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Reggie Bush is guy whose here and now is about as good as a here and now gets. He's a running back on the defending Super Bowl champs. How many fat, lethargic, cheesesteak-eating American males would kill to have that job?
His occupation also happens to make him rich. Therefore, he's the envy of all those who could care less about what he does to earn his fat paychecks. It's pretty much the American dream, a high profile job paying a whole lot of coin.
While he basks in the glory that is his here and now, I wonder if Bush even cares about his tarnished recent past. You see, the road to his good fortune ran through the USC football program. Funny thing is, if you look around USC today, it's getting harder and harder to find any trace of him.
The school broke open the display case and sent back its copy of the 2005 Heisman Trophy that was awarded to Bush. Man, I wonder how much FedEx charged them for shipping something that heavy...
Once upon a time there were murals of Bush within USC athletic facilities. Today, the only surface you might find Bush's likeness on in Heritage Hall is the back of a men's room urinal.
And if you're hoping to catch a glimpse of Bush's No. 5 jersey somewhere at the school, you'll be out of luck. You would probably have a better chance of stumbling across Gary Beban's No. 16 UCLA jersey on the USC campus these days.
All this because Bush was declared retroactively ineligible following that ugliness with Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels.
While his former school has redecorated and, more importantly, wrestled with NCAA penalties related to his indiscretions, Bush hasn’t been touched by any of it. He's still riding as high today as he was the day before USC started painting over his likeness.
Oh, he lost some cash in settling the separate civil suits brought by Lake and Michaels, but he's not starving as a result. And the NCAA's wrath? That's USC's problem, not his.
But now there's word of something related to all of this that affects Bush directly. It seems the Heisman Trust, which isn't affiliated with the NCAA, wants to relieve Bush of the award it gave him back in 2005 and leave the honor for that season vacant.
Bush would become the first guy in the 75-year history of the Heisman Trophy to have it taken away. That's because he's the first winner to have been declared ineligible for the season in which he won the award.
In the eyes of the Trust, the player they gave the 2005 Trophy to is no longer qualified to have it. And these people must uphold the honor of the Heisman.
Hey, it's their prerogative to do what they please with their award, but I can't help but feel there's some hypocrisy at work here. Why?
Because they didn't even take O.J. Simpson's Heisman away. And he killed two people.
And they didn't lift a finger when 1998 Heisman winner Charles Woodson let it slip that he took money while at Michigan.
Those Heisman winning quarterbacks produced by Miami in their glory days? Yeah, I'm sure they never pocketed any Uncle Luke bonus money. Right.
How about degenerate gambler Paul Hornung, who won the award in 1956 while playing on a losing Notre Dame team? He gets to keep his.
You would think that the Heisman Trust might have a problem with a past winner having masterminded a counterfeiting scheme. But that's apparently not the case, so LSU's Billy Cannon gets a pass.
I realize the obvious flaw in what I'm doing here is that Bush's case is different. He might not be a gambler or a murderer, but unlike the guys I've mentioned, he's the only one who's been outed as being ineligible.
Wow, that's the line that has to be crossed to get your Heisman taken away? The Trust will ignore the actual criminals among its roster of winners to reach back in time and snatch away Bush’s award? Sweet!
I guess in their minds, the Trust is taking back what now amounts to the world's biggest paperweight in hopes of protecting the award's honor. That's because they gave it to a cheater, and cheaters should never prosper.
Uh huh, right. Reggie Bush won't lose a minute of sleep over this as he lays on 1000 count sheets in his mansion. So if the Trust wanted to make a point about this, I'm not sure what it was.
