Brian: Bush League

This is an old subject, but one that I think about quite often. I am going to take you all the way back to the Reggie Bush scandal.

As most of you know, Reggie Bush had illegal contact with and received benefits from an agent while his was at USC. These included money, gifts, rent, and various other benefits. Bush was stripped of his Heisman and USC was forced to vacate its wins from the Bush years.

I have two main issues with this whole thing.

First, I think it was poor of the NCAA to vacate ALL of the wins during the Bush era at USC, including their BCS National Championship. This is ridiculously unfair to every player who played with Bush at USC. Now when they go back to USC and look in the football trophy room, they won't see a single win from when they played there. How is that fair to them?

How would you like to have worked hard and put everything into a program, only to have every accomplishment you earned be taken away because of one person? Basically, the NCAA is saying that it was the entire teams fault that Bush took money from an agent, and therefore should be punished for it. Some may argue that the school was complacent and looked the other way, and if that is true then punish the school, not the team. The rest of the players shouldn't be held accountable because Bush's agent paid rent for his mother. Cruel.

Secondly, if you want to take away Bush's Heisman, then by all means do so. But don't sit there and say he didn't deserve it. The Heisman is awarded to the best player in college football each year. Reggie Bush was the best player in college football the year he won it. And the money he earned from his agent did nothing to change that fact. From a football standpoint, Bush deserved the Heisman and should be recognized as the best player of that year. Anyone who disagrees is doing so out of spite, not out of fact. Anyone who watched Bush play couldn't help but be amazed at his unreal athleticism and abilities.

Bush should still be considered one of the greatest college football players of all time, and deserves to be put into the college football Hall of Fame. I will always argue that a players should be selected for Halls of Fame based on their athletic accomplishments, and that everything else should be left to the wayside when deciding that - unless a player did something that assisted their on field performance (such as steroids).

Regardless, I think it is Bush league that the whole team suffered because of Bush's poor decisions but there isn't much that can be done now except bitch and moan.

Which I have become pretty good at.