The question isn’t any more whether Maurice Clarett is right or wrong in wanting to move immediately to the NFL. That’s already been decided by a judge, and his lawyer said Wednesday that Clarett is going into the draft. It is the wisdom of such a move that is the real issue.

I don’t know how smart Clarett is. I suspect he’s sharper than aged Cheddar, because people who take on the system have to have imagination and creativity and the courage of conviction.

What I do know is that he’s not terribly wise, but he is impetuous, headstrong, greedy, egocentric, and self-indulgent. He also believes he can – and should – make his own rules.

These are not qualities I look for in a football player, particularly after watching the Patriots win the Super Bowl without a superstar running back, without many superstars of any ilk, but with a lot of team players willing to subvert their personalities to the needs of something bigger than themselves – the team.

So far, Clarett has given no indication that anything or person is more important to him than Maurice Clarett. He enrolled in college but didn’t go to class. He accepted use of a car that was probably against NCAA rules. He filed a false crime report about that car. When called on all of this by the university, which gave him a chance to return to the team, Clarett quit, as if Ohio State were to blame for his troubles. Most recently, reports have surfaced that he was hanging out with a gambler while at Ohio State.

When the NFL said it would not allow him into the draft, Clarett sued, which is his right. It’s no surprise that a judge ruled in his favor; the courts already had ruled that regulations other leagues had preventing 18-year-olds from playing were an illegal restraint of trade.

Clarett going pro Clarett to enter draft after judge refuses to suspend appeal Celizic: RB making huge mistake by going pro NFL would probe Clarett's relationship with gambler, report says Clarett still most prove himself to NFL scouts, coaches Borges: Bottom line is why NFL wanted Clarett to stay Johnston: Ruling won't hurt college football

So now Clarett has his wish. He is entering the NFL draft. He can indulge his desire to be instantly rich, just like his buddy LeBron James.

Except Clarett will never be rich like James. Football doesn’t allow it. It’s far more likely that he’ll be out of the game in five years than that he’ll ever be a megastar in a game that rewards people who try to help their teams rather than themselves.

Where is Lawrence Phillips these days, anyway? He was a great running back who thought he’d make his own rules, too. Today, he can’t get a job. For that matter, where is Keyshawn Johnson? Yes, he’s made a lot of money. But his own team didn’t want him. His next contract won’t be nearly as good as the one he blew up behind him.

It is possible that someone will take Clarett with a high first-round draft pick. But it would foolish for anyone to do so. If running backs won championships, Ricky Williams or Priest Holmes or Ahman Green or LaDainian Tomlinson would be celebrating his Super Bowl win today and Eric Dickerson, O.J. Simpson, and Barry Sanders would have more rings than Barnum and Bailey and Antowain Smith would have none instead of the two he’s collected in the past two years.

If Clarett had stayed in college at least three years and maybe won a Heisman, he would have gone in the top half of the first round, because teams are still enamored of running backs. That would have been wise, because a very nice bonus comes with being picked high along with a pretty good starting salary.

Now, Clarett is unlikely to go nearly as high. He played only one year and got hurt in that season. He has shown he doesn’t like to listen to those in authority and is self-indulgent. Football teams don’t need guys like him, particularly when they’re not sure if he’s really a great player.

And the lower Clarett goes in the draft, the less bonus and the less money he makes. And the less money he counts against the cap, the easier it is to cut him if he’s a pain in the elbow to work with.

It’s not like going from high school to the NBA or Major League Baseball. Those sports assume young athletes need time to grow, and they grant it to them. Both also give guaranteed contracts.

The NFL gives you time if you’re a quarterback. Otherwise, you had better develop quickly, because there isn’t money for anyone who takes a lot of time to develop. And once you’re cut, the contract you signed that looked so long and lucrative suddenly doesn’t exist anymore because it wasn’t a long-term deal, it was a series of one-year deals.

Had Clarett played by the rules, he would be one more season away from a whole lot of money. Now, he’s one year away from the end of his career.

So, with his entire life laid out before him, Clarett has chosen to take the riskiest possible path into that future. What was all but certain when he stepped on the Ohio State campus two summers ago has become a crap shoot. And Clarett isn’t playing the game with house money; he’s playing with his life.