Ex-Ohio State QB & Con-Man Could Be Headed Back To Prison This Week
Former Ohio State QB Art Schlichter could be sentenced to prison as early as Friday.
The 62-year-old is set to go before a judge later this week after he was arrested last summer on cocaine charges, and could face 8-14 years in jail.
Schlichter was found unresponsive last June in a Ohio Hampton Inn with a substance they say turned out to be cocaine.
Police said they were initially responding to a possible overdose when they found a passed out Schlichter, who has dealt with addiction issues in the past (and that's putting it mildly).
The former Buckeye has written about them in his book, and also reportedly suffers from Parkinson's disease and dementia.
Schlichter has been out of prison for less than a year after spending more than a decade behind bars on federal fraud charges.
Former Ohio State QB Art Schlichter faces cocaine charges. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images)
Art Schlichter was great at Ohio State, NFL career cut short due to gambling problems
An Ohio native, Schlichter started all four years for the Buckeyes from 1978-81, and was the last starting QB for legendary coach Woody Hayes.
His best season came as a sophomore, when he led OSU to an undefeated season only to lose to USC in the Rose Bowl.
Schlichter finished his Ohio State career with over 7,500 yards and 50 passing touchdowns, adding over 1,300 yards and 35 more scores on the ground.
He was drafted fourth overall by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1982 NFL Draft, but his career was cut short due to a massive gambling addiction that led to legal trouble for the better part of five decades.
The scheme that led to Art’s latest prison stay resulted from a ticket fraud scheme where the former Ohio State quarterback promised to deliver college football and NFL tickets to clients.
Art Schlichter / Ohio Department of Corrections
This included big-money Super Bowl tickets. Shockingly, he didn’t deliver the goods even though he’d been paid.
That fraud resulted in an 11-year federal sentence and 10 years in an Ohio prison. Multiple reports from inside the prison said Art was still having women on the outside place sports bets for him.
Prison officials also said he was running a Super Bowl ticket scam on the inside.
As if all that wasn't enough, upon being sentenced to prison back in 2012 on the fraud charges, an exam revealed significant brain damage to Schlichter’s frontal lobes due to suffering supposedly 15 concussions throughout his playing career.
What a life.