Henson: Well, they say there is a first time for everything. And now, for the first time ever, a Heisman trophy winner is forfeiting college football’s most coveted award. After months of speculation, Reggie Bush is giving the Heisman back. Bush has embarrassed not only himself in the investigations involving his career at Southern California, but he has embarrassed his university and the Heisman Trophy Trust with his actions. In 2005, Bush was one of the brightest stars in the world of sports, scoring touchdowns left and right, flying into the end zone at heights we had never really seen before. Every Saturday we knew we were going to see some insane highlights come from the Trojan running back, and he captivated an entire country with his remarkable athletic ability. It’s a shame that historic season had to be tarnished. It’s a shame fans can no longer remember Bush for the jukes and the spins. Instead, we are left with a former Heisman winner who is making news due to the poor decisions of his past. All Bush had to do was wait a couple years, wait until his name was called in the NFL draft. The money would be plentiful, and he could support his family with a hard-earned professional salary. Just stay away from the agents, stay away from the temptations. Instead, Bush elected to take improper benefits, and he’s become the face of a growing problem in college athletics. That’s a far cry from being the face of one of the most storied programs in college football. Now, USC has done all they can to erase Bush from their memory. Images and references of the electrifying running back have been removed from anything and everything involving USC. After years of hard work and dedication to a school, all it took was a couple mistakes to ruin a once proud legacy. Pretty embarrassing if you ask me.
Holt: Reggie Bush is but one man. Well, I suppose he embarrassed one of college football’s most storied programs as well, but it’s always ‘USC this’ and ‘USC that,’ and I don’t think anybody outside of SoCal was really that upset about the whole thing. Over on the East Coast, the other team I got sick of hearing about on ESPN made yet another headline for some improper treatment of a media type/television personality. No, that “media type” wasn’t Glenn Beck and in that case, I would have hoped the “improper treatment” involved physical violence and a tire iron. Instead, Ines Sainz, of Mexico’s TV Azteca, was the target of the New York Jets and their catcalls on Saturday. Sainz was waiting to interview quarterback Mark Sanchez (A former Trojan and a Jet? Can he be any more overbearing?) at practice and noticed how passing drills curiously seemed to end near and around her for a great portion of the practice. Later, she was reportedly subject to some hoots, hollers and other “H” words, while in the locker room. Whoopsy daisy. You can’t do that. I’ll back up for a second. Sainz is pretty universally recognized as an attractive woman. The Erin Andrews of Mexican sports television, if you will. She’s the kind of woman who could have you buying her dinner and forking over your bank account info in the same night, using nothing more than a pair of tight jeans and a bat of the eyes. So with that information, this behavior doesn’t seem too bad – if you’re a construction worker in the 1950s. Or an eighth-grade traveling football team. Not a professional athlete – or professional anything, for that matter. Don’t give me that “boys will be boys” nonsense. These men were at work – even if work for them is hitting people and catching a ball. Next time you’re at work, try whistling and catcalling a pretty girl. Then count to 10; that’s roughly how much longer you’ll have a job. Come on Jets. Losing to the Ravens in your shiny new home is pretty bad. But getting just as much press for acting like hormone-crazy high school freshmen? Now there’s a Rex Ryan-sized embarrassment.
