Thursday, June 30, 2011

Bush still hasn’t coughed up his Heisman


Earlier this month, Paul Pabst of The Dan Patrick Show tracked down the whereabouts of the Heisman Trophy that Saints running back Reggie Bush supposedly forfeited last year.  Eventually, Pabst determined that the hard-to-find hardware was in storage at the San Diego Hall of Champions, and that Bush’s mother and stepfather, Denise and Lamar Griffin, had “loaned” the Hall of Champions the item in March 2011, months after Reggie supposedly had committed to coughing up the trophy.
Now, SportsByBrooks.com reports that the Heisman remains at the Hall of Champions, that the Hall of Champions is no closer to returning the Heisman to Bush or his family, and that Bush has decided he won’t return the Heisman to the Heisman Trophy Trust.
The fact that Bush recently spent the weekend in San Diego for a football camp and a cancer research benefit and didn’t take back the trophy and pack it in Styrofoam peanuts in a box bound for Manhattan seems to support the report.
“I was told Bush and the Griffins ‘loaned’ the trophy to the San Diego Hall of Champions to get it off their hands for the time being, treating the local museum as a safe deposit box of sorts,” Brooks writes.  “When Bush’s disgraced reputation eventually fades from everyday life, which if Bush’s recent, media-free SD weekend was any indication may have already happened, the Griffins will retake personal possession of the sacred bronze object to do with it what they please.”
At some point, that never-returned Heisman could fetch a pretty penny on the open market.  Which would go a long way toward paying the rent.  Which got Bush, his family, and USC into their current predicament in the first place.
But this is hardly about the money.  This is about Bush and his family having the power to do whatever they want, from brazenly taking money and benefits while Reggie was still playing for the Trojans to stubbornly refusing to repay money that allegedly was provided under the assumption that Bush would hire the benefactors to be his agents to even more stubbornly refusing to completely settle the litigation spawned by the situation to even more stubbornly refusing to admit that which ultimately became obvious.  All of which got Bush, his family, and USC into their current predicament in the first place.

source:  PFT.com
author:  Mike Florio

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