Justice Served: Former Trojan Reggie Bush To Be Stripped of Heisman

For many USC Trojan fans, it has stuck like a craw in their throat.

While USC has suffered through negative press and the hardships of NCAA sanctions, the cause of all of their heartache has strutted around basking in the afterglow of an NFL championship won in 2009.

Why, this villain even had the temerity to phone new USC athletic director, Pat Haden, and profess contrition, while never offering an apology or claiming responsibility.

Now comes word that the Heisman trophy trust has decided to strip Reggie Bush of his 2005 award, making Bush the first winner to suffer this ignoble distinction in its 75-year history.

For Bush, who even had the unmitigated gall to accept the Heisman in a suit illegally procured from an sports agent, the days of having his cake and eating it too appear to be over.

At USC, Bush has already become persona non Grata.

This past July, USC returned the Heisman trophy won by Bush and disassociated itself from him by removing almost all references to the disgraced running back.

Of course, this was done in direct response to the NCAA's mandate that the university sever any relationship with Bush as part of the corrective actions to ensure compliance with their bylaws, but it was also looked at as necessary to establish a new beginning for USC athletics. 

After all, when Bush accepted these improper benefits, he had turned his back on the Trojans, didn't he?

Then, when he entered into his deal with the devil and refused to repay his ill-gotten benefits, thus creating the tempest to follow, he tempted fate beyond its stretching point.

Now it appears that fate has snapped back at Bush, removing the trophy that he should have returned long ago.

Arguments will be made that he should be allowed to keep the trophy.

That he won it on the field of play and shouldn't lose it in a boardroom.

Nonsense.

Reggie Bush should never have been allowed on the gridiron to start with.

Though it can't be suggested that Bush became a better player because, for example, his parents received free housing, it can be argued that all participants in college football are required to satisfy certain requirements to achieve and maintain eligibility.

Bush failed in that endeavor.

And now he will have to relinquish an honor that once was celebrated and pointed to with pride by a legion of fans of the men of Troy.

Those days went by the wayside when the NCAA handed down its punishment of a two-year bowl ban, removal of 30 scholarships, and placed the university on four years of probation.

So have fun boxing your little straight-arming man for return to the Downtown Athletic Club in New York city Reggie.

And as you do, Trojan fans should celebrate in your misfortune as retribution for your bad decisions, which continue to impact the program you claimed to love not so long ago.

And maybe we can close the book on this unfortunate relationship once and for all.