USC football great Reggie Bush was on the podcast “All The Smoke” with former basketball players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson and spoke about the college football landscape among other topics in the sport. One conversation detailed the relationship between Bush and Texas football quarterback legend Vince Young.
Bush would talk about two instances where he gained an immense amount of respect for Young with the first being after the legendary national championship football team between the Trojans and Longhorns in 2006. The latter would win, 41-38, beating the No. 1 ranked team in the nation where Bush told the story of talking to Young after the game.
“Vince [Young] is somebody I have a lot of respect for because Vince did something that I’ll never forget,” Bush said. “And you know after we played the National Championship game, obviously they beat us. One of the things that we did, me and Matt did was we went to their locker room and we sought out Vince and the coach, and wanted to shake their hands like congrats that was a good a– game, best game ever.”
The other instance came when the star running back in Bush won the Heisman Trophy after an incredible season in 2005, but had it along with his statistics taken away from him from an NCAA investigation into the USC football program and Bush. What the NCAA found was that Bush had received gifts from sports agents which forced the player to vacate his trophy, statistics, and even the school to have sanctions on them like their 2005 season among other limitations soon after that.
After USC football star Bush was stripped of Heisman, Young was offered
After stripping the trophy from Bush, he would say that the committee who decided the Heisman Trophy winner wanted to give it to Young instead. However, the Longhorns signal-caller would not accept it since it was one that Bush earned for his play as he rushed for 1,740 yards to go along with 16 touchdowns and through the air, caught 37 passes for 478 yards.
“After that when the penalties were happening and the Heisman Trust stripped me of the Heisman Trophy, one of the things that they did was they went to Vince and they asked him if wanted the trophy,” Bush said.
“They took the trophy from me and they were going to give it to Vince,” Bush continued. “At this time period Vince says to the Heisman Trust, that’s Reggie’s trophy. I’ll never forget that because you got to think, first of all, eh just beat us, so now they're on top of the world, they just took down the #1 team, great football game, one of the greatest games ever, he would have every right or in that moment if he wanted to, to be like absolutely, let me get that. I think we talk about that bond and respect that you create on that battlefield, you cant break that.”
Bush would eventually be reinstated by the NCAA in April of 2024 and get back the Heisman Trophy he was honored with at the USC football program in 2005, but through it gained a special bond with Young. The two would be selected one pick away from each other in the 2006 NFL Draft where Bush was second to the New Orleans Saints and Young was third to the Tennessee Titans.
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