I like Reggie Bush. He seems like a decent guy, and he seems to care very much about his adopted hometown of New Orleans. But it seems like he’s asking for trouble.
If you scroll down to Ten Things I Think I Think, you’ll find it under point #9:
Peter King drones on about this for five paragraphs in a column structure where he usually devotes a couple sentences to each thought.
While I applaud Reggie for wanting to help his fellow citizens, and I think 12.5% is still a nice chunk of change to offer, the way he went about it is…problematic. So I do agree with Peter King’s take, but the problem is that he’s an oft-quoted guy, and I can see this story getting run with. Hopefully, it’ll drop like a rock and result in no-harm no-foul. But if there’s a contingent of Reggie-haters out there, it could turn ugly.
Note that Reggie’s initial position was that he’d donate 25% of jersey sales only if the NFL agreed to let him wear #5, which the NFL refused. Reggie then declared that he’d still make the donation. Good on him for trying to use leverage like that, and good on him for agreeing to the donation anyway.
Are we positive that he’s not still giving 25% to Katrina victims? As in, he’ll only keep 62.5% of his jersey sales? Peter King seems positive, but I’m not entirely convinced.