Bush Gives Up Heisman

Reggie Bush gives up Heisman, blames "persistent media speculation," admits "mistakes"


On the same day that the Heisman Trophy Trust conducted its monthly meeting, the 2005 winner of the award for which the trust is named announced that he will give up the prize.

The move comes at a time when Yahoo! Sports reported that the Heisman Trophy Trust would decide to strip the award from Bush. The chronology permits an inference that the Heisman Trophy Trust decided to take the award away, and that they gave Bush a chance to surrender it first.

But Bush was strident, not contrite, in relinquishing the prize. For more, here's the full content of his comments, with some of our thoughts interspersed were appropriate.

"One of the greatest honors of my life was winning the Heisman Trophy in 2005. For me, it was a dream come true," Bush said in a statement released by the Saints. "But I know that the Heisman is not mine alone. Far from it. I know that my victory was made possible by the discipline and hard work of my teammates, the steady guidance of my coaches, the inspiration of the fans, and the unconditional love of my family and friends. And I know that any young man fortunate enough to win the Heisman enters into a family of sorts. Each individual carries the legacy of the award and each one is entrusted with its good name. It is for these reasons that I have made the difficult decision to forfeit my title as Heisman winner of 2005. The persistent media speculation regarding allegations dating back to my years at USC has been both painful and distracting. In no way should the storm around these allegations reflect in any way on the dignity of this award, nor on any other institutions or individuals. Nor should it distract from outstanding performances and hard-earned achievements either in the past, present or future."

So, in other words, Bush is giving it back not because he did anything wrong, but because "persistent media speculation" has undermined the "dignity of the award."

"For the rest of my days," Bush added, "I will continue to strive to demonstrate through my actions and words that I was deserving of the confidence placed in me by the Heisman Trophy Trust. I would like to begin in this effort by turning a negative situation into a positive one by working with the Trustees to establish an educational program which will assist student-athletes and their families avoid some of the mistakes that I made. I am determined to view this event as an opportunity to help others and to advance the values and mission of the Heisman Trophy Trust."

And there it is. For the first time, and after years of blunt denials, Bush has admitted that he made "mistakes," the biggest of which was to take money and other things of value from a prospective marketing agency and then fail to pay any of it back when deciding not to hire the agency in question.

"I will forever appreciate the honor bestowed upon me as a winner of the Heisman," Bush said. "While this decision is heart-breaking, I find solace in knowing that the award was made possible by the support and love of so many. Those are gifts that can never be taken away."

Regardless of the words used by Bush, the end result is that he's giving up the Heisman, he's blaming "persistent media speculation" about the situation for the move, and he's finally admitting that he made "mistakes."

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texanhead08 said:

I guess that means all the VY brown nosers will start saying he deserves it in 5,4,3...

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Showtime100 said:

I read last night VY said he'd take it. I could have sworn he said a few weeks ago he would refuse it. He must have gotten a death threat from Mack Brown and changed his mind.

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Showtime100 said:

I read last night VY said he'd take it. I could have sworn he said a few weeks ago he would refuse it. He must have gotten a death threat from Mack Brown and changed his mind.

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CloakNNNdagger said:

It's probably a mute point since I read somewhere that the Heisman Trust did not intend on awarding a second trophy.

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Ole Miss Texan said:

That's what I read. Probably should just have a blank and an asteric (*did I actually spell that right!?!?). Saying player received the most votes but was later determined ineligible. Something like that anyway.

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JB said:

No. Asterisk

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CloakNNNdagger said:

It's probably a mute point since I read somewhere that the Heisman Trust did not intend on awarding a second trophy.

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Ole Miss Texan said:

Probably should just have a blank and an asteric (*did I actually spell that right!?!?).

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JB said:

No. Asterisk

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Ole Miss Texan said:

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Showtime100 said:

I read last night VY said he'd take it. I could have sworn he said a few weeks ago he would refuse it. He must have gotten a death threat from Mack Brown and changed his mind.

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Dread-Head said:

Cool. Vince can put the default Heisman in the trunk of the SUV the UT Boosters gave him and call the "tutors" who took exams for him at the athletics academic lab on his cell phone. Unfortunately all programs cheat Mack's argument that Vince should get it because He and Vince didn't get caught is BULL$h:t.

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Thorn said:

meh.....I was never in the Bush crowd during that famous draft anyway, so I don't care. But, Bush was a damn fine college player. The whole system of the NCAA is rotten to the core. They vote to elect a champion, they and the colleges make millions and the players get not a cent and are held to a higher standard of behavior than those who hold the money and make the rules.

The whole process can kiss my ass.

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Thorn said:

meh.....I was never in the Bush crowd during that famous draft anyway, so I don't care. But, Bush was a damn fine college player. The whole system of the NCAA is rotten to the core. They vote to elect a champion, they and the colleges make millions and the players get not a cent and are held to a higher standard of behavior than those who hold the money and make the rules.

The whole process can kiss my ass.

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Thorn said:

In this case, what I'm saying about the NCAA is that their present way of doing business sucks in my opinion. I'm not sure how to fix it, but a point was made on a football show I was watching (can't remember which one now).

If a student athletic goes to a bank and asks for a loan based on his future earnings as a pro, that's OK. But if he takes money from an sports agent, that isn't OK. Now, I have no flipping idea of if that is actually correct or not, I'm not a NCAA expert or a lawyer, but if that is in fact true, then it's just an example of how screwy the system is.

College is nothing more that a farm system for football players that the NFL doesn't have to pay for.

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While many young people every year set their goals on becoming NFL players, it is extremely difficult to reach that level. Statistically of the 100,000 high school seniors who play football every year, only 215 will ever make an NFL roster. That is 0.2%! Even of the 9,000 players that make it to the college level only 310 are invited to the NFL scouting combine, the pool from which teams make their draft picks. As you can see, most people who want to become NFL players will not. Therefore it is very important to come up with alternative plans for the future.

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The1ApplePie said:

Let the NCAA look into VY's time at Texas first and make sure no money changed hands.

Because, extra money in your pocket makes you that much better on the field.

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TimeKiller said:

Why does the statement have to be all grand and sappy? What's wrong with everybody? Can't we handle a "Hell yeah I took ___________ because it was handed to me, oh and I like money. I realize this is a mistake and my apology is to give back a trophy I worked my ass off for." I think that would mean more to me than this statement that was prepared for him to sign at the bottom.

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CloakNNNdagger said:

For those trying to factor in the last game they played in against each other, you then have to ask yourself how many other past Heisman decisions could have changed under similar circumstances. You don't change the rules in the middle of the game.

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Saints running back Reggie Bush continues to treat the truth like a defensive back from Fresno State, twisting and turning and juking around it.

On Thursday, Bush claimed that his decision to give back the 2005 Heisman Trophy is "not an admission of guilt," according to the Associated Press. So just what is it then?

"I felt just to kind of silence all the talk around it, all the negativity around it -- I felt like this would be the best decision to do right now so I could focus," Bush said.

But then Bush reiterated something he said in his lengthy statement relinquishing the award; he admitted that he made mistakes.

"I'm not happy this happened. This is where it has come to," Bush said. "This is just a part of life. This is a part of growing pains and becoming more mature. You learn. You grow. You get better. You get stronger and hopefully you never make those same mistakes again."

Though he didn't specify the mistakes he made, Bush seemed to hint that the mistakes related to the thing that resulted in the forfeiture of his college eligibility -- getting paid while supposedly still an "amateur."

"Whatever the NCAA has, whatever programs they have, aren't working, and it needs to be changed. If it's not changed, it's going to continue, and it hasn't stopped yet," Bush said. "It's going to continue year after year after year, and you're going to see kids be ineligible. You're going to see great athletes missing their junior and senior year and seasons because the system doesn't work.

"Obviously something has to be changed. You've got universities making millions of dollars off these kids and they don't get paid. The majority of college athletes who come in on scholarship come in [with] nothing. That's where you have a problem. You're making all this money off these kids and you're giving them crumbs and then you're surrounding these kids with money and telling them not to touch it."

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HOU-TEX said:

Meh, the Heisman's become a joke anyway. Who cares what they do with it

Is it not supposed to be awarded to the most outstanding player in College football? I mean, any award that refuses to consider Olinemen and Dlinemen is a joke. Suh deserved it this past year

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Texan_Bill said:

You've been upset with the Heisman since 1999.....



1999? People ask??? One, Ron Dayne was the winner!

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Hervoyel said:

I believe that he should be stripped of the trophy (moot point since he gave it back) because he was ineligible to play at the time due to his accepting money and gifts from this would-be agent. Now we can argue that the rules are screwed up and I'll probably be one of the first in line to agree with that but they are the rules. As Walter Sobchak once said "This is not Nam. There are rules". Reggie Bush broke the rules and so he should not get the Heisman Trophy. Thanks a lot for being the one skid-mark on the historical underpants of college footballs most prestigous award. Way to go Reggie.

Nobody else should either for that year. Reggie Bush won it, they didn't. End of that tangent.

He's entirely right about the system being broken but it doesn't excuse anything he did and it doesn't make his giving up the trophy some kind of noble act. It is in every way an admission of guilt. I was bigtime excited us about drafting Bush and I was wrong. Not only is he nowhere near the running back I thought he was but he's also, even 5 years later nowhere near the man I thought he was.

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Reggie Bush said after Saints practice Thursday that giving back the Heisman Trophy was not an admission of any wrongdoing. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has the VIDEO, and here's Bush's explanation:

"It's definitely not an admission of guilt. It's just me showing my respect to the Heisman Trophy itself, and to the people who come before me and the people who come after me. ... You are going to keep hearing the same thing, because that's what it is. It's not an admission of guilt. It's just me feeling like this is the best thing for me and for the Heisman Trust right now."

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Obviously something has to be changed. You've got universities making millions of dollars off these kids and they don't get paid. The majority of college athletes who come in on scholarship come in [with] nothing. That's where you have a problem. You're making all this money off these kids and you're giving them crumbs and then you're surrounding these kids with money and telling them not to touch it."

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Poor economy cuts into college athletics

A newly released NCAA report shows that just 14 of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools made money from campus athletics in the 2009 fiscal year, down from 25 the year before.

Researchers blame the sagging economy and suggested that next year's numbers could be even worse.

The research was done by accounting professor Dan Fulks of Transylvania University, a Division III school in Lexington, Ky. It shows the median amount paid by the 120 FBS schools to support campus athletics grew in one year from about $8 million to more than $10 million.

The NCAA doesn't release individual schools' revenues and expenses. But Fulks confirmed that Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Texas and Tennessee are among the select group that made money from athletics. So is Missouri, which reported generating $2 million in profits from campus athletics in 2009.

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Texan_Bill said:

You've been upset with the Heisman since 1999.....



1999? People ask??? One, Ron Dayne was the winner!

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disaacks3 said:

Boo Hoo Hoo....Yes, the Universities make Millions off of y'all. So What? Last time I checked, that University education (that thing you might need if Football DOESN'T pan out) is worth 25K+. That's not even taking into account room and board.

While I might agree a little stipend is in order (to justify that extra time they spend on athletics), let's not act like you aren't getting anything out of this deal.

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Super Mario said:

Great post. I will add that you cannot pay the players. People are too greedy and whatever you give them will never be enough. If you disagree, let me know how much is enough for a student athelete? They will always want more and more.

Dont have enough money? Here is an idea. GET A F&*KING SUMMER JOB!

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The1ApplePie said:

I thought the NCAA banned athletes from having jobs period.

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Super Mario said:

No. You can have a job as an athlete. But you cant get paid $500 a day to show up for an hour and wash cars. See Rhett Bomar.

Our very own Mario Williams was a Subway sandwich artist during his days at NC State who had a nice win last night vs. Cincy.

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Double Barrel said:

Colleges are not making as much money on athletics as most people assume...



These athletes are getting an education, room & board, meals, etc., so it's not like they are slaves to the system. It is their FREEWILL CHOICE to be there, and then to hear a guy like Bush whine about it just makes him pathetic.

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IDEXAN said:

Sarkisian was part of the offensive staff at USC during 2005, the year Bush won the Heisman.

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If not for the NCAA's four-year statute of limitations, Auburn might be vacating some victories from one of its few decent eras of basketball.

Charles Barkley was discussing Reggie Bush's decision to return the Heisman Trophy during an interview with Dan Patrick on Friday morning when the conversation turned to his own college career. The always outspoken former Auburn star admitted that he too received money from agents during college in the 1980s, though Barkley described it as "chump change" that he paid back once he signed his first NBA contract.

"If a guy wants to borrow money from an agent because he's poor, what is wrong with that?" Barkley said. "Nobody can tell me what is wrong with that. I got money from agents when I was in college and I went in the '80s. Most of the players I know borrowed money from agents. The colleges don't give us anything. If they give us a pair of sneakers, they get in trouble. Why can't an agent lend me some money and I'll pay him back when I graduate?"

Barkley said the agents who pay potential future clients are "well known" in hoops circles because "they've been giving money to college kids for years." Ironically, however, the only agent who didn't pay Barkley while he was at Auburn ended up being the one that initially landed him as a client.

The revelations from Barkley aren't exactly surprising considering the SEC's reputation was even less pristine when he played than it is today, and the former Auburn star has hinted that he was on the take in the past. Still, at a time when the NCAA is trying to crack down on rogue agents and restore the notion of amateurism to college sports, you can be certain that folks at Auburn and other schools probably weren't thrilled with Barkley's message.

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