Cheaters Often Win but Sometimes They Get Caught

The Heisman Trophy Trust is expected to strip former University of Southern California star running back Reggie Bush of college football’s top honor by the end of September, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Bush would become the first player in the 75-year history of the award to have the trophy taken away. The NCAA found major violations in the Trojans’ football program in June and levied serious sanctions against the school.

Two sources close to the Heisman trust said the body’s investigation is coming to a close, and will ultimately concur with the NCAA’s determination that Bush was ineligible during his Heisman-winning season in 2005. Because of that independent conclusion, sources said the trust will relieve Bush of the award and leave the honor for that season vacant.

I hope this is actually true–it is my suspicion that USC is not the only program in the country making such gross violations and programs will continue to make such violations and players will continue to accept such outlandish “gifts” until the NCAA starts becoming equally severe in its punishments. Here is an instance where if the Heisman Trophy Trust actually sticks to their guns–they will be sending a powerful message to the NCAA and the sporting world–cheating will not be tolerated and consequences for doing so are severe.  Sorry Mr. Bush, you won’t be invited to the Heisman Trophy Presentation Show ever again–because you are not a Heisman Trophy Winner–because you broke the rules and therefore are no longer eligible to hold the title of College Football’s best player.

Perhaps baseball and cycling will learn a lesson from this as well–people are always going to look to cheat–that is human nature, but the problem will escalate unless the punishments begin to fit the crimes.  Here is to hoping that other sports might follow the Heisman Trophy Trust’s example and start erasing names off the record books and some integrity would return to the world of sports!