Maurice Clarett says learning to read in prison changed his life “I couldn't read real well, comprehend, do anything prior to playing football. I'm never going to be able to play football again. I'm thinking, ‘I got seven and a half years. I'm 22. I'll be 30.’ So I was like, ‘Man, I'm going to go ahead and just start to educate myself.’” “When dudes would send me $40, $50, $60, I would take this stuff and I was like, ‘Man, I'm going to just start learning how to read, become interested in something, and just become good.’” “The next thing I know, the same passion that I have for football and film study… I was like, ‘I can read, and I like reading, and I enjoy reading, and I enjoy comprehending.’ I enjoy having a better vocabulary or communicating to different people. That's what really happened.” “Reading changed my life like nothing else. Reading and self-education was what really changed. That just kind of set me on a different path. What I thought was possible, or who I see myself as…”