Charles Robinson of Yahoo! has done a great job reporting on the whole Reggie Bush scandal. His latest report that Bush's parents, the Griffins, did not pay rent on the house does not surprise me. I said that from the beginning. This would have been really easy to prove. Reggie said that his parents "leased the house like any other family." Ok, fine, then show us the rent checks. By the way, rent was $4500/per month or about $54,000. They moved out of the house like thieves in the night, but that doesn't really bother me. You can also read about how Bush now claims he was extorted, but I won't bother rehashing those details because most of you probably know them, and most of you say you like this blog for my opinion on things. Well sorry for this but I am not going to give you my opinion. I am going to tell you how it happened.
Reggie's parents made a wink and nod deal with this Michael Michaels or whoever else that in exchange for certain things (use of the house, plane tickets to USC games) they would consider letting this fledging sports agency represent Reggie. I'm sure the Griffins thought they could still choose whomever they wanted as an agent. I'm sure the agents thought if they choose someone else, we'll out them. I really believe his parents did not tell Reggie about the deal because they knew it was against the rules and they wanted him to have plausible deniability. Of course, the Griffins never paid one dime in rent or for anything else they got. They will claim they planned to pay when Reggie got rich. Even if that's true, it's still wrong. Sort of like Butch McRae, they made a deal with these people, they should have just allowed them to represent him. That would have solved all their problems.
Fast forward to this week. Reggie goes on every show he can find (I saw him on PTI, QF and Best Damn) and says his parents did nothing wrong and that he would hide from interviews because he's telling the truth. Today Reggie canceled an interview with Dan Patrick, probably because he found out his parents never paid rent, and told him they had.
So what happens? I think the NCAA will deem this an improper benefit and make USC forfeit every game Bush played in, the same thing they did to the Fab Five when Webber took money. I think the Downtown Athletic Club will let him keep his Heisman. I think its possible the Texans will pass on Bush in the Draft because owner Bob McNair asked him flat out and he lied about it, I think it's because he really didn't know.
The bottom line is, like in He Got Game, greedy relatives took him down. I honestly think his parents told him they were paying rent like anyone else, and they made a liar and a fool out of their own son, because they wanted to move to a nice house one year early.
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