Matt Leinart doubles down on demand to return Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy
The 2004 USC Trojans were one of the more talented teams in recent college football history. With a pair of Heisman winners behind the offensive line in quarterback Matt Leinart (2004) and Reggie Bush (2005), they and Pete Carroll led the Trojans to a national championship. Following an NCAA investigation that found Bush and his family received benefits while at USC, he forfeited the award and USC’s title was vacated.
Through the lens of college sports’ new NIL era, having that much history vacated still doesn’t sit right with Leinart. In an appearance on Matt Barkley’s ‘Making Bread’ podcast from Whistle Sports, he says the violations off the field shouldn’t have hurt that team and the program like they did moving forward.
“What are they going to do? I mean, we won. What happened with Reggie had no effect on what was going on on the field all those years. Obviously it had a pretty dramatic effect on the program and teams that followed but we won fair and square. We beat the hell out of everybody,” said Leinart. “They can take us out of the record book but people still know that team is one of the best teams ever.”
With college athletes able to profit from NIL, it further dates the punishments for Bush and the 2004 title team. In Leinart’s eyes, Bush was a college football legend. In turn, he believes Bush should first and foremost have his Heisman Trophy returned.
“Now it’s legal so it’s different. In that era, there was a lot of people doing a lot of things. I think the next step for Reggie is getting his Heisman back,” said Leinart. “People can say all they want but Reggie earned the Heisman because of his play. He was not only the best player in college football but he’s one of the best college football players of all time.”
Bush totaled 1,740 rushing yards and 18 total touchdowns during his Heisman campaign. With athletes making millions today, it may be time to reopen the conversation about one of their sport’s all-time greats.