The star tight end for the San Francisco 49ers is rarely lacking words, and on Thursday he spit a few wrapped in knowledge and common decency the NCAA’s way.
George Kittle took to Twitter on the first day of July and lined up the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its punitive actions against former members who garnered, or attempted to obtain, financial gain from the value and popularity they brought to their respective sports. Specifically, Kittle took up for former University of Southern California running back Reggie Bush.
The NCAA retroactively stripped Bush of the Heisman Trophy he won for his performance during the 2005 college football season, vacating 14 wins in which the running back participated and all of the statistics he amassed during that time — meaning he lost his rushing records as well.
The organization also punished the school with a heavy hand in 2010 after the conclusion of its investigation with postseason bans, the loss of 30 scholarships and the stripping away of its 2004-05 BCS National Championship, of which Bush was a part.
The reason? Because Bush was found during his time at USC to have accepted gifts from two up-and-coming sports marketers trying to sign him. Those gifts included a suit for the Heisman ceremony, a limousine ride and a rent-free home in which his family lived for a time, among others.
Why Does the NCAA Owe Bush His Accolades Back?
GettyFormer NFL runner Reggie Bush on set with Fox Sports in 2019.
Now Bush, along with Kittle and a host of tens of thousands of supporters on Twitter, wants the NCAA to erase the revisionist history it doled out in the form of punitive action. Their reasoning is simple and their logic is sound. It goes a little something like this:
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 29, agreed by unanimous decision (9-0) that the restrictions on “education-related benefits” for NCAA student-athletes are unconstitutional, freeing up players to make money off their own names and likenesses.
In other words, the NCAA retroactively punished Bush not for breaking any laws, but for breaking its organization’s rules. But the Supreme Court just declared those rules have been breaking the actual laws of the United States of America for decades.
“Traditions alone cannot justify the NCAA’s decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated,”Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his official opinion.
NCAA, Heisman Trust Are Pictures of Hypocrisy
GettyStar tight end George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers.
Officially found by the highest authority in the land to have been exploiting student-athletes financially for most of its existence, the NCAA has doubled down on its trove of stubbornness and moral ineptitudes in the case of Bush.
It has done so by refusing to even speak with the former NFL star and current football analyst about reinstating his statistics and records, according to a statement from Bush posted to Twitter on Thursday. The Heisman Trust has also joined in the hypocrisy, telling the ex-running back it can’t help him reclaim an accolade he won fairly on the field of play.
“Over the last few months, on multiple occasions, my team and I have reached out to both the NCAA and The Heisman Trust in regard to the reinstatement of my college records and the return of my Heisman. We left multiple messages for Michael Comerford, the President of the Heisman Trust, but instead received a call from Rob Whalen, the Executive Director, who stated that Mr. Comerford would not be calling us back and that, in any event, they could not help us. We reached out to the NCAA on multiple occasions and received no help or got no response at all. It is my strong belief that I won the Heisman trophy “solely” due to my hard work and dedication on the football field, and it is also my belief that my records should be reinstated.”
In a separate tweet Thursday, Bush summed the situation up simply and concisely.
“I never cheated this game,” he wrote. “That was what they wanted you to believe about me.”
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