Flanked by his family and legal team, Reggie Bush celebrated the return of his Heisman Trophy on Thursday during a press conference at the place where he won it – the Los Angeles Coliseum.
The great, former NFL running back from USC spoke to reporters for the first time since the Heisman Trust reinstated the 2005 award he won while helping lead the Trojans to the Pac-10 championship and berth in the national championship game. He did this with his Heisman Trophy next to him.
“I never believed any of the lies that were told about me, spread about me, things that were said about me,” Bush said. “I never believed it for a single day.”
Bush and his lawyer Ben Crump has promised to pursue a defamation lawsuit against the NCAA, which vacated USC’s 2004 national championship season and many of Bush’s individual achievements, leading to the loss of his Heisman Trophy in 2010. The NCAA ruled that Bush was ineligible for the games in which he played due to impermissible benefits of marketing agents.
The landscape of college athletics has changed drastically since then, with athletes openly receiving compensation for the value they provide in the form of NIL agreements.
The Heisman Trust returned the trophy to Bush on Wednesday in Jacksonville, along with a statement from President Michael Comerford citing this change in landscape in his decision to do so.
“We are thrilled to welcome Reggie Bush back to the Heisman family in recognition of his collegiate achievements,” said Comerford he said, through a statement. “We considered the enormous changes in college athletics over the past few years in deciding that now is the right time to reinstate the Trophy for Reggie. We are thrilled to welcome him back.”
The decision came years after Bush initially requested the return of his trophy in 2021. In his 2021 statement, Bush called for action from Comerford and the NCAA, while also stating that “I won the Heisman Trophy ‘solely’ due to my hard work and dedication on the football field.”
In 2023, Bush filed a defamation lawsuit against the NCAA, in part over a 2021 statement from the organization that characterized his time at USC as a “pay-to-play” arrangement. Crump on Thursday called for the NCAA to join the Heisman Trust in clearing Bush’s name.
“The Heisman Trust did the right thing,” Crump told reporters. “They stayed on the right side of history. When will the NCAA get on the right side of history?”
Bush repeatedly said Thursday that he earned accolades in college and did not cheat.
“You can’t get to this or a national championship by cheating,” Bush said while pointing to his Heisman Trophy.
He posed with the trophy for photos with his three young children.
“Today is the first time they’ve seen the Heisman Trophy,” he said. “The first thing they said was ‘damn, it’s big’.”
He then reiterated that his Heisman Trophy and his accomplishments were all earned.
“I have never cheated in this game,” Bush said. “Ever.”
The NCAA has not publicly addressed the reinstatement of Bush’s Heisman Trophy.
