Bush enjoys return of his Heisman: `I've never cheated'
He strolled onto the terrace high above his former home at the Coliseum, wearing sunglasses and a vindicated smile, lugging in his 2005 Heisman Trophy by the metallic leg of its figurine like a boxer who'd just won a belt in a prizefight.
“How we doin', how we doin', how we doin'?” Reggie Bush asked as he walked past rows of media Wednesday morning, the former USC star setting the trophy on a podium and facing its gold placard forward for the world to see.
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For the second time, really. “I know there have been millions of doubters out there,” Bush said in response to a question Thursday on what he still wanted to prove about his reputation. “And hopefully, now those people can see what we've been saying all along is true.”
On Wednesday, the Heisman Trust announced it was returning Bush's 2005 Heisman Trophy, circumventing more than a decade of battles between Bush and the NCAA over the investigation that stripped the former star running back of his trophy and USC of its 2004 national title. And thus on Thursday morning — exactly eight months after Bush and his lawyers stood at the same spot above the Coliseum, announcing a defamation suit against the NCAA in a push to have his Heisman Trophy returned — Bush's team held a press conference that was more a victory lap than a continued call to action.
The trophy sat on that podium next to Bush and his lawyers as they lobbed verbal grenade after verbal grenade at the NCAA. This was about the trophy, sure, because it's all been about the trophy — the public outcries from Bush, the lawsuit, the billboards enacted by one-time major USC donor Brian Kennedy last year telling the NCAA to “Give Reggie Bush Back His Heisman!”
Thursday, though, was about more than that Heisman. This was about image rehabilitation, with a 45-pound hunk of bronze nearby to add credence to Bush's words.
“The trophy, I guess, was the icing on the cake, of being taken away,” Bush told media. “But being labeled a cheater was far worse. Because I've never cheated. And there is no proof of that.”
There is proof, of Back in 2010, when Bush's Heisman was originally stripped, the NCAA found he'd accepted payments from agent Lloyd Lake and “improper benefits” while playing at USC. But that original NCAA investigation was called into question, and Lake's credibility tested, through an investigation and subsequent legal action from former USC assistant coach Todd McNair. And on Thursday, Ben Crump — a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer — took every opportunity to emphasize the fallibility of the NCAA's original investigation.
“This is a district court saying this,” Crump said, referencing a Superior Court of California ruling in the McNair case that called the NCAA's original interview of Lake “unprofessional.” “This ain't Ben Crump ... this is a district court saying this.”
Bush's lawyers leveraged the trophy's simple presence on Thursday, repeatedly criticizing the NCAA, with Crump saying the decision was a “clarion call to the NCAA to do the right thing.” Lawyer Levi McCathern told the Southern California News Group that there had been no input from the NCAA on the Heisman Trust's decision Wednesday to reverse course, after originally making clear they'd stick to NCAA direction regarding Bush.
“The Heisman Trust had listened to what I was saying, what Reggie was saying, and really pushed for us,” McCathern said.
The NCAA did not, and has naturally stood firm against Bush, filing a motion to dismiss his defamation suit in December after his lawyers pounced on a July 2021 statement seeming to associate Bush with the phrase “pay-for-play.” A hearing on the NCAA's motion to dismiss is scheduled for Monday in the Marion Superior Court in Indiana.