Pac-12 All-Century RB Reggie Bush is @LevisStadium to support the Trojans in the Pac-12 Championship. #FightOn pic.twitter.com/eSxHTuCrsf
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) December 5, 2015
San Francisco 49ers running back Reggie Bush swung by Levi’s Stadium on Saturday to support his former college squad, the USC Trojans, as they got ready to take on Stanford for the Pac-12 title. It might be hard to remember for younger fans that have only seen Bush’s largely lackluster NFL career, but for a lot of the players on the current USC roster, Bush was electrifying during his time at USC and a big reason some of them decided to play there.
Them boys so happy to see reggie I'm glad he came back that was long overdue forreal he's the reason we all went there that man was special!
— Marc Tyler (@M_Tyler26) December 6, 2015
The former Trojan’s 2015 NFL season ended with a bizarre knee injury on November 1st. With the game in his home stadium in San Francisco, it shouldn’t have been too big a surprise to see him there …except for the fact that after his Heisman was stripped from him in 2010 and USC was forced to vacate its 2004 national title (won with the help of Bush) due to NCAA violations, one of USC’s punishments was to strip USC of all mention of the former running back.
But with the Pac-12 highlighting an All-Century team on Saturday, Commissioner Larry Scott told the L.A. Times they included the running back due to his on-field performance:
“We’re not really making a political statement one way or another here. We want to honor those that were the most significant, that had the most impact in terms of their performance. What that means to the NCAA and USC is outside our view. “
It’s probably just meant as a meaningless celebration of the best athletes of the Pac-12, and of course, as an NFL professional with no ties to the NCAA anymore, it’s hard to say there’s anything at risk for USC or Reggie in showing up there. But we’ll always celebrate any chance to show up the NCAA when we can, so good work, Pac-12.
