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Art Schlichter - Quarterback - 1988 - Ohio State
By-CFL-H
Art
Schlichter finished fourth, sixth and fifth in the
Heisman
balloting in three years at Ohio State.
excerpt associated press -
globe & mail Nov 28, 1988
His release from the Ottawa Rough
Riders came on Oct. 11, one day after he ended a 30-day stay on
the reserve list because of a rib injury he sustained in one of
the five games he started for the team.
For the year, he completed 41
passes in 89 attempts for 658 yards and three touchdowns, but
had seven passes intercepted.
''What led up to the release was
the fact he was not very productive,'' Rough Rider coach Bob
Weber told The Dispatch.
''In fact, he was very
unproductive.'' But Schlichter said a personality conflict
developed when, 10 days into his rehabilitation, Weber
criticized him for not practicing. He said Weber might have been
trying to rush him into the lineup
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Art Schlichter |
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Ohio St |
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Passing |
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Rushing |
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Yr |
Team |
Att |
Cmp |
Yds |
Pct. |
TD |
Int |
Lg |
C |
Yds |
Avg |
Lg |
TD |
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1988 |
Ott |
89 |
41 |
658 |
46.1 |
3 |
7 |
64 |
19 |
172 |
9.1 |
24 |
0 |
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Total |
1 |
89 |
41 |
658 |
46.1 |
3 |
7 |
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19 |
172 |
9.1 |
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0 |
because the team was playing
poorly.
Ottawa finished with a 2-16 record,
worst in the CFL this year.
''I've played hurt about as much as
anybody during the course of my career,''said Schlichter, who
set most of Ohio State's passing records between 1978-81 and
played for the Baltimore and Indianapolis Colts in the NFL.
''You can put me down for a lot of
things, but it bothers me when someone puts me puts me down for
my toughness.'' Schlichter and Weber differ on the nature of the
injury. Schlichter said torn cartilage under his rib cage caused
pain so severe he had trouble breathing and sleeping on his
back. Weber said the area was very deeply bruised but there was
no physical damage.
Rumors that Schlichter had been
gambling again circulated at the time of his release, but Weber
said he heard nothing along that line and Schlichter said it
''as never mentioned and it didn't happen.'' Such rumors ''re
going to be wherever I go,''Schlichter said. ''ut nobody ever
brought evidence to me that anything happened.'' Weber said, ''e
don't question him as a person at all. We really had high hopes
for Art. But from a coaching standpoint, how far can you go
waiting for the talent to come back?''
Gambling's big
losers in the sporting world, Don Campbell, CanWest News Service, Friday,
February 10, 2006
Who would have bet a one-time can't-miss No.
4 overall National Football League draft pick would, almost 25 years
later, be in a Ohio prison cell, serving a 15-year sentence, with a debt
in the millions that can never be repaid, while many of his college
football contemporaries are finding their way to the Pro Football Hall of
Fame.
Maybe only Art Schlichter himself, the
onetime Ottawa Rough Riders quarterback who left Ottawa almost as fast as
he arrived in the 1980s, leaving behind a trail of bounced cheques.
All the result of a gambling obsession that
ruined his life and his family, making him sport's most pathological
gambler - well, at least until Pete Rose.
Schlichter,
now in his mid-40s, had everything going for him when Sports Illustrated
flashed the Ohio State Buckeye quarterback on its cover in 1979. He
was a home-state hero, Ohio-born, a golden-boy pivot with good looks and a
rifle arm.
Three years later, the
Baltimore Colts made him the fourth pick overall in the 1982 draft and the
sky seemed the limit.
Instead, the gambling
problem he managed to keep secret through college would rob him of his
entire $350,000 signing bonus and send him on a downhill spiral that would
see him spend every year of his life since either in prison, or on the run
from authorities or bookies.
Schlichter stole from
everyone from his parents to his in-laws, to even fans of a call-in show
he once ran - all in the hopes of hitting the big one. And if he did win a
bet, he merely tried again. And if he lost, he tried to go bigger.
Schlichter was suspended in 1983, then
re-instated in 1984, but his obsession continued. After the Colts cut
Schlichter in 1985, he played a few seasons of arena football and finally
finished his career in the CFL with Ottawa in 1988.
Art Schlichter's 1988
Ottawa Rough Riders Professional football contract paid the former Ohio
State all american $100,000 to play in the Canadian Football League during
the 1988 CFL season. Art also got a $10,000 signing bonus.
That same year, he
filed for bankruptcy, claiming to be more than $1 million U.S. in debt.
And he is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence, one of 10
convictions against him since 1995.
His troubles led former
wife, Mitzi Schlichter to co-found a national research, diagnostic and
gambling treatment centre in Indiana, and she often speaks on the turmoil
Schlichter caused them.
She tells people her
ex-husband sold whatever the family had of value - cars, furniture, even
her wedding ring - to get money to gamble.
Among the pros, Schlichter
is hardly alone, though his fall may be the most pitiful:
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