NCAA treated Bush like a servant
In 2010, the NCAA made a public show of stripping Reggie Bush of his Heisman Trophy. They condemned him for accepting so-called illegal benefits, claiming that brought the amateur status of college sports into disrepute.
Mind you, Bush merely accepted petty cash from boosters to help his poor family make ends meet. Yet, the NCAA deemed even that petty cash too much for players it preferred to treat as nothing more than modern-day indentured servants.
Supreme Court emancipates college athletes
From the outset, I’ve continually denounced the NCAA and college coaches for profiting off master-servant relationships with student-athletes.
The following list of titles to just a few of my commentaries in this regard attests to my championing this cause:
- “Reggie Bush Forfeits Heisman Trophy,” September 16, 2010
- “Student-Athletes Make Billions (for Colleges) but Most Graduate Poor … and Dumb,” January 16, 2014
- “Cardale Jones, Ohio’s Superstar QB, Shows Why Colleges Should Pay Student-Athletes,” March 4, 2016
- “Salaries of College Coaches Reflect Enduring Master-Slave Relationships,” October 28, 2016
I think my commentaries contributed to the public outrage that eventually led to legal action. Because that action, in turn, led to the Supreme Court handing down a ruling in 2021 that effectively emancipated college athletes.
Incidentally, Alabama coach Nick Saban is the most successful and celebrated coach in college football history. Therefore, it spoke volumes that he reacted to this emancipation ruling by suddenly quitting in disgust. Surely, that betrayed the vested interest coaches had in their master-servant relationships with players.
In any case, that Court ruling ushered in a new era in college sports, allowing student-athletes to make millions off their own name, image, and likeness (NIL). Indeed, college athletes like Shadeur Sanders, Bronny James, and Olivia Dunn are making money off NIL endorsement deals commensurate with their fame.
Meanwhile, given its specious reasoning for stripping Bush, the NCAA could not ignore the compounding irony.
NCAA reinstates Bush
Of course, that irony was suffused with untenable hypocrisy, which I called out in each of my commentaries. That’s why today’s news came as no surprise:
Reggie Bush is getting his Heisman Trophy back. ESPN reported Wednesday that the Heisman Trust, which administers the annual award for college football’s most outstanding player, is set to announce that Bush’s trophy from the 2005 season will be officially reinstated and returned to him given the “fundamental changes in college athletics,“ including the ability for college athletes to now profit off their name, image, and likeness.
Bush was at the center of a pay-for-play scandal during his time at Southern Cal, which led to massive NCAA penalties for the school and forfeiture of the trophy.
(USA Today, April 24, 2024)
Again, the “fundamental changes” amount to nothing more than the NCAA recognizing the emancipation of student-athletes. The shame is that it took so long for the NCAA to abide by the fundamental fairness of allowing college players to share in the profits they generate.
Ray Donovan served as Ronald Reagan’s secretary of labor. After a jury acquitted him of larceny and fraud, Donovan famously quipped,
Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?
Granted, it’s better late than never that the NCAA is finally reinstating Bush. But, in that Donovan spirit, Bush could fairly quip, “How is the NCAA going to compensate me for 14 years of stolen glory.”