USC is giving the Reggie Bush Heisman back

[scottspurs]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news;_ylt=ApLaRzQ0FWwp1I6wRGY.LGg5nYcB?slug=ys-bushheisman072010


USC to return Bush’s Heisman
By Charles Robinson and Jason Cole, Yahoo! Sports
1 hour, 28 minutes ago

You can follow Charles Robinson on Twitter at @WindyCityScribe

The University of Southern California will return the Heisman Trophy won by former star tailback Reggie Bush in 2005, incoming university president C.L. Max Nikias announced Tuesday.


USC will return Bush's trophy to the Heisman Trophy Trust next month and will take down any jerseys or murals recognizing the former star.

Nikias delivered the news in a memorandum, adding that he has instructed the athletic department to remove murals of Bush and former basketball star O.J. Mayo from university grounds. Improper benefits taken by Bush and Mayo during their time at USC prompted wide-ranging NCAA sanctions leveled against the school last month.

Nikias also announced that athletic director Mike Garrett would be replaced by former Trojans star quarterback Pat Haden and that the school would take other steps to ensure compliance with NCAA rules.



Said Nikias in his memo: “The Trojan family honors and respects the USC sporting careers of those persons whose actions did not compromise their athletic program or the opportunities of future USC student-athletes. Accordingly, I have instructed the senior vice president for administration to remove athletic jerseys and murals displayed in recognition of O.J. Mayo and Reggie Bush by mid-August – before the incoming class of students moves on campus – from Heritage Hall, the Galen Center, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The university will also return Mr. Bush’s 2005 Heisman Trophy to the Heisman Trophy Trust in August.”

The Heisman Trophy Trust will meet July 27 to determine what to do with Bush’s trophy. Members of the Trust declined comment on that meeting.

=They should give it to Vince Young. He deserved the trophy from the beginning anyway. He proved that in the National Championship.

[BruceBowenFan]

Fuck reggie bush, I hope they take away that heisman.

[murpjf88]

Usc should be denied the National Championship. It should be Auburn's.

[Ashy Larry]

Auburn's? Hell, SC spanked Auburn twice prior to the year they both went undefeated; even shutting out Auburn at home. That year would have been no different .......

with that said, I'm glad SC is distancing themselves from Bush but the damage is already done.

[symple19]

Auburn's? Hell, SC spanked Auburn twice prior to the year they both went undefeated; even shutting out Auburn at home. That year would have been no different .......

with that said, I'm glad SC is distancing themselves from Bush but the damage is already done.

While true SC owned AU the previous 2 years, there's still no way you can really compare unless they met on the field, which they didn't. That Auburn defense would have unquestionably been the best the Trojans would have seen all year. No doubt in my mind they would have put up a much better fight than Oklahoma did.

[MajorMike]

They should take that there trophy and display it proudly in Simkins Hall.

[scottspurs]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&page=wojciechowski/100721&sportCat=ncf

Originally Published: July 21, 2010

Reggie Bush's trophy void is right move
His Heisman, along with Southern Cal's 2005 national championship, mean nothing now

By Gene Wojciechowski
ESPN.com
Archive

Changes At USC, Trouble In The SEC


Changes At USC, Trouble In The SEC
USC To Return Bush's Heisman Trophy
Haden To Replace Garrett As USC AD
Pat Haden Named New AD at USC
It's just a trophy, right? A bronze, stiff-arming figurine set on marble and black onyx. A 25-pound doorstop.

But the Heisman Trophy deserves better than Reggie Bush. USC admitted as much when it announced it was returning its replica of the 2005 award to the Heisman Trust. Bush should do the same with his copy, but he won't. He wouldn't know the truth if it grabbed him by the face mask.

[+] Enlarge
AP Photo/Julie Jacobson
This isn't the trophy Southern Cal is giving back. Reggie Bush still has this one.
Not only is USC returning the trophy, but it's also hitting the delete key on all things Bush. Any images and mementos of the disgraced running back will be removed from the school's athletic facilities. He's getting stiff-armed by his own program.

Of course, Bush helped make the Trojans lots of money. Millions, probably, if you consider his effect on ticket sales, merchandise sales, TV-related revenue, advertising, enrollment demand and bowl payouts. More than a few people, including then-head coach Pete Carroll, became rich during Bush's stay.

As it turns out, so did Bush and his family.

There's no getting around the hypocrisy of major college football. It's often as dirty as a mud-caked jersey. You have to hose off after dealing with some of the agents, runners and "friends" who attach themselves to the game and its players like remoras.

Bush was a natural target for the parasites. And according to the NCAA's investigation, he willingly, enthusiastically and arrogantly had his hand out. He can lend his name to all the charitable foundations he wants, but nothing changes his USC legacy as a cheater.




With the tenure of a defiant Mike Garrett behind it, USC made a good choice for AD in Pat Haden, writes Arash Markazi. Story



He isn't the first player to take money, and he won't be the last. But at least we know about Bush, and at least there's something that can be done about it -- even if that something is symbolic.

During Bush's spectacular 2005 season, USC produced a video-highlights package that was distributed to Heisman voters. The video begins with a statement and then a question:

It's been said that every great player has a defining moment. … ONE signature play. For USC's Reggie Bush, which one would you pick?

Five years later, the answer is obvious. Bush's defining moment was when he traded his good name for tainted money. His signature play was compromising himself and his program for a staggering array of rules-busting extra benefits.

USC won a national championship with him in 2004. Bush won a Heisman in 2005. Both mean nothing now. The wins have been ordered vacated, and the school is shipping back its Heisman replica.

The rightful owner of that season's national title should be Auburn. At the very least, the title game should have been Auburn versus Oklahoma. But who knew?


There is little doubt that Bush was the best back in college football in 2005. But he wasn't playing fair.

My 2005 Heisman ballot had Bush No. 1, Texas' Vince Young No. 2 and USC's Matt Leinart No. 3. I wasn't alone. Bush received 88 percent of the first-place votes. He had more ballot points than Young and Leinart combined.

Bush was the best college football player in the country that year. Other than Barry Sanders and Bo Jackson, I've never seen a running back do what Bush did, which was outrun geometry. A would-be tackler would have an angle … and then he wouldn't. He was the most electrifying runner in the game but also the cheatingest.

There isn't any wiggle room on a Heisman ballot. It says it right there, in bright red letters: "The recipient must be in compliance with the bylaws defining an NCAA student athlete."

Bush was a football field away from compliance. He ran right past NCAA rule 12.3.1.2, the one that prohibits the acceptance of extra benefits. He wasn't a student-athlete. He was an athlete on the take.

When Yahoo! Sports first reported the alleged infractions, Bush said the situation had been "blown out of proportion." He'd explain his side of the story soon enough.

That was an NCAA investigation ago. A USC athletic director ago. A USC head coach ago. A USC president ago. A handful of debilitating sanctions ago.



Vince Young lost the Heisman to Bush in December 2005, but he had the pose down pat three weeks later when Texas beat USC for the national title.

The effects of Bush's greed will be felt for years, especially if an appeals committee upholds the initial penalties, which include scholarship reductions, a two-year bowl ban and forfeited wins. It already has cost USC a star recruit. No matter how Trojans coach Lane Kiffin, who inherited this mess from Carroll but has his own long history of integrity issues, wants to spin the situation, the program will take a hit under the chin strap.

The defiant, delusional reign of USC athletic director Mike Garrett ends in less than two weeks. He'll be replaced by Pat Haden, who, like Garrett, has a USC football pedigree, but he also has the good sense to admit mistakes were made.

Haden might be inexperienced, but his moral compass will always point true north. In other words, Kiffin will be on a tighter leash than he was at Tennessee.

As for Bush, he's untouchable. He and his family got their tens of thousands of dollars when he was at USC, and Bush got his millions when he joined the NFL. In a way, he outran the NCAA.

But he can't outrun what it says on that Heisman ballot. He violated the rules, and his name should be expunged from Heisman history. The trophy belongs to the man seated to the right of Bush that December evening in 2005.

Vince Young got cheated out of an acceptance speech that night. Don't cheat him out of his doorstop, too.

[scottspurs]

Vince For Heisman

[Obstructed_View]

If they give Reggie's Heisman to Vince, then maybe they can take away Vince's national championship since his knee was down.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

If they give Reggie's Heisman to Vince, then maybe they can take away Vince's national championship since his knee was down.

That blown call was balanced out later in the game.


Giving the heisman to Vince would be disgraceful, I'm more than positive Vince would laugh out loud. It probably means nothing to him now.

He won the Rose Bowl and that's all that mattered.

"619 baby!"

[Kermit]

Why would anyone want sloppy seconds?

[Blake]

Why would anyone want sloppy seconds?

especially if they just scratch out Bush's name and just scribble VY's name in underneath.

[Blake]

Why would anyone want sloppy seconds?

wait, are we talking about the heisman or khardashian?

[dbreiden83080]

wait, are we talking about the heisman or khardashian?

:lol

[NFO]

wait, are we talking about the heisman or khardashian?

Either way you have to get rid of the "bush" to get to the ultimate prize.

[Obstructed_View]

That blown call was balanced out later in the game.


Giving the heisman to Vince would be disgraceful, I'm more than positive Vince would laugh out loud. It probably means nothing to him now.

He won the Rose Bowl and that's all that mattered.

"619 baby!"

Damn, CBF, you didn't take the bait. I'm sad.

No, really: :clap

[Blake]

Either way you have to get rid of the "bush" to get to the ultimate prize.

I don't follow.

Why do you have to get rid of the bush and why is it in quotes?