When you're discussing the greatest talents to ever suit up on the college football level, you better mention Reggie Bush. Reggie Bush was a player that doesn't come around often in sports. He was the greatest show on television during his days at USC. Everyone tried to imitate his double spin move, his elusive jukes, or his demoralizing cutbacks. His highlight reel ages like fine wine. to the point you'll find yourself still replaying every punt return or long run.
While Reggie Bush's impact on college football will last forever, his legacy has been stained by his Heisman being stripped away. The sports community can universally agree that Bush deserves his Heisman but the NCAA has been stubborn and the battle still rages on today. Reggie Bush plans to file a defamation lawsuit against the NCAA for “maliciously attacking his character” in a 2021 statement alleging he was part of a “pay for play arrangement.”
The 2021 NCAA statement was put out in response to speculations that the 2005 Heisman would return Bush following the NIL being put into effect.
“Although college athletes can now receive benefits from their names, images and likenesses through activities like endorsements... NCAA rules still do not permit pay-for-play type arrangements,” an NCAA spokesperson told ESPN.
We sat down with Bush recently to talk about his college football legacy, his greatest college football players of all time, and a potential documentary coming out on his story. Bush declined to comment on anything related to his long battle with the NCAA & the fight for his Heisman to be reinstated.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
First off, you’re going into the College Football Hall of Fame. How does that feel and what does that mean to you?
I’m excited about it. I'm happy but for one, I'm excited I get a chance to bring my kids with me. They get a chance to share the experience. My kids didn't get a chance to see me play college football but they see all my college highlights and so I know it's gonna be an exciting time for them. It's a surreal moment for me as well. Being able to bring them up on stage with me.
And to that point, you’re not old but do you think people forget how great you were at USC?
You know, I feel like in this day and age with social media and then with everything that we have available to us, with YouTube and just different things like that, you can easily just type my name up and, and see my highlights. And I think when people talk about some of the greatest college football players ever, my name is always mentioned in that conversation.
I would never put myself as No. 1 because I think there's just so many great college football players and guys that I looked up to guys like Deion Sanders, Barry Sanders, Eddie George. These are guys that I grew up idolizing. I love being in that conversation of one of the greatest college football players ever but I think that debate is up for the fans of who's No. 1.
That leads into my next question, who do you think are the five greatest college football players of all time?
So here are my top five greatest college football players that I ever watched, in no particular order. I'm gonna start with No.1, the guy who I grew up idolizing, Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State. I just remember watching highlights of him running in that orange and just making people look silly all over the football field and I wanted to be like him. Then watching him at the NFL level was even more of a treat because that's why I really got a chance to learn who Barry Sanders was when he played for the Detroit Lions and he was just a nightmare for people to try to tackle on the football field. So he was the guy I actually wanted to be like, and that's why I played running back.
The other guy who was one of my favorites of all time, Deion Sanders, and one of the things that I love about Deion Sanders was just the showmanship that he had during the games.
When he would maybe take a punt return back for a touchdown or interception for a touchdown, he would always high step into the end zone. I love the showmanship that he brought to the game. That's why when he would go back and return punts and he would kind of get the crowd hyped, I would do that same thing. I kind of stole that from him. And so, those are my two guys that I loved & I would put those guys over anybody.
And then there were other guys that were great, guys like Desmond Howard and Peter Warrick. Those were two guys that I thought were maybe a little underrated, just for how great they were at the college football level.
The fifth guy I'm gonna say is Eddie George from Ohio State, man. Watching Eddie George in college was like, I mean, he looked like Hercules in his uniform. Big shoulder pads, big thigh pads and he was as big as a defensive lineman. You couldn't tackle him.Watching him at Ohio State during that time period was really a treat for me.
Back to your legacy. I saw this topic trending with the release of the Johnny Manziel documentary so i’ll ask you. Does Reggie Bush deserve his own documentary?
That's already coming. It's coming. We’re just working behind closed doors, behind the scenes. So yeah, the documentary is gonna happen though and it's gonna be fire, it's gonna be fire.
