12/03/24
July 21, 2010
USC Gives Back Reggie Bush's Heisman: The University of Southern California has fired athletic director Mike Garrett, sent back Reggie Bush's 1995 Heisman and is removing all traces of Bush and O.J. Mayo from its facilities. "The Trojan family honors and respects the USC sporting careers of those persons whose actions did not compromise their athletic program or the opportunities of future USC student-athletes," writes university President-elect C.L. Max Nikias. Yahoo's Dan Wetzel believes the problems at USC went all the way to the top. "The blame and hand-wringing will go to Bush because that's how it always works in college sports. Only three kinds of people get blamed in NCAA scandals -- the greedy kid, the shady agent or the bumbling assistant. It's never, ever the people in charge."
I agree with Wetzel -- these athletes and outsiders become convenient scapegoats when things go wrong, but surely a great deal of blame needs to go to Carroll (who conveniently skipped out of town before this hit), the athletic department (some blame has obviously been placed here with the replacement of the AD), the administration, etc.
(By the way, need to fix the second link, which goes to the same site as the first link and not a Yahoo! article by Wetzel.)
posted by holden at 03:59 PM on July 21, 2010
And USC has no problem keeping OJ Simpson's Heisman.
posted by BornIcon at 04:01 PM on July 21, 2010
OJ Simpson's situation and Reggie Bush's situation are in no way comparable to each other.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 04:43 PM on July 21, 2010
Giving Bush's Heisman back is merely USC's way of saying it's not our fault, it's his fault. Which I am assuming is what the Wetzel article says? Bush presumably earned the Heisman based on his on-field performance. The payoffs, etc. off the field did not affect his on-field accomplishments (other than of course if they had been known or investigated at the time he would have been banned from playing).
posted by graymatters at 04:52 PM on July 21, 2010
OJ Simpson's situation and Reggie Bush's situation are in no way comparable to each other.
You're absolutely right! People don't look at Reggie Bush as a person who commited murder or is currently in jail but Bush allegedly taking money warrants for USC to pretend that Bush never attended USC.
posted by BornIcon at 04:56 PM on July 21, 2010
What's your point in re: the Simpson Heisman trophy? There's a lot of injustice in this world. How much of it needs to be fixed before it's ok for USC to return Bush's trophy?
posted by yerfatma at 05:21 PM on July 21, 2010
It does often astonish me how quickly some can blame an 18 year-old kid and ignore the multi-millionaire recruiting him. Pete Carroll, anyone?
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 06:23 PM on July 21, 2010
The head coach on up the college football ladder should receive some type of punishment for the year in question. Perhaps having them pay back a portion of the salary they received during that year. Anything to make them realize that they will be blamed and suffer sanctions for something that occurred on their watch. They took the job and the big money, so they are responsible for the goings-on during their tenure.
posted by roberts at 06:50 PM on July 21, 2010
Unless you can tie the coach directly to the transgression, how can you penalize him personally for it? "He had to know what was going on" so rarely results in a guilty verdict in a court of law.
As for OJ - should every university return every trophy, and forfeit every victory, when a former player is accused of a criminal offense? Is USC supposed to return his Heisman because he was convicted of armed robbery in '08? What that has to do with his performance on the football field in '68 is beyond me.
posted by MW12 at 08:36 PM on July 21, 2010
Matt Leinert was part of this era too....somebody here want to reassure us HIS hands are clean?
posted by NerfballPro at 09:12 PM on July 21, 2010
"He had to know what was going on" so rarely results in a guilty verdict in a court of law.
Unless it was in his contract.
posted by roberts at 06:29 AM on July 22, 2010
Matt Leinert was part of this era too....somebody here want to reassure us HIS hands are clean?
With all that time he's spent in hot tubs, they must be.
posted by yerfatma at 08:20 AM on July 22, 2010
"He had to know what was going on" so rarely results in a guilty verdict in a court of law.
Isn't that why the NCAA goes with the "Lack of institutional control" finding? They can't prove that Pete knew about Bush and his family, but their finding is that Pete should have known, hence the "lack of institutional control" at USC.
I'm no expert in this but it seems to me that this is comparable to the "reasonable person" standard in law. In other words, a reasonable person should have known what was going on with his star running back.
posted by cjets at 11:58 AM on July 22, 2010
Is USC supposed to return his Heisman because he was convicted of armed robbery in '08? What that has to do with his performance on the football field in '68 is beyond me.
This. It's idiotic to me that SC should return a Heisman for offenses committed 26 years * or more after the Heisman was awarded. His crimes, as heinous as they may be, have nothing to do with his playing days at USC.
*The Simpson/Goldman murders were committed in 1994.
posted by cjets at 12:04 PM on July 22, 2010
The "lack of institutional control" finding may cause someone to lose their job, but I'd be real surprised if any qualified agent allowed his client to sign a contract requiring him to return a portion of his salary without hard evidence of direct involvement in any transgression.
And my bad - totally spaced on that jury finding OJ guilty of those murders.
posted by MW12 at 01:33 PM on July 22, 2010
This problem will never stop. There is a limit to how much you can control a system that is patently unfair. Telling athletes that are making millions of dollars for their schools that they can have none of that money for themselves or their families is a tough pill to swallow. It is hardly surprising that there is going to be difficulty in getting kids to obey those rules.
posted by bperk at 01:42 PM on July 22, 2010
And my bad - totally spaced on that jury finding OJ guilty of those murders.
Actually he was found not guilty of criminal charges but he was found liable in civil court.
I only mention the year of the murders as it is the absolutely earliest one could say Simpson was guilty of wrongdoing.
posted by cjets at 03:12 PM on July 22, 2010
And my bad - totally spaced on that jury finding OJ guilty of those murders.
I was kidding. We're on the same page here.
posted by MW12 at 03:35 PM on July 22, 2010
Heh.
Obviously my sense of humor lost out to my pedantic need to provide the correct info.
posted by cjets at 06:14 PM on July 22, 2010
I only mention the year of the murders as it is the absolutely earliest one could say Simpson was guilty of wrongdoing.
I beg to differ. Anyone who saw any of his films would certainly say that he was guilty of bad acting.
posted by irunfromclones at 03:56 AM on July 25, 2010
I am sad for my alma mater that this came to pass, no matter how common it may be at big football unis and how unfair the current system is to student/athletes (sic), but I'm proud that our new pres stood up and did something along the lines of the right thing.