By Calvin Connors Posted October 4, 2010
Reggie Bush was taking money (espn.go.com) from someone while he was attending the University of Southern California while playing football. Would you do that?
The Heisman Trophy is the most prestigious individual award in college football. Most people would have kept the Heisman trophy and not thought twice about giving it back.
Bush didn’t get caught while he was in college. So should Bush be penalized for something that happened five years ago? The NCAA and the Heisman Trophy Trust are not the same organization. Therefore, the NCAA cannot take away Bush’s Heisman, but the Heisman Trophy Trust (The Trust) can. Although The Trust didn’t ask for it back, Bush gave it back. Although giving up the award may bother Bush, doing so shows that he has moved on from his college playing days.
Athletes in the past who have confessed to using steroids have not had their achievements or awards taken away from them. These athletes include Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi who said he used steroids two years before he started injecting himself with human growth hormones. Though McGwire and Giambi did not get any awards stripped from them.
Reggie Bush deserved to win the Heisman in 2005, but he accepted money when he was playing at USC, which is against the rules in college and high school sports. Accepting the money didn’t affect his performance in any way. Why should the University of Southern California be penalized for something that an individual did?
Football is a team sport, the whole team didn’t accept money, an individual did. Now USC can’t attend any bowl games for the next two years. You couldn’t tell that the penalties going against USC have affected their football program. They are 3-0 with wins over Hawaii, Virginia, and Minnesota.
Reggie Bush deserved to get it taken away. He had an outstanding year when he won it, he deserved it based on his performances that season, but he broke NCAA rules. He went against the contract that he signed when he decided to play college football. The real question is would you have done what Reggie did?
