Filed under: Football
"At this point, it's kind of out of my hands," Bush said Wednesday after practice with the New Orleans Saints.
Bush would not confirm or deny whether he spoke with the Heisman Trophy Trust about losing the award. Executive Director Robert Whalen said that no decision has yet been made.
USC lost scholarships and was banned from post season play after the NCAA determined that a long list of rules had been broken by the university and its coaching staff. Bush was among those found to have accepted what the NCAA defines to be illegal gifts and financial support.
I am still a bit confused about what Reggie Bush's Heisman has to do with any of USC's NCAA violations. If the idea is that poor character would serve as their justification for stripping him of the award, then that point is certainly questionable. The truth is that if the character of the NCAA itself was being measured, they would fail almost every test. Thousands of critics across America have consistently questioned the NCAA's policies toward its athletes and accuse the organization of stripping players and their families of the right to earn a living from the billions they earn on the field.
The great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, " An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."
While Reggie Bush is certainly not going to go to prison for violating a set of contrived policies created by the NCAA, the reality is that he is college athletics' version of the runaway slave. During slavery, men and women were punished severely for breaking the law by demanding their right to be compensated for their own labor. Violating NCAA regulations could be considered to be one of the most ethical and just things a college athlete, coach or sports agent can do. Most of them understand that without Reggie Bush and his family, both USC and the NCAA would have lost out on millions of dollars in revenue. But instead of giving Reggie and his family the right to negotiate for a living wage like the rest of us in America, Congress allows the NCAA to violate the labor rights of athletes and their families by keeping those billions of dollars to themselves.
I mentioned in a prior article that I believe that all black athletes should boycott the Heisman trophy anyway. I'm not sure why we wait in line hoping that this piece of metal can validate us for what the world already knows that we can do. Seven out of the last 10 Heisman Trophy winners were white quarterbacks, and it's rare that black athletes get that chance to be the kind of golden boy that the NCAA markets well enough to be certified with the Heisman. Rather than sitting and waiting for the Heisman Trust to take away the award, perhaps Reggie Bush may want to consider just giving it back.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.