Ball or Nuthin' » Reggie Bush

Bush’s Company Should Have Been USC’s Concern

T Lamont — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:14:17 +0000

A player is recruited by a major college football program. That player is given thousands of dollars - in persuasion money - for the university. The program cements its status as a national powerhouse during that player’s tenure. The program wins the national championship and that player wins the Heisman.

As the player is preparing to leave college for the professional ranks, the accusations begin to drop regarding the money that the player accepted from non-family members. The $300,000 in money he took from agent types. The player went on to become one of the more popular professional players in his sport’s league. But the college university that the player left remained in a cloud of suspicious surrounding the money it gave the player.

The championship that the team won during the player’s tenure was stripped from the university. And now, there’s discussion regarding whether the player should have his Heisman taken away.

In case you hadn’t heard by now, we’re talking about USC and Reggie Bush. And, at first glance, one has to think “how do you think you can accept 300K and not get caught?” And I’d concur, because I would be too scared to even think about accepting that money. One would have to be playing under the constant strain of possibly being caught and kicked out of college football. Could you imagine performing under that type of stress? Well, not only did Bush imagine it, but he dealt with it and excelled. He lived the life that every little boy who ever carried a football would have dreamed of. He made plays that could be rivaled only by a discrete number of other athletes. Bush’s wrongdoing withstanding, we all waited to see his dazzling plays.

But the illegal part of the whole situation was precipitated by USC. Of course, Southern Cal is being hit hard by the whole scandal, which by the way, also included extra gifts given to current Memphis Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo. And well, they should be. It’s clear that with more than one player being given an inordinate amount of compensation, there was an inappropriate trend developing. Star athletes need star attention. Many reports suggested that USC officials turned their heads to any suspicious activity. And if a university is not checking the credentials of agents and friends who are sitting at games (even on the sidelines…how can you be more obvious than that?) with these athletes, the price can be tremendous.

Just ask USC. And whether or not current head coach Lane Kiffin wants to admit it, the sanctions imposed against Southern Cal will affect the athletic recruitment for that university in a big, big way.

Although he's extremely popular, Bush hasn't consistently played at a superstar level in the NFL.

I’m on the fence about Bush’s Heisman, though. Sure he was ineligible based on the NCAA rules, and for many that should be the end of the story. NCAA rules very boldly state:

“…a prospective student-athlete may not receive educational expenses from his or her outside sports team or organization when those funds are based in any degree on the recipient’s athletics ability. In addition, a prospect may not receive educational expenses from any individual whose relationship with the prospect developed as a result of the prospect’s athletics participation or reputation.”

That passage definitely describe Bush.

But you just get the feeling that Bush is the one who got caught. Now, I’m pretty confident that a guy like Tim Tebow would have complied with this rule, but he is truly a needle in a haystack when it comes to athletes with extremely high moral virtue. Have other athletes – even former Heisman winners – received improper funding?

Well, eh hem…Bush is the one who got caught. And I don’t want to seem like I am defending him. He was clearly wrong to do what he did. But there’s something about ruling a person ineligible after the fact that seem unfair to me. Bush’s case is drastically different than, let’s say…someone who took performance-enhancing drugs. Reggie’s performance was all his own, and there was nothing unsportsmanlike about his actions.

The acceptance of illegitimate funds is a crisis that has to be addressed at the organizational level for it to have any lasting effect.

And the NCAA penalties against USC should encourage universities to go out of their way to ensure that their student athletes are doing the right things.

Super Bowl Ads, Matchups and More

T Lamont — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:30:07 +0000

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As we brace ourselves for Super Bowl XLIV, what’s the biggest non-football aspect of this big event?

That would be none other than the high-priced commercials. Getting a spot in the big game seems to be reserved for the same companies year after year. Maybe we’re just spending too much of our hard-earned money on their products. Or maybe they’re just willing to continue their expensive tradition of entertaining the masses – as we sit back and chat on our T-Mobile phone with a bag of Doritos and a can of Coke.

But over the past few years, I can’t say that I remember any of the Super Bowl ads. While GoDaddy.com made itself memorable in a very nonconstructive way, none of the other commercials have embedded themselves in my mind. As time goes on, it’s understandable that it will become more and more challenging to develop unique concepts that can resonate with the viewer.

Being that this is the sole occasion that I (and most people since the invention of TiVo) watch commercials, I am looking for some vast improvement from the past few years. I hope I’m not disappointed…

How much of an impact will Dwight Freeney's absence have on the Super Bowl?

Other Super Bowl notes:

- Peyton Manning is, without a doubt, the most resilient QB in the league. But he’s also given the most free reign over his team. I wonder what it would take for more quarterbacks to be trusted by their organizations the way that Manning is in Indy.

- Dwight Freeney’s absence will definitely hurt the Colts. But how much? No one really knows. It will just force Indianapolis defensive coordinator Larry Coyer to mix up his formations, use some stunts, throw in occasional blitzes…and just be creative. Getting a little pressure on Brees will go a long way.

- This game should be won by the team that is able to make a big defensive play. So, in essence it comes down to Manning versus the New Orleans’ defense – which is probably the only defense with the ability to be opportunistic. Even though the NFL MVP is super-dynamic, I think the Saints have the capability of sneakily creating a turnover of two.

- If the Colts get good production on the ground from Joseph Addai, then their offense will be clicking on all cylinders. Likewise, Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush need to support Drew Brees and the New Orleans passing game. With the passing games that both of these teams possess, well-executed running plays could prove to be big-gainers.

Kardashians About to Score Again

T Lamont — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:58:26 +0000

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Yet another Kardashian damsel is on the path to tying the knot. This time, the victim, uh, lucky fellow is well-known, super-athlete Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints.

I didn’t realize how difficult it is to find a picture of Reggie Bush playing football on the Internet.

Try doing an image search for “Reggie Bush” on Google, Yahoo or any other major search engine. What you’ll find is a conglomeration of pictures of the former USC standout hanging with his girl, socialite Kim Kardashian (not that I’m complaining, I’d much rather look at pictures of Kim than Reggie).

Stay focused Reggie, stay focused...

It looks as if we may even be able to soon add a wedding album to that conglomeration.

According to Kim (in a recent interview), the two of them made a deal. If Reggie Bush’s Saints go on to win the Super Bowl, he will propose to her.

And Bush doesn’t look to be throwing any games, either. In the Saints’ first playoff game on Saturday, Bush scored two touchdowns and had 217 multi-purpose offensive yards. If he keeps it up, we could be exposed to snippets of Kim “Bush” at New Orleans games in the fall of 2010.

So, I guess we can all look forward to Kourtney completing the hat trick and finding a nice baseball player to settle down with.

Saints Shoot Down Cardinals

T Lamont — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:42:33 +0000

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The New Orleans Saints provided the answer to everyone’s question – - yes, they are able to flick the switch.

After some lackluster games and some seemingly lost momentum, the Saints snapped back to the form that they displayed all season and ran the Arizona Cardinals out of the Superdome, 45-14.

All-purpose back Reggie Bush racked up 217 yards of total offense, including an 83-yard punt return and a 46-yard scamper – both for touchdowns.

The Cardinals got on the board first, scoring on a 70-yard Tim Hightower run to make the score 7-0. But then the Saints established their dominance early in the contest, and ran off three consecutive touchdowns. Running back Reggie Bush ended the first quarter scoring spree with a 46-yard touchdown gallop that made the score 21-7.

Arizona once again started in good fashion in the second quarter, as Beanie Wells capped a 9-play, 80-yard drive with a 4-yard run to pull the Cardinals within 7 points. However, New Orleans countered with 2 touchdown drives to push their lead up to 35-14 at the half.

Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner was not as effective as he was last weekend.

A discouraged Arizona couldn’t muster anything in the second half. After putting up 51 points against Green Bay last week, they knew that things would be tougher this week. The Saints and Cardinals were not far apart on total net yards – Arizona tallied 359, while New Orleans accumulated 418.

But two stats really told the story of the game where time of possession and third down efficiency. The home team had the ball for over 36 minutes, leaving the Cards in possession for less than 24 minutes. A big reason for this was the difference in the third down efficiencies of the teams. New Orleans converted on 54% (7 of 13) of their third downs. Arizona could only make good on 13% (1 of 8). Toss in a couple of turnovers (1 lost fmuble and 1 interception) and you had the recipe for disaster against a New Orleans team that was determined to prove that their regular season success was not a fluke.

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees:

”There’s been a lot of firsts since Sean Payton has been here in the organization and we want to keep that going. We want to bring this franchise a championship.”