Approaching Zero Hour

The book you see pictured is Tarnished Heisman written by Don Yaeger. There's a link to Amazon.com which provides further information on the book on the right hand side of this blog. It's a very shocking expose of not only what a dirtball Reggie Bush is, but also illustrates the cost of doing business in big time College Football. When I first read the book two years ago, not only was I surprised at exactly what Bush and his family were accused of, but the overwhelming conclusion I reached was that the only thing Bush was really guilty of, was not keeping his improprieties quiet by reneging on his debt.

With that said, a striking development took place today with the news that Bush settled his lawsuit with Lloyd Lake. Lake is the man who was the Bush Family hookup with all the cars, cash, a freakin $750,000 HOUSE for Bush's family to live rent free in San Diego, and various other little "perks", all under the impression that they were going to form a Sports and Entertainment firm called "New Era" with Bush as their premier client once he turned pro. When the Bush Family stone-walled Lake on repayment for everything they borrowed from him, Lake revealed that he had tape recorded conversations with the Bush Family which give specific details regarding who gave what to whom, and filed suit.

Here's where it gets even more interesting. This lawsuit along with a Yahoo Sports Special Report in April of 2006 also led to an investigation by the NCAA which initially began as a probe on Bush, but their findings led them to investigate the entire USC Athletic Program. The NCAA is expected to reveal it's findings relatively soon, and if they find that Bush was in violation (and btw HE WAS) he could be deemed ineligible retroactively and that would lead to not only the forfeiture of his Heisman Trophy, but also the Trojan's 2004 National Championship.

The way I see it : USC should get ready to tear it's banners down from the Captain Happy Pete Carroll era, and Bush should be packing his Heisman Trophy up so he can mail it to Vince Young. As I said before, it's pretty clear that Bush was not the only one on the USC team that had special "arrangements" that the school did more than look the other way on. Yeah Bush might have made it a little harder for the NCAA to gather all the evidence by settling his lawsuit rather than give a sworn deposition, but the damage is done. They have more than they need already. This whole era is finally getting the just comeuppance it deserves.

It ended up being a "New Era" indeed...