Heisman Trust Decides To Vacate Reggie Bush's 2005 Award

One day after Saints running back Reggie Bush voluntarily surrendered his 2005 Heisman Trophy, Heisman Trust president Bill Dockery said Wednesday the award will be vacated.

“We determined that there will be no winner of the 2005 Heisman Trophy,” said Dockery. “The reasoning was that we’re five years out almost, as we think it is too late to have a re-vote and that things have changed since that time, and that—who would ever know where the votes would go if you remove Reggie from the picture.

“Reggie won by approximately 900-plus votes, and Vince Young was second, Matt Leinart was third. You can never re-create the exact scenario to re-calibrate those votes without another vote... It’s time to look forward and not look back.”

Vince Young received 79 first-place votes and Matt Leinart got 18 in 2005, while Bush received the overwhelming majority with 748.

ESPN college football analyst and 1991 Heisman Trophy-winner Desmond Howard commended Bush for making the difficult decision to give back the award.

“Most people, when they introduce me, they introduce me as ‘Heisman Trophy-winner Desmond Howard’ more than they do ‘Super Bowl Champ’ or ‘Super Bowl MVP,’ just because that award has so much prestige. I think it was an incredibly difficult situation and decision for Reggie to make, but he stood up and made it,” said Howard.

Former Notre Dame wide receiver and 1987 Heisman Trophy-winner Tim Brown said Reggie Bush will always be a Heisman Trophy-winner in the eyes of the fraternity of Heisman winners.

“I’m actually hoping that they don’t award the award to Vince,” Brown said before Dockery’s announcement that the award would be vacated, “because I think that would almost be disrespectful to Vince for that to happen because I can’t see him getting the kind of respect and the recognition that that award and that spot deserves.”

Bush said in a statement Tuesday that he will be involved in helping the Heisman Trustees establish an educational program to help student athletes and their families avoid “some of the mistakes that I made.”

This is the first time a Heisman trophy has ever been vacated in the award’s 75-year history.

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