Heisman hypocrisy has Reggie Bush on the hot seat
OPINION - If the Heisman Trust went after every winner that took money or violated NCAA rules under the table, there would be a lot of missing portraits...
If the reports are true and former University of Southern California star Reggie Bush has to return his 2005 Heisman Trophy to the Heisman Trophy Trust, it will be yet another episode in the hypocrisy that is modern college football.
That’s because while it’s true that Bush took improperly “lavish” gifts from a sports marketing firm according to the NCAA, gifts that included a luxury apartment for his parents, USC looked the other way as all of this was going on…and is keeping the money it made from Bush’s efforts.
USC has covered its own rear end by sending its copy of Bush’s Heisman back to New York and wiping out any references to Bush’s accomplishments from the USC campus as well as its record books. But if the school’s new president C.L. Max Nikias and new athletic director Pat Haden really want to be seen as crusading angels cleaning up the misdeeds of the previous regime, they should actually return the millions of dollars they made off of Bush’s exploits on the field, the money they made from sales of his Number 5 jerseys, the bowl money, TV money, and ticket sales he helped then garner and the money they got by having his image on E.A. Sports Video Games like NCAA 07.
WATCH MSNBC COVERAGE OF REGGIE BUSH AND THE HEISMAN:
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But there’s as much chance of USC giving back all of that money as there is of my joining the Trojans starting backfield next year. Considering the fact that I’m a 48-year-old sportswriter, I don’t see that happening.
And since that isn’t going to happen, let’s stop pretending that this is anything other than a shameless scam to give the public the false illusion that honesty in athletics is the reason for these moves.
In fact, I believe that “integrity in college athletics” is the ultimate in oxymoron. Integrity left the building a long time ago. In its effort to make Bush a non-person in the lore of Trojan football, it is instead making itself look like the ultimate pimp.
As long as Bush was scoring the touchdowns, compiling the yardage, winning the national championships, and giving the school constant television exposure, the athletic department at USC was raking in the money and had little regard for such “trivial issues” as compliance or that its star running back was taking money from sports agents. USC won games and national championships and so who cared if a few rules were broken? The Men From Troy made everyone feel good.
And like their counterparts in Major League Baseball who made billions in revenue during the so-called “Steroid Era” but threw those players who used steroids under the bus once steroids use was discovered, USC has basically cast Bush out of the Trojan family now that the pile of dirty laundry that they ignored while it was being made has made him no longer useful.
Here’s something else to consider, if the NCAA had never investigated Bush’s indiscretions and put USC under intense scrutiny, would the powers that be in the athletic department or the university administration done its own investigation of Bush? I’m guessing no.
Bush was the proverbial over-aged prostitute who gets tossed out of the history of USC’s vast college football tradition. In street parlance, he was thrown out like a five-dollar ho’. But I don’t feel sorry for Bush because he knew the rules of the game and he’s definitely not the first Heisman winner to take a few bucks or benefits under table. He allowed himself to be pimped, but those who pimped him will still pocket the money they made from him. That’s the real crime in all this drama.
And what about former USC head coach Pete Carroll, who conveniently took a job as the Seattle Seahawks’ new head coach in the midst of the NCAA investigation? Shouldn’t he have been aware of what was going on? If they’re going to return Bush’s Heisman Trophy, they ought to tell Carroll to give back the money he made off the running back’s ability to catch the ball out of the backfield.
But if the Heisman Trust orders Bush to return his trophy (and as of right now they claim to have made no decision one way of the other), it will probably have to look at returning the trophies of a number of former Heisman winners. The 1978 winner of the Heisman Trophy—Billy Sims was once quoted as saying that the NFL was a pay-cut compared to what he got in college during his years at Oklahoma.
Supposedly, former winners like John David Crow, Paul Hornung, and George Rogers allegedly took money while they were college players.
If the Heisman Trust went after every winner that took money or violated NCAA rules under the table, there would be a lot of missing portraits and there would be a lot of dusty trophies in some storage room at the Downtown Athletic Club in lower Manhattan. Should Bush have to return his hardware, why not do a thorough investigation of the last 75 years to see what rules previous winners broke during the years they won the Heisman Trophy?
The real issue in the return of Bush’s 2005 Heisman Trophy, whether you are talking about USC’s new administration or the Heisman Trust, has nothing to do with restoring the honor and integrity in college athletics and everything to do with saving face.
Bush will probably wind up being the scapegoat here and will be forced to return his Heisman Trophy, something that O.J. Simpson, a fellow USC alum who was found “not guilty” of killing two people, didn’t have to do, to foster the illusion that integrity is being restored to collegiate athletics.
But because USC and its administrators are still counting the money from the Bush era, what they’re actually saying is, “So long, suckers!”
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