In college he was the big man on campus - everybody knew his name and everybody wanted to be his friend. He led his school to a national championship then turned around the next year and won the Heisman Trophy. He was a first-round draft pick and is now a hero in his pro city. Last year he won a Super Bowl. I've even seen photos of him wearing a Superman cape. Hell, he dated a Kardashian. Reggie Bush has it all... and then some.
At the end of his junior year and heading into his senior season at USC, Reggie Bush made a mistake. He started accepting gifts from an agent named Lloyd Lake. Reggie knew it was wrong. Don't let anyone tell you differently. Lake has sued Reggie saying that Bush and his family did not repay the over $290,000 in gifts that he took over that year and a half. This isn't a few bucks handed out from a booster. Reggie Bush grabbed what he could get with both hands and hoped that nobody noticed or at least that nobody cared.
As it turns out the NCAA DOES care and they've already hit the Trojan football program hard. USC is forced to vacate the last two wins of the '04 season (including their title-winning Orange Bowl victory) and all of their wins from the '05 season which took them back to the brink of another championship. USC has been slapped with four years of probation, loses 30 scholarships over a three-year span and won't be able to play in bowl games this season or next. All of this because the NCAA says that the school should be keeping a closer eye on its players "relationships." That's a slippery and mostly ridiculous slope that I'll save for another time.
As part of the sanctions, USC must "disassociate" itself from Bush. They're taking his name out of their record books and have turned in their copy of his Heisman Trophy. Now reports come out that the Heisman Trophy Trust is considering repossessing their award from Reggie for the first time in their 75-year history.
It's been the subject of a lot of newspaper columns and talk radio time lately. Should Reggie Bush be allowed to keep his Heisman Trophy? In a word: no. The argument is always the same - "What's done is done. He ran for all those yards and scored all those touchdowns. You can't erase that." Sure you can. Ever served on jury duty? Quite often a judge will instruct the jury to "disregard" a piece of evidence. Yes, I know it happened... but because that evidence was gathered illegally, we must pretend that it didn't. The same is true here. Reggie Bush was not eligible to play during the 2005 season - we just didn't know that yet. He was spectacular. I thoroughly enjoyed watching his highlight reel... but it doesn't matter.
The reason you HAVE to take away the Heisman Trophy is because you need to be able to punish these athletes who try and game the system. Who's been punished so far? USC. In a BIG way. You're telling me the brunt of the punishment for a kid who flies off somewhere during a bye week and parties it up on a booster's dime should fall on the school? Dangerous precedent. How can any college be expected to know what their athletes are doing 24 hours a day? And how has Reggie paid for his crime? He's still a top draft pick with millions of dollars, a Super Bowl ring and ok, maybe he's no longer dating a Kardashian, but that's not because he cheated in college. No, the only real way to punish Reggie Bush is to take something that is dear to him and that you have the power to take - something that he won as an individual during a time where every single yard and score in question was disallowed by the NCAA. You have to do this to send a message to dozens like Reggie every year who are tempted by slimy agents. You can't take what you want - there are rules - and if you play by them you'll likely be a millionaire very soon - but if you don't, we're going to make you pay for it both with public scrutiny and with the accolades you garner while playing illegally.
When asked about whether he deserves to keep the award Reggie shrugs and says, "the on-the-field play speaks for itself." It's a better world when that's true. But in this instance, I'm afraid the off-the-field action speaks so much louder... and demands a reply.
