That means there was hopefully nothing wrong with your clutch, karl, though it won't be happy about slipping a lot and getting glazed. The reel should not touch the bedknife (or only touch it with approximately the force of butterfly wings). I suspect what may have happened here is the reel has been adjusted to contact the bedknife fairly solidly (naughty, naughty) and then the mower has been out of service for a while and the reel blades and bedknife have both developed a coating of rust, which has jammed it up fairly severely. I suggest you oil the bedknife then rotate the reel just a few turns by hand, wearing a glove, to see if it frees up. Chances are it won't, and you'll have to adjust the clearance, which is something of a black art, so it is worth at least checking to see if it will come free.
