Reggie Bush gets Heisman Trophy back 14 years after forfeiting

Reggie Bush has his 2005 Heisman Trophy again, because the Heisman Belief introduced Wednesday the formal “reinstatement” of the trophy to Bush amid what it calls “monumental modifications within the faculty soccer panorama.”

The Heisman Belief’s resolution comes after Bush forfeited his Heisman Trophy in 2010 within the wake of great NCAA sanctions for USC, which included Bush receiving improper advantages throughout a Trojans profession that spanned from 2003 to 2005.

As a part of the choice Wednesday, the Heisman Belief is returning the Heisman Trophy to Bush and a duplicate to USC. Bush will once more be invited to all future Heisman Trophy ceremonies, starting within the 2024 season.

“Personally, I am thrilled to reunite with my fellow Heisman winners and be part of the storied legacy of the Heisman Trophy, and I am honored to return to the Heisman household,” Bush stated in a press release to ESPN. “I additionally look ahead to working along with the Heisman Belief to advance the values and mission of the group.”

Bush acquired his Heisman Trophy on the finish of a beforehand scheduled summit assembly of the Belief on Wednesday morning outdoors Jacksonville, Florida. Tim Henning, affiliate director of the Heisman Belief, described a “celebratory ambiance” to ESPN’s Coley Harvey, as about 15 Heisman winners had been in attendance on the assembly.

“The opposite winners had been all very excited to see him,” Henning stated.

The choice to reinstate the Heisman Trophy was primarily based on a “deliberative course of” by the Heisman Belief to observe a sea change in faculty athletics in recent times. The Belief cited “elementary modifications in faculty athletics” by which guidelines which have allowed “scholar athlete compensation” to turn out to be “an accepted observe and seems right here to remain.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Reggie Bush again to the Heisman household in recognition of his collegiate accomplishments,” Michael Comerford, president of The Heisman Trophy Belief, stated in a press release. “We thought-about the big modifications in faculty athletics over the past a number of years in deciding that now could be the correct time to reinstate the trophy for Reggie. We’re so comfortable to welcome him again.”

As guidelines permitting athletes to be compensated for his or her identify, picture and likeness had been enacted in 2021, Bush started lobbying for his trophy to be returned. He launched a press release in July 2021 that included criticism of the Heisman Belief, together with Comerford not returning Bush’s calls.

There had been a flurry of latest assist from Heisman winners for Bush to get the trophy again. Essentially the most public got here from former Texas A&M star Johnny Manziel, who stated earlier this yr that he would skip the Heisman Trophy ceremony till Bush’s trophy was returned. Each USC’s Matt Leinart, Bush’s former teammate, and Notre Dame’s Tim Brown are Heisman winners who’ve been outspoken publicly about Bush’s trophy being returned.

Manziel reacted to Wednesday’s information on social media, thanking the Heisman Belief for “doing what’s proper and welcoming a storied member of our historical past again into the fold.”

Thanks to the @HeismanTrophy for doing what’s proper and welcoming a storied member of our historical past again into the fold. There have been many voices all through this course of that stood on the desk for Reggie merely due to the form of human being he’s. I look ahead to being on…

— Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) April 24, 2024

In its decision-making, the Heisman Belief famous the 2021 Supreme Courtroom resolution towards the NCAA within the Alston case, which the Belief stated “questioned the legality of the NCAA’s amateurism mannequin and opened the door to scholar athlete compensation.”

“Recognizing that the compensation of scholar athletes is an accepted observe and seems right here to remain, these elementary modifications in faculty athletics led the Belief to determine that now could be the correct time to return the Trophy to Bush, who unquestionably was probably the most excellent faculty soccer participant of 2005,” the Heisman Trophy Belief stated.

USC now formally has eight Heisman Trophies, giving it probably the most of any faculty within the nation forward of the seven every at Ohio State, Oklahoma and Notre Dame.

“I’m so comfortable for Reggie and your entire Trojan Household,” USC president Carol Folt stated in a press release. “He received our hearts throughout his illustrious profession and deserved to have his well-earned honor restored. We’re wanting ahead to celebrating with him and his household and are proud we had been in a position to stand with him as an advocate.”

Bush had forfeited the trophy in September 2010, marking the primary time faculty soccer’s prime award was returned by a recipient. Months earlier, in July, USC gave again its reproduction of Bush’s trophy in one of many early actions of former athletic director Pat Haden’s tenure.

USC’s sanctions from that investigation included the Bowl Championship Collection vacating the 2004 nationwide title, the primary time a significant faculty soccer champion had been stripped of a championship. The NCAA stripped USC of victories in 14 video games Bush performed, together with that BCS title blowout victory over Oklahoma after the 2004 season. (Bush filed a defamation lawsuit towards the NCAA in August 2023.)

USC athletic director Jen Cohen referred to as the Heisman return “a momentous day for Reggie Bush and your entire USC neighborhood.”

Bush’s play on the sector at USC made him certainly one of this century’s most transcendent faculty athletes. He averaged 8.5 yards per contact from scrimmage over his profession, together with dashing for 1,740 yards and eight.7 yards per stick with it 200 carries in 2005.

He accounted for 42 profession touchdowns over three seasons — 25 dashing, 13 receiving and 4 on particular groups returns. Bush was chosen No. 2 total within the 2006 NFL draft, and just one tailback has been picked that prime within the draft since: Saquon Barkley in 2018.

“What a historic day!” USC coach Lincoln Riley stated in a press release. “Reggie’s reintroduction to the Heisman Household is a particular second for each individual that has been related to USC soccer. We’re thrilled that Reggie’s athletic accomplishments as one of many best to ever play the sport can formally be acknowledged. For a very long time, the Heisman and USC have been synonymous and with the ability to acknowledge all eight of our winners is extraordinary.”

Bush was so dominant in 2005, accounting for two,890 all-purpose yards, that his 784 first-place votes are the fifth most in Heisman Trophy historical past.

Almost twenty years after that peerless season, Bush once more has his Heisman Trophy.