Morning Reading: USC to Return Reggie Bush’s Heisman
Should we do the list? Sure, why not?
Mike Garrett. USC running back. 1965 Heisman Trophy winner. Out as athletic director of the Trojans after a series of problems and sanctions delivered down to the school from the NCAA.
O.J. Simpson. USC running back. 1968 Heisman Trophy winner. Well, you know.
Reggie Bush. USC running back. 2005 Heisman Trophy winner. A great deal of the reason behind the Trojans current problems.
The other two Heisman Trophy winning USC running backs – Marcus Allen and Charles White – are probably doing their best to keep as far away from any of those three as possible.
To start the cleansing process, USC has appointed former Trojan quarterback Pat Haden as the school’s new athletic director, which seems to be a good move at the moment. Haden is already in full cleaning mode.
As they begin to scrub the athletic program, USC will remove practically all references to Bush and former basketball star O.J. Mayo from the school. That includes sending back Bush’s Heisman Trophy. Bush may get to keep his own copy of the trophy. The Heisman Trophy Trust hasn’t indicated they will ask him to return it or not. Not that he cares at this point, but it should be a nice reminder of the everlasting impact he had on USC. He can look at it while watching the Trojan-less bowl season.
Just like that Ilya Kovalchuk’s 17-year deal with the New Jersey Devils is no more. The NHL rejected the deal between the star player and the team. The structure of the contract had the NHL suspicious and eventually led to the league’s rejection of the deal. Too little at the end.
Kovalchuk was set to earn only $550,000 each of the last five years of the deal. If he were actually playing at that time, it’s hard to imagine someone of his career accomplishments (assuming he plays most of his career at a high level) playing for that small of a deal. Because of that and it’s low cap value in those years, the NHL rejected the deal.
So now it’s back to the drawing board. It is possible an arbitrator could rule in Kovalchuk’s favor and let the contract go through, but it seems unlikely. If the arbitrator rejects the deal, Kovalchuk remains a free agent. Interesting considering the saga that went on from the point free agency began until now. Expect both the Los Angeles Kings and the KHL to make runs at him again if he does reenter free agency. It may be hard for either to prevail though. Kovalchuk did express a desire to return to the Devils by agreeing to the contract. New Jersey will work hard to hammer out another deal.
Magic Johnson agrees with Michael Jordan. He never would have wanted to team up with Jordan and Larry Bird to form some sort of super team. Johnson’s goal was to beat those guys, not be on the same team with them.
It’s a different time and today’s superstars may have a different mentality. In the days of Magic and Jordan, the best only considered themselves the best if they beat the best. Today, the best are simply the last ones standing. How you got there doesn’t necessarily matter as long as you have the trophy at the end of the season. So Chris Bosh, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade figured that they should just play with the best instead of trying to beat them – something superstars of the past don’t agree with and can’t fully grasp.