It was recently reported that Reggie Bush would be stripped of his Heisman trophy since he would have been ineligible in 2005, the year he won. Reggie's former school USC has already removed all images of Bush from the school and returned it's copy of the Heisman trophy to the Heisman trust. Ultimately the point is to show that Reggie Bush never did what he did in 2005.
Except that he did. I'll get to how hypocritical the NCAA and USC are later. Removing Bush's image from the school and stripping him of his Heisman will not erase the FACT that he gained over 2000 total yards and scored 18 TDs (from scrimmage--not counting kick returns). Which leads me to the ultimate point--no matter how much we cook the history books, the fact remains that it happened. Therein lies the problem with history and why we can't ultimately accept it as truth. Somewhere along the way it's likely that someone decided to change the historical record for whatever reason.
Aside from the later generation of people that will never know what Reggie did in 2005, there really is no harm done. Except for the hypocrisy by the NCAA and USC--two institutions who are trying to eschew "values" and righteousness. So what if Reggie's family stayed rent free in a nice house? Or Reggie himself stayed in an off campus luxury condo? Did that somehow give him an athletic advantage over the other players? Probably not--but it helped USC gain MILLIONS more in revenue thanks to the BCS bowl appearances. And it helped the NCAA gain MILLIONS more in revenue thanks to TV and bowl contracts. In fact I'm pretty sure everyone involved got paid. So why make a big stink about it now? USC wants to act all high and mighty, removing images, returning trophies and re-writing history--but I don't see them sending back any BCS checks.
If the NCAA and USC want to take the high road, perhaps they should repay all its investors--corporate sponsors, fans who bought tickets and merchandise, etc.--before they try rewriting history. Because along with the people that remember what happened on the field in 2005 (record books be damned), history will also show the NCAA and USC got paid.
1 comment:
its not history its His story. They are not saying Reggie Bush never existed, this is just the ultimate way of saying "Hey Reggie, FUCK YOU!"
Its like when johnner tries to make salient points about the New York Yankees or Giants, and I say "Who gives a fuck?"
This is College Football's way of saying "Who gives a fuck?"
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