An N.C.A.A. investigation concluded that Bush, once called the most exciting player in college football, accepted improper benefits while at Southern nfl jersey
California. The N.C.A.A. cited U.S.C. for “lack of institutional control” and hit the university with a four-year probation, a two-year bowl ban and a reduction in football scholarships.
Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday that the decision to take back Bush’s trophy was imminent.
“There’s been nothing yet,” Corcoran said. “Everyone is writing all of this stuff, I don’t know where they’re getting it.”
Asked if he thought the Heisman should be taken away from Bush, Corcoran interrupted in midsentence and said, “I know where you’re going, but I can’t comment.”
Never in the 75-year history of the Heisman Trophy has the committee taken one back. We’re talking about a list that includes O. J. Simpson.
Corcoran said there was no timetable on the Bush issue. “I’m sure something will come up — at some point in our lifetime.”
That hardly sounds imminent.
The larger question — one Corcoran did not address — is, what should Bush do? There have been casualties and defections all around him.
Mike Garrett, the U.S.C. athletic director who won the Heisman as a TrojansPittsburgh Steelers jersey
running back in 1965, was fired.
Pete Carroll, the former U.S.C. coach, scampered out of the burning building and is now the coach of the Seattle Seahawks.
According to the N.C.A.A. investigation, Bush received lavish gifts from two sports marketers who wanted to sign him. They paid for hotel stays. They paid for a rent-free home where Bush’s family apparently lived. They paid for a limousine for his use. They even bought a new suit for Bush’s Heisman acceptance in December 2005.
If Bush had any sense of honor, he would return the trophy and save the committee the embarrassment of having to ask for it. If he had any self-respect, he would return it. Bush was effectively a kept man at U.S.C., which is probably not something he wants scrawled on his sports tombstone.
Bush has apologized to the university, but an apology means little coming from a man in the safe haven of the N.F.L., watching his college team. He should share in U.S.C.’s shame, and the best way to do that is to give back the trophy. His mother and stepfather, who were culpable as well, should insist on it.
Critics of the N.C.A.A. will ask why should Bush give it back. The standard argument is that Bush, like many college megastars, was simply getting his pound of flesh from a system that got more from him. Yes, but ultimately the athlete becomes the fall guy.
In July, the U.S.C. president, C. L. Max Nikias, ordered the university’s athletic department to return its copy of Bush’s Heisman to the Heisman Trust and remove nearly all references to Bush and the former star basketball player O. J. Mayo, including murals, as part of the N.C.A.A.’s directive to disassociate the college from the athletes.
A noble gesture. Let’s see if Southern California returns the millions it received during the Bush years. I doubt it.
The N.C.A.A., at the upper echelon of Division I, is an unseemly universe of Minnesota Vikings jersey
exploitation with administrators, coaches, boosters and players using one another in an exploitive dance. U.S.C. used Bush to keep the university nationally relevant. Bush used U.S.C. to catapult himself to fame and fortune in the N.F.L. and a Super Bowl ring with the New Orleans Saints. Carroll used Bush and U.S.C. to catapult himself to glory and ultimately back into the N.F.L.
The N.C.A.A. should make sure Carroll doesn’t get another college coaching job for seven years, a year for each major violation Southern California was found to have committed.
Bush can afford to do the right thing. Indeed, he can’t afford not to. Despite the Super Bowl ring, his name has been smeared. The Heisman is a symbol of a dirty relationship, of bad decisions, poor judgment, misguided priorities — of being bought. Do you really want that in your trophy room?
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