Reggie Bush: The Heisman They Took Away and Gave Back

The Heisman They Took Away (and Gave Back)

When the New Orleans Saints drafted Reggie Bush second overall in 2006, the city was still digging out from Hurricane Katrina. The Superdome, which had been a shelter of last resort during the storm, was being rebuilt. The team was coming home. And they were bringing with them the most electrifying college football player in a generation.

Bush had won the 2005 Heisman Trophy at USC with 784 first-place votes — one of the most dominant Heisman campaigns ever. He could run, catch, return kicks, and make defenders look foolish in ways that defied physics. He was exactly the kind of player a city needed to get excited about football again.

His Saints career was complicated. Bush was never quite the every-down running back people expected, but he was a dynamic weapon — an All-Pro punt returner in 2008 and a key piece of the 2009 Saints team that won Super Bowl XLIV. When the Saints beat the Colts 31-17 in Miami, Bush had his ring, and the city had its redemption story.

Then came the Heisman controversy. NCAA investigations revealed that Bush had received improper benefits while at USC, and in 2010, he voluntarily forfeited his Heisman Trophy. For fourteen years, the most iconic individual award in college football had an asterisk where Bush's name should have been.

But the story has a redemption arc, because of course it does — this is New Orleans. In April 2024, the Heisman Trust returned the trophy to Bush, citing the enormous changes in college football's landscape around athlete compensation. The trophy came home, just like the Saints came home after Katrina.

Reggie Bush's New Orleans chapter was about more than football. He arrived when the city needed hope, helped deliver a championship, and eventually got his own redemption. In a city built on second chances, that's a story that fits right in.