Reggie Bush Not Likely to Receive Heisman Trophy Back After NCAA Decides Past Penalties Will Not be Re-evaluated

Notable University Of Southern California (USC) football player Reggie Bush, most known for his exceptional career in the NFL, is in jeopardy of losing his Heisman Trophy for good.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) gave Bush a Heisman Trophy in 2005 for being the most outstanding player of that year while playing for USC as a Running Back. He had to return the trophy after an investigation determined that he and his family accepted cash, travel expenses and a home in the San Diego area while he was a student-athlete.

A spokesman from the NCAA reportedly stated to ESPN college sports correspondent Kyle Bonagura that the league would not return the Heisman trophy to Bush because of his past penalties, which will not be reconsidered. These same penalties from back then would be “allowed today under newly-implemented name, image and likeness laws,” since College players now have the ability to receive endorsements, get paid through appearances, and more.

“Although college athletes can now receive benefits from their names, images, and likenesses through activities like endorsements and appearances, NCAA rules still do not permit pay-for-play type arrangements,” the NCAA spokesman stated, “The NCAA infractions process exists to promote fairness in college sports. The rules that govern fair play are voted on, agreed to, and expected to be upheld by all NCAA member schools.”

On Wednesday, Bush’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, released a statement: “The NCAA doubles down on its decade-plus draconian penalty of a teenage kid who had his award taken based upon a sham investigation,” Spiro said. “You have to wonder if profiting from kids for this long has clouded the NCAA’s judgment as to why we have student athletics in the first place.

Earlier this month, reports stated that the Heisman Trust would have given Bush his trophy back if the NCAA removed his past penalties from his records from 2005. The Trust stated that a “recipient must be in compliance with the bylaws defining an NCAA student-athlete.” 

Bush is no longer amongst the 85 Heisman trophy recipients and reportedly forfeited on his end in 2010. This was done after the NCAA investigated the pay-for-play infractions. Bush’s former assistant coach for the USC Trojans, Todd McNair, recently settled a defamation lawsuit that went on for 10 years against the NCAA for his role in the infraction case.

The NCAA has certainly diminished any hope for Bush to remove his infractions off of his records, which would mean that the Trust would have to change their own rule book. This is reported to be highly unlikely but not impossible.