Claiborne Says Hold the Phone

He has talked to Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne on the telephone and made the front page of the Riverside Press-Enterprise. He has allegedly spoken with coaches at USC, and, all in all, made life difficult for one of the country’s best high school football players.

He is the phantom. The charlatan. The impostor.

But he is not Chris Claiborne.

Claiborne, a linebacker and running back from John W. North High in Riverside, is a Parade All-American, the Cal-Hi state player of the year and winner of The Times’ Glenn Davis award as Southern California’s best high school football player. He will attend Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Notre Dame or USC next fall.

But while the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Claiborne prepares to make a life decision, a persistent impersonator has stolen some of the pleasure of the recruiting process as the Feb. 7 national signing day approaches.

“Who is he?” Claiborne, 17, asked. “I wish I knew.”

A week ago Friday, the impostor called Nebraska and said he was interested, even though the real Claiborne had told the school a month ago that he was not. The impostor also left a phone number.

Nebraska assistant George Darlington returned the call, leaving a message on the answering machine of Pat Duffy, a linebacker at Hemet High.

The impostor had left Duffy’s number as Claiborne’s.

Duffy, a 6-2 senior, received some letters from Nebraska but was not being recruited by the school. He returned the call, believing the Cornhuskers were interested again, only to find Darlington wondering why he wasn’t Claiborne.

Duffy thought that was the end of the problem, but on Monday he answered his phone and heard:

“Hello, this is Coach Tom Osborne. Is Chris there?”

“The guy had gotten through and said he was Chris and left my number for Coach Osborne,” Duffy said. “I just told him that this was Pat Duffy, and he remembered me from a camp I attended at Nebraska this summer. We talked for a while, and he apologized. He said nothing like this had ever happened to him before.”

Said Darlington: “We never assume anything and so it is our policy to follow it up because you never know. I have never had this happen before and would like to find out who it is just to see what’s in his head. It’s probably just some wacko who gets his jollies impersonating someone else.”

Duffy, it appears, was not a random selection by the impostor. The individual called the San Diego Union-Tribune Friday, saying he was Duffy and had committed to San Diego State.

Duffy is being recruited by several schools--none of which he would name for fear the impostor would call them--but he is not being recruited by the Aztecs.

“The paper called my coach to confirm [that he had committed to San Diego State], and he told them it was absolutely not true,” Duffy said. “This is all very difficult, and I am concerned now that he is going to call one of the schools that is recruiting me.”

The Press-Enterprise ran a story on the front page of its sports section Tuesday saying Claiborne had committed to USC.

“It’s Tailback U. and I want to be a part of that tradition,” the fake Claiborne was quoted as saying.

Although Claiborne rushed for 1,923 yards and 30 touchdowns in leading North to the Southern Section Division IV title, he was an All-American at linebacker and wants to play that position in college.

“I don’t know why anyone would think I would want to play running back,” Claiborne said after he and North Coach Mark Paredes had spoken with the Press-Enterprise and asked for a correction. “I can’t believe they would print that without checking it.”

USC would neither confirm nor deny that an impostor had gotten through to its recruiters, but one coach said, “People posing as recruits was never a problem before.”

The impostor may have also spoken with coaches at Colorado and Texas.

Duffy and Claiborne say they have no idea who the charlatan is, but Duffy said it is someone who knows their careers and the recruiting process well.

“He got through to coaches and I guess he knew what to say,” Duffy said.

Said Claiborne: “I don’t think it is anyone that knows me personally, but people believe what he is saying enough to think it’s me.”

That was the defense of the Press-Enterprise, which ran a correction on the front page of the sports section Wednesday.

“Our reporter [David Bradvica] has covered seven or eight North games this year and has spoken to Chris a number of times,” said John Garrett, the paper’s sports editor. “He says the person on the phone was able to disguise his voice enough to sound enough like Chris and also knew him well enough to imitate his inflection and manner of speech.”

Wednesday, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune mentioned in a story that Claiborne had committed to USC.

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The stories caused a flurry of calls to Paredes, who spent Wednesday calming recruiters who believed they were out of the running for Claiborne.

“This whole thing is just very disappointing because it is taking away from the kid’s experience,” Paredes said. “I think Chris has a good outlook on it all, because he knows it is something he can’t control. But it only dampens the enjoyment of being recruited by schools.”

It had been, before the charlatan began his work, an enjoyable courting season for Claiborne.

He has enjoyed listening to all the theories on where he will go and why. He likes that he and the FedEx man are on a first-name basis, and he says it’s fun that students, coaches and even the man at the local burrito place ask where he will play next year.

He speaks daily with North counselors Andrew Ragus and William Anderson about what he is going through. But even that is tough, since Ragus is a Notre Dame fan and Anderson roots for USC.

Everyone has an opinion.

“I’m not letting it bother me. I want to enjoy this,” Claiborne said. “I have been waiting for this since I was playing in the Turkey Bowl.”

The Turkey Bowl?

“In my old neighborhood, my friends and I would get together on Thanksgiving and play tackle football in the street. I was just a short, fat kid, so I would play fullback. I would pretend I was Jerome Bettis and that all the schools were watching me.”

They are watching now. And waiting. And, of course, mailing. His living room looks like a high school career center. And Friday--trash day--is now more of a chore.

“It seems like there are more bags and they are heavier now,” Claiborne said.

He gets daily calls from recruiting publications, and CNN and ESPN have called, but no one has been able to pry the answer from Claiborne , who says there isn’t one yet.

The walls of his room are covered with posters, but they are of Mariah Carey and others who are much kinder to a young man’s eyes than, say, John Robinson or Lou Holtz.

“Everybody wants the scoop,” said Claiborne, who has a 2.8 grade-point average and scored 850 on the Scholastic Assessment Test.

“But I’m not giving it.”

Without hints, there is only speculation.

“I like listening to all the stuff people say,” Claiborne said. “It’s fun because I know the truth.”

He indulges this much:

While he tells most who ask that all five schools are in the running, he has narrowed the list to three. He has visited four schools and is at Notre Dame this weekend.

In a few days he will narrow the list to two schools. On Feb. 7, he will make his final choice public.

“When I finally make up my mind, believe me, everybody is going to know,” he said. “They will hear it from me.”