Taking Bush’s Heisman is the Wrong Decision by Lloyd Vance

Did really I take this picture of former Heisman Winner Reggie Bush or was it all mirage….apparently the Heisman Trust thinks so

In late 2005, I enjoyed a great evening in New York City as I attended the awarding of the Heisman Trophy.  That night, I was able to cover the award ceremony that I had loved watching as a youth.

To no one’s surprise that evening, former USC running back Reggie Bush won the award.  The player described as having video game type moves on the real gridiron was all smiles as he joined USC’s treasure chest of former winners.

But due to recent events, I have been left wondering if I really did make that trip to NYC five years ago.  After NCAA violations have been discovered against Southern Cal related to Bush, the speedy running back will apparently forfeit his Heisman after being scrutinized by the Trophy’s Trust.  If this does indeed happen, Bush, would be the first player to forfeit or be stripped of college football’s most prestigious honor in the 75-year history of the award.

Apparently in the coming days, Bush will ship the award back, issue an apology and move-on with the 2010 NFL Season as still is a valued member of the Super Champion Saints.  We will see if 2005 runner-up and former University of Texas quarterback Vince Young is ready accept the award – at first the former National Championship MVP said  he didn’t want it, but may have had a change of heart.  I know that Reggie Bush did wrong by accepting improper gifts from agents while he was still in college, but the NCAA and the Heisman people have gone too far on this one.

Anybody can see that this move is just being done to discourage any future college “hot shot” and/or unscrupulous agents from embarrassing the award…But give me a break.  USC has already been served with the NCAA’s harshest punishment since the SMU Death Sentence and Bush has been publicly humiliated by his alma Mater removing him from the school’s record book.  Enough is Enough as you cannot re-write history.

The Heisman Trust may think that they are doing the right thing by passing Bush off as a villain.  But trust me there are thousands of former big-time college athletes that have gotten payoff handshakes during their collegiate playing days.  Let’s face it…NCAA Football is just a glorified minor league for the NFL and NBA where everyone is fatting up huge dollars from Conferences to Schools to Cable Networks to Head Coaches to Athletic Departments.  But players are supposed to just sit quietly and wait for their turn to get paid in the pros…yeah right.

I have never been a big fan of college football and the main reason is the “Hypocrisy” of the entire system, especially their B.S Bowl Championship Series (BCS) that decides their National Championship contenders – something to argue about another time.  If anyone needs to be humiliated further it is not Bush, it should be former USC head coach Pete Carroll, who skated off to millions of dollars in Seattle.  Also you cannot forget the real “pimps” of college football, the Conference heads and school presidents, that keep trying to move the sport back to the Knute Rockne era before it was the billion-dollar business that it is today.

Now is the time for college football administrators to finally figure out a way of compensating players, because the current system is mockery — million dollar bowl payouts, jersey sales, etc…while kids don’t have money for a date.  Taking away Bush’s Heisman is just a “Face Saving” move and is only window-dressing to the much larger problem of college football where players get the shaft over and over, only because they have a scholarship.

Next thing you know former winners Jason White, Eric Crouch, and Rashaan Salaam will have to give back their awards, because they were “scrubs” in the pros.

Lloyd Vance is a Sr. NFL Writer for Taking It to the House and Sports Journey Network , who is also an award-winning member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA)