BUSH SITTING OUT THE YEAR?
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reports that Saints tailback Reggie Bush is contemplating sitting out the entire 2006 season and re-entering the draft next year if he doesn't get the kind of contract he thinks he deserves.
His leverage? More than $5 million in endorsement deals that don't require him to actually play football this season and a local fan base that thinks he's Jesus -- and that Saints owner Tom Benson is Beelzebub.
On the surface, Cole's item reads like a shill job for Bush, Segal, and/or Bush marketing agent Mike Ornstein. But unless Cole has undergone an organic personality change since jumping from the Miami Herald to Yahoo!, the last guy for whom he'd be in the tank is Bush. After all, Cole was at the leading edge of the story regarding Bush's dealings with New Era Sports & Enterainment, which helped fuel the controversy that dropped Bush to No. 2. Cole likewise has raised questions regarding Bush's relationship with Ornstein.
Instead, the Segal shill is Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com, and to date Len has yet to suggest that Bush would sit out for the entire season. (In Friday's "Inside" -- i.e., not free -- Tip Sheet, Pasquarelli says that if the Saints try to work off of the deal that running back Ronnie Brown received as the No. 2 overall pick in 2005, "that won't get a deal done.")
And we're glad to see that someone in the "real" media other than the Clarion-Ledger is mentioning on the looming threat of a protracted holdout by Bush. The AP shockingly failed to pick up the item from earlier in the week in the Jackson, Mississippi newspaper regarding Bush's belief that the Saints promised to pay him as if he were the No. 1 overall pick, and regarding Ornstein's belief that a holdout is likely.
Surely, Bush and his advisers think that the money Reggie has sprinkled over various New Orleans charities is enough to secure for him the full support of the man on the street in New Orleans. But will it? With $5 million already in his pocket, why does he need to squeeze so much more money out of the Saints than his position in the draft merits, especially when so many of the men on the street are still struggling after Katrina?
Look, it's not the Saints' fault that the Texans, who held the No. 1 pick, concluded Bush was lying to them about the involvement of him and/or his family with folks in San Diego who allegedly provided rent-free housing and cold, hard cash in an effort to get the gig that Ornstein ultimately landed.
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We don't think Bush is serious about sitting out the year, because there's no way he'd be drafted No. 1 or No. 2 in 2007 after exposing himself as a complete and total turd by refusing to play for the Saints. But it's now obvious that there is a strong likelihood of a holdout lasting deep into training camp. So that picture of Reggie wearing his New Orleans uni on the cover of the current Sports Illustrated might be the last time anyone sees him in those colors for a long time.
Meanwhile, how smart do the Texans now look for telling Bush to get bent?
