September 15, 2006
Report: Bush accepted money while at USC
The sharks are circling around USC's 2004 National Championship once again. Ongoing investigations into the Reggie Bush rent-gate have uncovered evidence that Reggie Bush and his family accepted gifts, money and other benefits worth more than $100,000 from two marketing agents while Bush was still playing for the Trojans.
The report was based on an eight-month investigation by Yahoo Sports, citing documents and interviews with on-the-record sources close to the situation. It lists several instances in which Bush and his family appear to have received financial benefits, including:• Suits for Bush's stepfather and brother to wear during the Dec. 10, 2005 Heisman ceremony in New York, a makeover for his mother for the event and limousine transportation - all paid for by Ornstein.
• Two hotel stays by Bush, one in Las Vegas and another in San Diego, during March 2005. In both instances, the rooms were paid for by Michaels.
- $13,000 from Michaels' fledgling firm, New Era Sports & Entertainment, to purchase and modify a car for Bush.
- $595.20 in round-trip airfare from San Diego to Oakland in November 2005 for Bush's stepfather, LaMar Griffin, his mother, Denise Griffin and younger brother to attend the USC-California game at Berkeley. The charges were put on a credit card belonging to Jamie Fritz, one of Ornstein's employees.
The Pac10 and NCAA are already investigating improper benefits allegations against Bush and his family for $54,000 in unpaid rent. USC counsel Kelly Bendell has said that the school is cooperating with the probe but "cannot comment on any matter that is the subject of an ongoing NCAA and Pac-10 investigation."
Yahoo Sports asked Bush about the investigation recently, but Bush declined to comment.
"I don't want to talk about it,'' Bush told Yahoo.com recently.
If the allegations are proven to be true, the NCAA could impose sanctions on Southern Cal and Reggie Bush, including a loss of eligibility for the times in question.
Comments:
GatorFan80 said:
posted on September 15, 2006 11:08 AM — 24.143.9.237 — link — abuse?
Why dosent everyone just leave the guy alone. They all know that they would have done the same thing. It seems like all anyone wants to do is try and ruin his name and make him look bad, when they have so many other pro athletes who have done alot worse things. And besides I am sure he is not the first college football player to take some money on the side. Let Reggie Bush play football and stop worring about this, the Saint need him.
posted on September 15, 2006 11:22 AM — link — abuse?Kevin Donahue said:
Leave him alone? Do you have any idea what you're suggesting - open season on college recruits? Do we really want a system where boosters determine the national champs? (Again!)
This isn't about the Saints. It's barely about Bush. It's about paying college players under the table. It's a crime in almost every state and it's against the NCAA rules.
If Bush or his family accepted cash/benefits, USC should be punished. If USC knew or should have known, then they should lose their National Championship.
AU03 said:
posted on September 15, 2006 11:50 AM — 205.255.224.10 — link — abuse?
I thought all of these alleged events happened at the end of 2005- they didn't win a NC that year.
Also, if USC didn't know anything about it, why should they be punished? They can't monitor Reggie and his family 24/7.
Tampa Hurricane said:
posted on September 15, 2006 12:10 PM — 24.96.199.254 — link — abuse?
Gatorfan80, are you retarded? How could you suggest that Reggie Bush and his NCAA rules violations should be left alone. Bush and USC need to pay for the clear rules violations. Bush should be stripped of his college eligibilty going back to 2004 when all of these violations started. This would result in USC being stripped of their national championship from that season and Bush losing his Heisman from 2005. We will see if the NCAA is going to inforce the rules like they do when it is a smaller sport/program. If you look at what the NCAA did in stipping Hawaii men's volleyball of their national title for violations minor compared to the magnitude of the Bush violations, then there is no other course of action that the NCAA could take besides stipping USC of their national championship. USC knew Bush was breaking the rules and they chose to look the other way. I hope the NCAA does what is right and gives USC a harsh punishment.
Can the USC supporters give any valid reason that the USC program would allow agents to be on the sidelines for practices and games and let a star player have an intership with the company of an agent?
DonnieBoy33 said:
posted on September 15, 2006 12:21 PM — 206.114.39.219 — link — abuse?
Ok, first, the only part of accepting gifts such as these that is illegal is the payment of taxes. Or lack there of assuming they're guilty. Giving someone money is not illegal. What this is is a breaking of NCAA rules which every player of every collegiate sport agrees to upon becoming a scholar athlete.
Yes, it makes Bush and his family look bad and causes USC to pay penalties for his breaking of the rules. If it's proven that someone, anyone at the university knew of these "payments" then the sanctions and penalties are certainly warranted. But does Reggie really care anymore? Hell, he's gettin' paid! Let USC and their football program deal with it now.
Regardless, GatorFan's precious Saints shouldn't have to worry about good ol' Reggie doing any jail time unless he pulls a Barry Bonds and blatantly lies if this ends up in a courtroom.chuck moore said:
posted on September 15, 2006 12:43 PM — 4.240.198.1 — link — abuse?
hey the guy got caught,the program is dirty, but not unlike a couple of schools in florida and one in okla., nebraska where they reward you with a trip to washington d.c. for your dishonest deeds.
The worst part may be that it seems everybody named bush may have tendicies to lie and cheat.
CHUCK MOOREchuck moore said:
posted on September 15, 2006 12:55 PM — 4.240.198.1 — link — abuse?
THEY CAUGHT HIM ,ITS THAT SIMPLE, AND IT SATS MANY THINGS ABOUT THE PROGRAM AT USC,WHAT ARE WE STRIVING FOR A NEBRASKA WEST? OR FLA.ST.WEST OR MAYBE A MIAMI WEST?
ITS NO WORSE THAN SEVERAL OTHERS,BUT AT LEAST THEY HAVE NOT SENT THE COACH OFF TO WASHINGTON D.C. AS A REWARD . NOT YET ANYWAY
THIS GUY SHOULD ADMIT TO IT AND MOVE ON ,HE CAN LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK
chuck moore
farmington , new mexicoRhett B. said:
posted on September 15, 2006 2:44 PM — 198.74.36.82 — link — abuse?
"It's a crime in almost every state..."
It is NOT illegal to receive money. I guess you must be running from the law in your state for getting paid every two weeks...No laws were broken in that regard. The only issue is IF he did receive income did he report it to the IRS and pay taxes on said income.
It is more of a moral crime in regard to the NCAA, which is trying to maintain a level playing field amonst its member schools.
The NCAA has no power to send Bush to prison because his parents are scumbags and are a few cans short of a six-pack.
There are two separate issues at play:
1) whether bush and his family knowingly accepted cash/benefits while he was a college player.
2) whether USC knew that bush and/or his family was accepting said cash/benefits.
If no. 1 is found true, bush should be stripped of his trophies. This would lead to no. 2 and whether USC knew about it or not...if they did not, I find it hard pressed to fault USC as an institution completely.
If they take the fall; schools like Oklahoma (my bad), Notre Dame, Texas, et al should all be put though the ringer for providing extra benefits to student-athletes, whether they knew about it or not.
The reality is that USC is the top dog right now and everyone is gunning for them...if this happened to Nichol's State nobody would care, no news papers would sell, no online ads would be sold, etc...
It's all about dollars for the Yahoo!'s and ESPN's of the world.
This story was already told months ago...all these details do is provide a single-sided viewpoint of what may or may not have transpired.
Personally, I will wait for the NCAA to come to a conclusion on their own without the help of sport writers that can't get even get a job at their local paper and online blog writers or forum members that tend to subscribe to People magazine and believe everything they read as fact.
This is simply what you call convicting someone in the press without due process.
Tampa Hurricane said:
posted on September 15, 2006 2:45 PM — 24.96.199.254 — link — abuse?
AU03 read the articles on yahoo sports and you will see that members of USC knew about the illegal gifts and Bush was giving his people excuses to give Carroll when they were asked about it. Carroll decided to look the other way and never did investigate the illegal gifts. Also Yahoo has a timeline and the illegal activities can be traced back to the 2004 season in which USC did win the title.
Rhett B. said:
posted on September 15, 2006 2:48 PM — 198.74.36.82 — link — abuse?
"It's a crime in almost every state..."
It is NOT illegal to receive money. I guess you must be running from the law in your state for getting paid every two weeks...No laws were broken in that regard. The only issue is IF he did receive income did he report it to the IRS and pay taxes on said income.
It is more of a moral crime in regard to the NCAA, which is trying to maintain a level playing field amonst its member schools.
The NCAA has no power to send Bush to prison because his parents are scumbags and are a few cans short of a six-pack.
There are two separate issues at play:
1) whether bush and his family knowingly accepted cash/benefits while he was a college player.
2) whether USC knew that bush and/or his family was accepting said cash/benefits.
If no. 1 is found true, bush should be stripped of his trophies. This would lead to no. 2 and whether USC knew about it or not...if they did not, I find it hard pressed to fault USC as an institution completely.
If they take the fall; schools like Oklahoma (my bad), Notre Dame, Texas, et al should all be put though the ringer for providing extra benefits to student-athletes, whether they knew about it or not.
The reality is that USC is the top dog right now and everyone is gunning for them...if this happened to Nichol's State nobody would care, no news papers would sell, no online ads would be sold, etc...
It's all about dollars for the Yahoo!'s and ESPN's of the world.
This story was already told months ago...all these details do is provide a single-sided viewpoint of what may or may not have transpired.
Personally, I will wait for the NCAA to come to a conclusion on their own without the help of sport writers that can't get even get a job at their local paper and online blog writers or forum members that tend to subscribe to People magazine and believe everything they read as fact.
This is simply what you call convicting someone in the press without due process.
K Hat said:
posted on September 15, 2006 3:11 PM — 4.245.77.191 — link — abuse?
The media is referring to the payments and gifts as "improper benefits". This is a total joke how the media is trying to soften the language on such as serious matter.
I'm sure if this was a politican receiving money and gifts from a company, we would be hearing words like, scandal, backroom deals, and bribery.
Tommie Trojan said:
posted on September 15, 2006 4:38 PM — 206.135.38.195 — link — abuse?
All this is is a way to remove USC from another Championship game. I don't blame them. He probably was in on taking the money. I don't consider that the University was involved. Nevertheless, consequences are in order. It's a shame.
The deal is that there might be four or five undefeated teams left this year. Removing USC from Bowl contention would help to not leave some deserving team out. They will sanction USC for this. They have to - regardless if the University was involved or not. It was an ineligable player. Furthermore, they ought to give the Heisman to Vince Young.
Now, as far as the Houston Texans passing on Reggie Bush - that was just plain stupid! He can take as much cash as he can get right now. Now, they're down to nothin' as far as RB's go and the DE Mario Williams can easily flop. Reggie Bush will not flop unless he takes a serious injury. The Texans have been one of the most stupid teams for some time and they will continue to be far out into the future.Tommie T
VOLPIMP said:
posted on September 15, 2006 6:38 PM — 208.0.27.10 — link — abuse?
I find it hard to believe that USC was unaware of his auto purchase and refurbish, as well as seeing his family flown around and staying in high priced hotels. The whole concept of the credit card being used because the Bush family "didn't have one" is bull, anyone who can afford to give someone else those amounts of cash to pay off their credit card bill should be able to get their own credit card. None of us can really throw stones at USC though guys, we are ALL dirty somewhere. Honestly if it's all proven I hate it because USC will suffer big time if they are put on probation, they lose scholarships it will be tough for awhile in Trojan land.
VTBobb said:
posted on September 15, 2006 7:11 PM — 71.248.22.63 — link — abuse?
Even the NCAA recognizes that there are different degrees of violations. This is definitely a major one. Even if USC “didn’t know”, they should have and therefore have a significant “lack of institutional control”. The whole point of requiring institutional control is to prevent colleges from pleading ignorant and allowing boosters to buy teams for them.
Being a Hokie fan for 20 years, I’ve had a unique opportunity that many of you haven’t. I’ve watched “my team” build from a perennial also-ran to being a consistent winning program, and even competing with the elite programs in college football (although they haven’t quite reached the pinnacle yet, can’t seem to close out a season). While I don’t agree with some of the NCAA rules, I believe that the primary focus is to try to keep the playing field level. Without them, VT never would have had an opportunity to build their success.
If these allegations are proven to be true, there is no legitimate excuse to let USC off the hook. If they didn’t know, they didn’t want to know and my understanding of the rules means they had no institutional control. Hence, they should be harshly punished. Otherwise, the NCAA is just asking for us to return to the days of the big bucks buying the championships.
2 final thoughts – If Bush had not had this pipeline for cash, do you really think he would have stayed in college for ’05? That right there is a reason to have USC forfeit they’re entire ’05 season.
Second – Does anyone think this will affect Bush’s play this weekend? Just checking, trying to decide if I will play him on my fantasy team.
terry said:
posted on September 16, 2006 4:47 AM — 68.62.124.147 — link — abuse?
As far as the legalities of what the entire bush family did, there may be major consequences. If the bush family including reggie received cash, or in kind gifts, they are in trouble with the irs immediately if they didnt claim the benefits and pay the taxes. that and losing the heisman are the only things that really can happen to reggie and his folks. USC, however, is heading down a very nasty path. being aa ardent bama fan, i feel bad for the other players and coaches, but they are going to have to be punished for this. this is a major violation of the rules. Claiming to have no knowledge of what went on wont cut it with the infractions committee. at least, it shouldnt if the ncaa is going to be fair and equitable. im afraid USC may be looking at a large slap across the face. bowl bans, mulitple losses of scholarships and lost revenue are inevitable if the claims are true. BAMA'S first time on probation after the 92 season was a direct result of a player accepting $500 and signing a contract written on a napkin. he played in most of the games the following season and BAMA had to forfeit all those games. Not sure the national title can be revoked though. the ncaa really doesnt have anything to do officially with awarding the national championship in football. since they dont have any control over the bowls, and outside sources(polls) decide the champion, the ncaa may not be able to strip the title from USC. the pac10 can strip their conference title, and id be surprised if they dont do that early in the process if these allegations hold up. im not happy this is happening, but the rules are all too clear on this.
Tomcat said:
posted on September 16, 2006 5:05 AM — 69.150.79.183 — link — abuse?
What is this the Weekly World News of college football.Big time allums do what they think are best and everyone is naive to think this kind of stuff is not happening. Were do you draw the line with these kinda things.
Back in the eighties one time I was a guest at a after game party at a strip club. No one asked who was picking up the tab, everybody was ordering drinks and enjoying themselves.Did the University know, I doubt it.How do you control these types of activities and what consitutes going beyond the line?
If someone gives you a gift, do you turn them down? Too much head hunting going on here.FSU_Student said:
posted on September 16, 2006 10:28 AM — 71.54.171.218 — link — abuse?
Ok for clarity no one said it is illegal to receive money. That is a fairly retarded twisting or misunderstanding of the statement roughly paraphrased as "It is illegal for college players to receive compensation for college play in most states" This is blatantly compensation for him being a USC college football player named Reggie Bush.
That being said stripping that national title is out of the question I think. That is like saying we should strip every yard he earned from each game. Who is to say the outcome would not have been the same? With that joke of a schedule, the media's absolute fetish, and the recruiting of USC it likely would have been the same.
How should this team be punished? They should lose 5-10 scholarship spots. I lean toward 10, this extra 5 could be for the questionable celebrity trash taking place there. They should be on Probation for 3 seasons. No titles or trophies should be awarded to this team during this period. Further Reggie Bush's awards (from USC, his Heisman etc.) should be purged from the record books.
Why should USC be punished? Whether or not it is proven the coaches or anyone else at USC knew about this it is obvious the environment and discipline are LAX! Allowing celebrities onto the field goes to show they have little regard for unfair practices (Miami does this as well in the form of old players). The NCAA needs to address this retroactively and this is a great opportunity to slap down shady programs. Besides for at least part of these alleged activities there is no way someone didn't know about it at USC. Burn the school and the guilty party, don't burn the kids that played in the 2004 National Championship game. If the NC is passed to Auburn or Oklahoma that year it will never feel like a real NC to those teams either. It just doesn't make sense.
I guess stripping the championship would stop some of the "back to back national champion" talk but that should be ignored anyways. There is only one national championship and it involves a crystal ball. The AP has a part in the BCS not a separate national championship. Or maybe USC does have three. 1 for 2003 and 2 (AP one, BCS one) for 2004? Of course there are a million good reasons why LSU is the only national champion in 2003 (such as the PAC-10 signing onto the BCS). There are dozens of skimpy reasons why there are two national championships from 2003 as well (there have been shared championships in the past, part of the goal of the BCS was to eliminate these). I recommend USC fans please aid the cause of removing the BSC in 2011 when it expires if you don't like it. Don't go to the bowl game, even if you want to see your team getting schooled by one oversize VY.
Buckeye Mark said:
posted on September 17, 2006 12:53 AM — 24.95.35.62 — link — abuse?
FSU Student the team and the program need punished Pete Caroll knew what was going on or at least should have. He chose to ignore the situation instead of doing the right thing and suspending him. A coach with class would have done that. Pete Caroll wanted his precious NC I say give the 2004 NC to Auburn at least they didn't get caught
A Fan Overseas said:
posted on September 19, 2006 7:30 PM — 210.146.99.23 — link — abuse?
The PAC10 and USC need to be dealt with severely by the NCAA. Enough is enough with the cheating/lying/stealing and game fixin' out there on the west coast. The rest of the country sees what the PAC10 is up to. INTEGRITY doesn't mean a thing to USC or the PAC10.
BUCKEYE MARK said:
posted on September 19, 2006 10:05 PM — 65.24.61.71 — link — abuse?
Boosters do this at every Big Program (including one a am a very big fan of) what makes the difference is wether it is ignored and/or covered up but as far I know when it happens at my school it isn't ignored and players are punished !
david campbell said:
posted on September 20, 2006 12:37 PM — 24.158.96.58 — link — abuse?
he shoul dbe treated same as any other and USC school as well. he knew come on it is his folks and he did also. not taking his talent away from him Bush is one bad MF and in thE NFL he is already but he did wrong and give back trophy and USC the title Bye-Bye now
GO BUCKEYES !! TROY 4 HEISMAN OR TEDD GINN jr
Tomcat said:
posted on September 23, 2006 12:51 AM — 70.244.248.250 — link — abuse?
Thank you Buckeye Mark Thats the way it is and has always been.People and the media always want to dig up dirt and point fingers.The fact of the matter remains that favors are done.Wether it is some agents or Allumi ,were do you draw the line. If someone wants to pay some kids families rent or buy a snowcone.
In the seventies it was well understood that some teams recruiting efforts were obviously overlooked and ofvoided.Kids had promises of new Ponitiacs, from allums Etc.Whether you played for Oklahoma,SMU,Texas or Washington,ETC EtC had do do with percks. Has that stuff really changed? Or is it just covered up better.Ask a 17-18 year old kid if he wants a new Trans Amm and see where he signs up.If his momma needs a house or his daddy needs a tractor.I see no violation by the University. Sic-em Bears Hookem-Horns
Go Frogs Ou-Sux War Eagle Geaux Tigers
Please note that all comments are subject to the Fanblogs Comment Policy.
Kevin Donahue said:
posted on September 15, 2006 10:49 AM — link — abuse?Here's the full summary of the allegations from the Yahoo report: