Reggie Bush's Return to USC Is Nice but He Still Needs His Heisman Trophy Back: Unchecked
USC is expected to end its disassociation with Reggie Bush after ten years following the expiration of an NCAA mandate. Personally, I think they’re lucky he didn’t decide to hit them with the Heisman. The pose, not the trophy he gave back.
Think about the word disassociation for a second. How terrible does that sound in the context of where we are with college athletics right now? And for what? I had to go back and look it up. Was Bush and his family receiving extra benefits enough to warrant shaming him and attempting to erase possibly the most exciting college football player ever and his team from history?
It’s not like sports fans don’t still recognize his award and the championship the Trojans won. Nobody cares about what happened after. Well, other than Bush and the potential athletes it cost scholarships.
Here’s what Reggie had to say recently to The Athletic, "It was a horrible feeling, one of the worst feelings in the world, it felt like I died when I had to hear that there weren't gonna be scholarships for kids because of me or because of something connected to me." He added, "I'm still not over that. It's just something you learn to live with."
He’s been living with it for a decade, so, while his return to USC makes for a nice story, he’d have every right to juke their offer, as the NCAA punishment was a joke. And as far as I'm concerned, this matter won’t be fully addressed until Reggie Bush gets his Heisman back.
Give that man his trophy.
