Bush League

In news that isn't a shock to many in the college football universe, Reggie Bush is 'surrendering' his 2005 Heisman Trophy because he received cash and gifts while on the USC football team. I use the word surrender because he had to give it up. I am not naive enough to believe that he is giving back his Heisman because it's the right thing to do. No, the Heisman committee told him they were going to take it from him and essentially strong armed him into voluntarily relinquishing the trophy. I don't need any news outlet to break the story - I know that's how it went down.

I have been thinking about this story a lot lately and I just can't seem to get past my initial reaction that it is all a bunch of BS. I understand that I am probably in the minority here, but Bush losing his Heisman because he was deemed ineligible is a joke. I'm sorry, but to me, Bush being ineligible has nothing to do with whether he was the best player in the country. Some will say he cheated and that it is unfair to the rest of the student athletes who played by the rules. But I ask, how was it really unfair? I have a hard time believing that having his mom live in an apartment paid for by some agents made Reggie a better player. It didn't give him freakish speed. It didn't give him explosiveness. It didn't help him jump over people. We're not talking steroids here - his performance on the football field was 100% Reggie Bush, 100% natural.

Given the current climate of college football, the NCAA needs to make an example of athletes who take money from agents. I get it. But to go back and take the award away form Bush is just poor form. Get over it - everything that happened in 2005 happened. Their is no erasing it. Look no further than in baseball, where the all-time home run list is scattered with players who used performance enhancers to hit the ball further. Baseball would love to erase those records, but the fact is that they happened. I was watching in 1998 when McGwire and Sosa borke Maris' record. I saw them do it with my own two eyes. The fact that they were on steroids can't change the fact. Put an asterick next to it if you have to, but you can't take away the fact that Big Mac hit 70 home runs that year. I'm sorry, but you just can't.

Same goes for college football. Some people want vince Young to get the Heisman from 2005, but what does that do? I'm sure it would make texas fans happy. Hell, it might even make Vince YOung happy. But it will never mean that Vince Young was a better football player in 2005 than Bush. The Heisman voters gave Bush the second highest amount of votes ever. We're not talking about a close race - it was a runaway vote.

Look, I don't claim to have a solution to the whole player-agent mess. I think it sucks that the misdeeds of one player can haunt a program. It sucks that the coach can skip town and nothing happens to him even when the program he just guided is put on probation. It all sucks, but making an example of Reggie Bush by taking his Heisman is just a bad idea. Remember, OJ Simpson still has his Heisman. Let me repeat that sentence - OJ Simpson still has HIS Heisman. I know that he got in trouble many years after his time at USC, but people still are able to remember OJ, the football player. They know how good he was. They may not embrace him in the Downtown Athletic Club, but they didn't take his trophy away because the trophy represents the best football player in the nation, which is exactly what Reggie Bush called himself in 2005.