Reggie Bush is asking for trouble he doesn't deserve

[EllisDee]

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.

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If you scroll down to Ten Things I Think I Think, you’ll find it under point #9:

I like Bush’s spirit and that he wants to help victims of Katrina so readily. Earlier he had agreed to take 25 percent of the money from his jersey sales, regardless of the number he wore, and donate it to Katrina relief. But in order to get number 25, his new number, Bush agreed to give half of the aforementioned 25 percent to McAfee, who previously wore number 25 for the Saints. That means if Bush makes $350,000 in jersey sales, he’ll be donating $43,750 to Katrina relief, not $87,500. That strikes me as a bad deal.

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.

[EllisDee]

Holy shit, Peter King is a fucking douchebag for this willful misrepresentation. Note:

A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER:

In exchange for McAfee’s jersey number, Bush agreed Thursday to designate half of that donation to a charity of McAfee’s choosing.

Fuck I wish I’d seen that first. If I had, this would be in the Pit, and it would be titled “Peter King is a douchebag”.

Oh well.

[BabaBooey]

He’s got a point that Bush shouldn’t back down from the original offer, but I don’t think anyone can hold a grudge against him when he’s still doing so much to help the city rebuild. And I think the guy is talking out of his ass regarding Bush wanting 28. If he did, I doubt it would be difficult to get as, IIRC, Bennett wanted 31 when he came to the team, but switched to 28 when it was already taken. Bennett would have probably given the # up for a meal at Port of Call and a pack of Camels.

[Jimmy_Chitwood]

King does address the allocation of the McAfee 12.5%, so I don’t see it as willful misrepresentation at all:

One other point: If McAfee were giving all of his proceeds to hurricane and flood victims, I’d say no harm, no foul. But he’s not. He’s giving some to his college, some to his high school and probably some to hurricane relief. Bush needs to make this right, in my opinion, and give back the other 12.5 percent he planned to donate.

I don’t see much to get worked up about either way, really, but Bush did do what King said he did – halved his promised contribution.

[EllisDee]

Ah, okay, good. So this shouldn’t be a pitting of King. I recant my attack on him.

[Jimmy_Chitwood]

He’s still a douche, by and large.

[Capa84]

I think the Saints should have just tagged Bush as a QB on their roster. There is no NFL law that says a QB has to line up under center, or wear certain sized shoulder pads, or can not receive hand offs, etc.

Kordell Stewart wore #10 and was listed as a WR, and wore it while being tagged a QB.

[cmosdes]

I believe there are rules about the number of QBs a team can suit up for a game. I remember a rule about having an “emergency” QB who can play only if the first two are knocked out. Given that, calling Reggie a QB may force him to have to actually play QB in a game as he would have to be the backup QB.

[HubZilla]

Speaking of Reggie Bush (slight hijack), any updates on USC getting it’s 2006 championship revoked, since his parents got a nice house?

Since I’ve heard nary a thing about it, does this mean Southern Cal is going to get away with it?

[DxZero]

@HubZilla

Speaking of Reggie Bush (slight hijack), any updates on USC getting it’s 2006 championship revoked, since his parents got a nice house?

Since I’ve heard nary a thing about it, does this mean Southern Cal is going to get away with it?

They didn’t win the championship in 2006. Texas did.

[HubZilla]

@DxZero

They didn’t win the championship in 2006. Texas did.

Bah, one year off. :smack:

[EllisDee]

@cmosdes

I believe there are rules about the number of QBs a team can suit up for a game. I remember a rule about having an “emergency” QB who can play only if the first two are knocked out. Given that, calling Reggie a QB may force him to have to actually play QB in a game as he would have to be the backup QB.

I’m hazy as to whether or not you can suit up more than three quarterbacks for a game. But you are definitely correct that there is a distinct meaning attached to the 3rd QB, known as the “emergency” QB.

Any quarterback can be put in initially at any time. The rule is that once your “emergency” goes into the game, nobody ahead of him is allowed to go back in until the fourth quarter.

That would mean that Reggie would have to be the #2 on the roster; any lower and the “emergency QB” rule would kick in. Then again, considering this highly unusual hypothetical, I’m not sure if there are rules disallowing teams to put two quarterbacks on the field at once.

Carrying this further, if your quarterback then goes down, you could skip over Bush and put in the emergency backup until the fourth. If it were only a minor issue – like your #1 got shaken up triggering the rule that he has to come off the field for one play – you could either call a timeout (negating that rule) or just run a QB option with Bush as the QB, then bring your starter back in. (Problematic on 3rd and long, so you use a timeout in that case.)

In any case, it’s a novel idea and an interesting rule cite to prohibit it. Along the same lines, why not make him a kicker? No problematic emergency QB rule to worry about then.

It’s possible, with all the rigid constraints placed on off-season workouts, that you wouldn’t be able to include him in the RB drills if he isn’t designated a running back, but you could give him a temporary designation as a RB in the offseason and wait to switch him to kicker (as #5) when the season starts.

heh. That’d piss off the NFL to no end, but would also complicate jersey sales. (Hell, it might improve them.) As much as I agree with much of the stringent rules the No Fun League imposes – including this one – I would love to see Reggie “converted” to a kicker with #5 just before the season started.

As far as I know, only QBs, kickers and punters are allowed single digit numbers. Receivers were recently allowed numbers in the teens, but not single digits.

[EllisDee]

@Ellis Dee

Carrying this further, if your quarterback then goes down, you could skip over Bush and put in the emergency backup until the fourth.

This forgets that Reggie wouldn’t be allowed back in until the fourth either, making it unworkable. It doesn’t impact the kicker idea, though.

[DxZero]

@Ellis Dee

Then again, considering this highly unusual hypothetical, I’m not sure if there are rules disallowing teams to put two quarterbacks on the field at once.

That’s definetely allowed. The Eagles sometimes used to sneak McNabb and Koy Detmer onto the field at the same and have McNabb roll out to be a reciever. It never worked, but it looked pretty cool.

[jweb]

I seem to remember that, back when Kordell Stewart was listed as the ‘emergency’ QB for the Steelers, he’d still get on the field occasionally (this was back in the ‘Slash’ days). IIRC, the rule was that you could bring in the #3 QB and as long as the #1 QB was still on the filed of play, the #1 could remain in the game. So if the Steelers wanted to have Kordell run the option, they lined up Neil O’Donnell (their #1 QB) at wide receiver for that play. And I think O’Donnell’s only assignment on those plays was to run directly to the sideline as soon as the ball was snapped.

So I think they could list Reggie as an emergency QB, unless the rules have changed in the last few years.