Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett has at least one believer when it comes to booster payments.

Ex-Buckeyes running back Robert Smith says he thinks Clarett is telling the truth about receiving cash from boosters, ESPN.com reported, but stopped short of implicating the school's coaches or staff of other providing benefits.

"Absolutely I think that (Clarett getting paid by boosters) happened," Smith told the website. "I believe that it's happened. But there's a difference between fans providing it or members of the university. There's a huge distinction. I don't believe members of the university provided for him."

How does Smith know? Because he says teammates talked about similar types of payments when he was at Ohio State from 1990-92.

"I know players who played there who talked about it," he told the website. "It's not the kind of thing that was seen, but I know players I played with that talked about it."

Smith's statement would corroborate with Clarett's statements about the university in an ESPN the Magazine article. In it, Clarett, who helped Ohio State win the national title in 2002 as a freshman, said, "When you'd leave, (the booster) sets you straight," Clarett said. "They say, 'You got any money in your pocket?' They make sure your money's straight."

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Smith, who retired from the NFL's Minnesota Vikings in 2000 and is now a businessman in Florida, said he knew which boosters gave players money, but would not give names.

Smith, who twice led the Buckeyes in rushing before playing nine seasons with the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, says a booster never offered him money. He believes that was because he was a pre-med major who once got into a dispute with a coach over high-level classes Smith took.

"I think that if players are looking for that kind of thing they can find it," he told the website. "You know what I mean? Some more than others. I really think, though, I had the kind of image at Ohio State where I may have been the whistle blower type. So that wasn't shoved in my hand."

Clarett also told the magazine that he would have been ineligible for Ohio State's 2002 national championship season if the football staff had not "aligned" him with academic advisors who simply had to maintain his eligibility by putting him in classes with handpicked teachers and by providing him with tutors who told him what to write for assignments.

Smith, 32, did not see or hear of any of those academic allegations during his time at Ohio State.

"The only thing I ever heard about — I mean I heard easy A's from certain classes just because they were easy classes, and I heard it from regular students as well — but I never heard about people getting tests or anything," he told the website. But, he added, "I'm sure there were some teachers that liked football players."

Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger has denied Clarett's statements that Tressel or his staff provided illegal benefits for Clarett.

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