NFL teams over the years. And while being an insufferable a-hole to people gets guys like Clausen through high school and even through a place like ND, it does not work as well at the NFL level. This morning on the radio, I heard that at least two teams had Clausen rated higher than Sam Bradford (as per Peter King) but that Bradford's character is unquestioned, while Clausen's is a concern. Huh, interesting. Sounds like another UND QB who's always been a douche.

As reader Gregg Z sums up:

"Neither Jimmy 'Avatar' Clausen nor Golden Tate were picked in the first round, despite being ahem, "encouraged" by Weis to declare for the draft. Certain Domer faithful see this as Charlie's scorched Earth policy, robbing Kelly of key talent on his way out in hopes of burnishing his own image as an offensive mastermind. But whatever.

The Germans have a word for it-- schadenfreude-- satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune. Not that Clausen or Tate aren't going to be multimillionaires in the next 2 days, but these guys seemed to believe (or were told by their barely-competent fired coach) they were First-round material. Like Nelson from The Simpsons says: Ha ha!"

Indeed. These guys could have come back to UND and played under a new coach who loves to throw the ball and, really, aside from injury risk, what would be the harm? Finishing out of the bowls again? Big deal. Maybe one of them would actually have wound up being a first-round pick.

Regardless, Jimmy Clausen is now considered a character risk, which is something we knew a long, long time ago.