In rare solidarity with New Orleans Saints fans, Atlanta Falcons rookie Bijan Robinson joined the chorus calling for the return of Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy. Bush’s fellow running back made an appearance on Tyreek Hill’s “It Needed To be Said” podcast in which he stumped for Bush to again be honored by the Heisman Trust after his achievement was stripped away in 2010.
“You can’t take away what he did on the field. Everyone knows what he did,” Robinson argued. “I don’t think you should take away the Heisman, especially for what he did that season. He took over college football.”
Bush had a season for the ages in 2005, rushing for 1,740 yards and scoring 16 touchdown runs in just 13 games. He added another 478 receiving yards and 2 touchdown catches off of 37 receptions while picking up 493 kick return yards and 179 punt return yards, taking one back for a special teams touchdown. For the folks keeping score, that’s a grand total of 2,890 all-purpose yards.
But an NCAA investigation found that Bush’s family received improper recruiting benefits from USC, leading to heavy penalties on the school and the forfeiture of Bush’s hard-earned trophy. Those charges seem weak in the wake of game-changing name-image-likeness rights (NIL) for college student-athletes, and as Robinson pointed out, that doesn’t take anything away from what he accomplished on the field.
And it turns out Robinson isn’t separated from Bush by as many degrees as you’d think. He was only three years old at the time, but Robinson added that his grandfather was a referee for Bush’s 2005 game with Fresno State, in which the star running back rushed for a career-high 294 yards on the ground, averaging an incredible 12.8 yards per carry. That’s a story quite literally passed down from one generation to the next. If Bush’s impact on college football is that strong — and it most certainly is — the least the powers that be could do is return a trophy they were wrong to steal in the first place.
