Reggie Bush Mad At ESPN For Aggregating Something He Said in a Playboy Interview
Reggie Bush, the FOX Sports college football analyst, did an interview with Playboy that was published last week. In it, he mentions college athletes are going to start getting paid. There's an outrageous segment of his quote to be pulled where Bush says that college athletes getting paid could destroy some people. ESPN ran with that quote. Bush asked them to take down the story because he doesn't understand how aggregation works.
Dear @espn Please take this story down, I did not speak to you, I never gave you approval to write this story, this is not what I said nor the context I said it in, and your trying to use my name with this bogus headline for clickbait. Let’s not allow this to happen again... pic.twitter.com/GDHYUpPfAs
— Reggie Bush (@ReggieBush) May 25, 2020
Given the fact that the NCAA hit USC with a postseason football ban because they determined that Bush received, "lavish gifts," it was a little wild to see him say this (via Playboy):
"They’re about to start paying college athletes. This is something that has never been experienced before, and it’s going to destroy some people if their foundation is not in the right place."
However, the full quote in context is actually pretty reasonable.
"I would like to help people, but I’d rather just pop in for guidance. Guidance is the one thing that young athletes coming through the college system miss on so much. I missed on it. They’re about to start paying college athletes. This is something that has never been experienced before, and it’s going to destroy some people if their foundation is not in the right place. The one thing I wish I had early in my career is proper financial knowledge. I hired good agents, and I hired a good team. But I allowed that good team to make decisions for me. I’m not saying I’m going bankrupt, but if I had the proper knowledge back then, some things would be different. People just assume, “Well, you got all this money, so you’re good.” It’s actually the opposite. The more money you have, the more danger you’re in. Because now you’re a freaking open target for a lot of people. It’s a nasty world out there, and it’s about to get nastier. You’re going to really start to see the true colors of a lot of people, and a lot of businesses too. You’re going to see people doing some crazy stuff to make money, because our market is crashing."
Coming from someone who got into a lot of trouble getting paid, maybe we should be listening to this perspective. But instead - completely understandably - people have latched onto the part about college kids getting paid could destroy some people. All things considered, this might not be the conversation we want to use to find Reggie Bush's most nuanced take on paying college athletes.
"PLAYBOY: Getting back to Celebrity Watch Party, some episodes feature you both watching cooking shows. These days everyone is experimenting with recipes. Has your family had any kitchen mishaps?"
Still, it was a great line that was a no-brainer for a newcycle as soon as Playboy got it on tape. If Bush had ignored the ESPN article about it, most of America would have missed it over Memorial Day weekend.