Speaker 1: The one thing I always take away from being able
Speaker 1: to be around you guys, being able to be around players,
Speaker 1: you know, being around that team was just that I
Speaker 1: needed every bit of that in that time period because
Speaker 1: I was in such a broken place spiritually. That the
Speaker 1: city of New Orleans, my teammates, everything, it just it
Speaker 1: brought me right back. It was like, Nah, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna let you go too far, you know, down his
Speaker 1: dark path. We're gonna keep you right here with us.
Speaker 1: And then we end up winning that Super Bowl. Man,
Speaker 1: and I was just like the biggest release of just
Speaker 1: like the Monkeys off my back, Breathe fresh air, and
Speaker 1: you know that's what it was about. Yo, yo, yo, everybody,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for tuning in. This is Roman
Speaker 1: Harper and you are listening to the NFL Players Second
Speaker 1: Acts Podcast. I got a special guest here, a former
Speaker 1: teammate of mine. Really looking forward to really diving into
Speaker 1: different aspects of this young man's life. He's been a
Speaker 1: superstar for as long as I've known him, and he
Speaker 1: continues to shock and show out in this world. I
Speaker 1: want to thank, first and foremost, thank all of our
Speaker 1: listeners for tuning in. Continue to listen to us, give
Speaker 1: us always give us a review, and for all us
Speaker 1: new listeners today that's tuning in, make sure you hit
Speaker 1: and click on that follow button could give us a
Speaker 1: review and al and make sure you continue to subscribe.
Speaker 1: Tell a friend, tell another friend to tell a friend.
Speaker 1: All right, anywhere you listen to us on Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: all right Heart Radio app or anywhere else you listen
Speaker 1: to or pick up on your podcast. Thank you our
Speaker 1: guests today. Some people don't know have to really describe
Speaker 1: him or what he is or what he has become,
Speaker 1: but just know, to many, many people, he is the
Speaker 1: best college football player they have ever seen with their
Speaker 1: own eyes. Today's guests fight on for victory. Number five
Speaker 1: aka two five FEVA, whatever you want to call him.
Speaker 1: Reggie Bush, the second overall pick in two thousand and
Speaker 1: six from the University of Southern California, lucky enough to
Speaker 1: have fallen to the number two pick, My teammate, former teammate,
Speaker 1: and always my dude, Reggie, How you doing, my boy,
Speaker 1: I'm good man, I'm good Rome. How are you doing man' here?
Speaker 1: I'm doing good man. So most of the time we
Speaker 1: tell everybody resumes and blah blah blah, but you know,
Speaker 1: everybody kind of knows you. So let me just tell
Speaker 1: a good story about my boy, Reggie. So this was
Speaker 1: my initial introduction to Reggie Bush. So for all these
Speaker 1: listeners out here. So we both get drafted, all right,
Speaker 1: Reggie's number two. I'm second round pick for the Saints.
Speaker 1: They fly Reggie in the second round pick. I guess
Speaker 1: I must have missed a flight er. I didn't get
Speaker 1: whatever it was. It's cool. I'm not even mad about that,
Speaker 1: all right, not even mad. So now we get out there.
Speaker 1: We're in rookie camp. You know, everybody goes to rookie camp.
Speaker 1: So me and Reggie are roommates, all right, the only
Speaker 1: time we were there, for those short period of time,
Speaker 1: we were roommates. And this is my introduction to Reggie Bush.
Speaker 1: Reggie has his laptop out and he shows me what
Speaker 1: he had just come from Vegas at the hard Rock Hotel.
Speaker 1: Rehab was the poor party. I had never seen anything
Speaker 1: like this in my life, all right. I'm from Alabama.
Speaker 1: I've only been out of the state a few times.
Speaker 1: My man, this is like Memorial Weekend. You don't know
Speaker 1: anything about this, somebody, No, I've never seen anything like this.
Speaker 1: It was absolutely life changing. I literally went the next
Speaker 1: year and told my mom, you know what, Mom, I'll
Speaker 1: never be home for Memorial Day everything. I want to
Speaker 1: be at the hard Rock Hotel with my boy Reggie
Speaker 1: and everybody else, everybody, Reggie Bush right there. Yeah. Hey,
Speaker 1: you know what it's crazy, is we um? You know,
Speaker 1: going to Vegas now so different than you know, back
Speaker 1: during that time period before COVID all these things that
Speaker 1: you know transpired since. But Rehab was the first big
Speaker 1: pool party I ever went to, and the first time
Speaker 1: I went, I had that same reaction. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, what is this, like, we damn people here?
Speaker 1: And you know it was it was the It was
Speaker 1: like one of those first big pool parties. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: back in that time period when pool parties were still big.
Speaker 1: Remember going there, you know every year with a bunch
Speaker 1: of teammates, you know, hanging out, having a good time.
Speaker 1: You went before it got ratchet too, like ye, it
Speaker 1: was a new phenomenon. Yeah, it was a new phenomenon.
Speaker 1: Still it got ratched, real it got ratched at some point.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I think things end up changing,
Speaker 1: like Access popped up and Court Beach and all these
Speaker 1: other places but um, you know it was it was
Speaker 1: good times. Man. That was a that was the beginning
Speaker 1: of uh, you know, our our relationship. Us meeting Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I never forget man meeting you for the
Speaker 1: first time. I was like, who, how old is this dude?
Speaker 1: In no way me and him are coming in the
Speaker 1: same draft class. This dude got to be year ten
Speaker 1: right now. I'd be trying to tell everybody, like, Bro,
Speaker 1: I literally had gray hair like majority of my life.
Speaker 1: So I can't. I literally can I can't. I can't
Speaker 1: diet because everybody like, dude, yeah, if I, if I,
Speaker 1: if I showed up reds with black hair, what would
Speaker 1: you say, you should actually do that one time just
Speaker 1: for the college football show, Bro, I swear to guy,
Speaker 1: it would be as hit. It would go viral if
Speaker 1: you showed up all straight black hair, no grays nowhere,
Speaker 1: Just go ahead and die that thing, man, color it
Speaker 1: up one time for the team. So Peanut, Peanut was
Speaker 1: my teammate, and he literally started to go fund me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it got up to like seven grand bro, like
Speaker 1: trying to get me to dye my hair for like,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Noah, I won't do it. Now,
Speaker 1: you know what Um, I honestly, it gives you so
Speaker 1: much character, you know what I'm saying, Like because you know,
Speaker 1: there's different things about us individually that you know that
Speaker 1: separate us from other people. And um, you know, I
Speaker 1: just feel like you know, the way we look, you
Speaker 1: know sometimes when we talk, the way we act, it
Speaker 1: all just gives us character. Yeah. And just knowing you
Speaker 1: for as long as I've known you, man, coming in
Speaker 1: the same draft, You've always been the same guy. I
Speaker 1: always been a great person, always been an amazing teammate,
Speaker 1: hard worker. Um, you know, nothing is changing, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, I'm still seeing that same guy. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean. We just were on the other
Speaker 1: side now, you know what I mean. We lived, We
Speaker 1: lived our our time in the in the NFL. We
Speaker 1: made it through, you know, with all our all our
Speaker 1: limbs still attached to our body. And um, but I
Speaker 1: wouldn't even recognize you, bro if you didn't have gray hairs.
Speaker 1: So you know, I think it gives your character. Man. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you know everybody who's knowing you for so long, you know,
Speaker 1: probably feels the same way. Man. You know, good, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, and you and you you know what I'm
Speaker 1: saying you the man, so well, I appreciate that dog.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's let's kind of jump into that
Speaker 1: NFL career of talking about that in one special season
Speaker 1: that we share was in two thousand and nine when
Speaker 1: we won Super Bowl forty four versus the Colts in Miami.
Speaker 1: At the end of all that that season, Um, what
Speaker 1: was your favorite moment from that season? You've had some
Speaker 1: special moments, Reggie. I mean not only you know. I
Speaker 1: don't want to take anything from you or give you
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of ops. I want you to speak
Speaker 1: on it first, but I mean you do from like
Speaker 1: the eight yard line at one point, like you've had
Speaker 1: some very very special moments, So please go. Let's just
Speaker 1: take it away from there. Um. Well, that Miami game
Speaker 1: you're talking about was a special one because you know,
Speaker 1: I just remember us going to Miami and you know
Speaker 1: that being a dog fight. Like Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown.
Speaker 1: It felt like they had like two hundred yards each
Speaker 1: in the first half. It was that was like first half.
Speaker 1: Clearly first half was running right and so um, you know,
Speaker 1: just that second half is where we really geled together. Um,
Speaker 1: we fought back. Um, you was making plays. I was
Speaker 1: making plays. I had to dive where I took off
Speaker 1: from like an eight yard line, like you said. And
Speaker 1: you know the thing about whenever I dove in the
Speaker 1: end zone, it was me saying or showing that I'm
Speaker 1: gonna score no matter what, at all costs, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's not something that I practice. You never saw
Speaker 1: me dive in practice ever never, Nobody ever wants never
Speaker 1: seen Reggie on the bush on the ground that way.
Speaker 1: It was only in games that would come out, you know,
Speaker 1: and and all honesty, it's not something I prepared for. Um.
Speaker 1: It was not something I practice. It was just like,
Speaker 1: if I'm within ten yards of this end zone, I'm
Speaker 1: jumping because if I got to get a ball to
Speaker 1: Deuce on the one yard line or to Pierre in
Speaker 1: the one yard line or whoever it is. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, I might not get that opportunity back.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they're gonna pull you two as you get
Speaker 1: on that too. They read every time every time they
Speaker 1: act like I can't run between the tackles and on
Speaker 1: the goal line. You know what I'm saying. And you
Speaker 1: know it started at USC when you know me Lindale
Speaker 1: obviously were you know, thunder and lightning, and we were
Speaker 1: going back and forth and and same thing though. You know,
Speaker 1: if I got tackled on the one or two, they
Speaker 1: was gonna bring Lindelle in there and handle on football.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, you know what f this, I'm getting
Speaker 1: the end zone. I don't care what I gotta do.
Speaker 1: I gotta break somebody leg, I gotta bite somebody fingernails off,
Speaker 1: whatever I gotta do, I'm getting in the end zone.
Speaker 1: And you know that's kind of where the diving and
Speaker 1: the jumping, you know started. But um, you know, just
Speaker 1: going back to that two thousand and nine season, you know,
Speaker 1: it was so special for us because everything we were
Speaker 1: playing for, you know, from from two thousand and six, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, months removed when we and as crazy as
Speaker 1: what people may not know is we got drafted to
Speaker 1: New Orleans five months after Katrina. It was a third
Speaker 1: world country. When you went down there, it looked like
Speaker 1: a war zone, you know. And there I remember there
Speaker 1: was curfew at like eight o'clock. People had to be inside. Um,
Speaker 1: nothing was open, No businesses were open. You know. You
Speaker 1: can see still see obviously a lot of the destruction
Speaker 1: spray paint you know on the houses with the number
Speaker 1: of bodies found inside the houses. And this is like
Speaker 1: what we're driving through to get to practice every single day.
Speaker 1: You know. We're trailers. Yeah, the female trailers were a
Speaker 1: huge thing. Please. Yeah. And it was just, you know,
Speaker 1: it was a time period where, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: felt like there was a bigger purpose you know for
Speaker 1: us being down there, and there was a reason why
Speaker 1: you know, that team was brought together, you know, was
Speaker 1: to to help restore hope into the city and to um,
Speaker 1: you know, uplift people's spirits, you know by winning football games.
Speaker 1: Because before we got there, the Saints were not good,
Speaker 1: um you know, and they had some some pretty bad
Speaker 1: seasons for a couple of years before that, and we
Speaker 1: were kind of like the new kids on the block,
Speaker 1: you know, in that two thousand and sixth season, and
Speaker 1: we were able to make some noise. Go to the
Speaker 1: NFC Championship game, we were one half removed from playing
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl, and you know, I think us
Speaker 1: losing that NFC Championship game left a bitter taste in
Speaker 1: our mouth, but it also showed us that, hey, we
Speaker 1: belong here and we can do this. And the next
Speaker 1: two years, you know, we kind of faltered, We were average,
Speaker 1: you know, and then the year four, you know, two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine is when it just all clicked, all
Speaker 1: came together. And you know, that's when Greg Williams came
Speaker 1: over and I really felt like, you know, just his
Speaker 1: attacking style of defense, the way you guys played. You
Speaker 1: the defense was the reason why you know, we we
Speaker 1: a big piece of reason why that we won that
Speaker 1: Super Bowl that year because you mean, you guys were
Speaker 1: just you guys, turnovers, ferocious, like everything that that team
Speaker 1: needed in that time period. Um is what you what
Speaker 1: you guys brought, you know, to the table. And some
Speaker 1: of those practices that we had, man, those were blood
Speaker 1: bath practices, like y'allways chirping that drew anytime you got
Speaker 1: the interception, whole team celebrating the end zone. So that
Speaker 1: fired us up. We had to come back, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, and score touchdowns. And it was just
Speaker 1: those battles, man, those practices that we had from training
Speaker 1: camp to the season, and that's really where we built
Speaker 1: that that championship team. You know, it is within those
Speaker 1: practices and those um you know, those those times where
Speaker 1: you know, the camera's not on when we're not on
Speaker 1: the football field on Sundays and playing, and we built
Speaker 1: a relationship that I felt like goes far beyond the
Speaker 1: football field. Um, you know, to this day, all y'all
Speaker 1: are still my brothers. Y'all know that we still be
Speaker 1: on the group chat talking trash all day with Arnie
Speaker 1: and the Strief and Vilma and you know, all these dudes. Man.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I appreciated most about that time
Speaker 1: period that I was in New Orleans, that we were
Speaker 1: in New Orleans together, was just the relationships that we built.
Speaker 1: Man and coach, you know, Coach Vicki's always say they're
Speaker 1: gonna walk together forever. It's true. There's no truer words.
Speaker 1: It's true. I didn't I would hear him say it
Speaker 1: all the time, you don't really pay attention to it.
Speaker 1: He said something else all the time too. It's like
Speaker 1: when you're in like when you're living in the greatest
Speaker 1: time in your life, you don't realize it, right, and
Speaker 1: those are some of the greatest times of our lives, literally,
Speaker 1: and you don't realize it. You just kind of live
Speaker 1: in life. You're taking it. You're taking it for a
Speaker 1: little bit you're taking it for granted mostly and then
Speaker 1: you wake up and you're like, dude, that really was
Speaker 1: something special. And talking about the super Bowl. We win
Speaker 1: the super Bowl, great season. What did you do after?
Speaker 1: What was that party scene for you? Afterwards? Just don't
Speaker 1: four party scene? I get it. What was that like
Speaker 1: being Reggie Bush after winning the Super Bowl? Man? You
Speaker 1: know what after or we wasn't that super Bowl that night?
Speaker 1: I think I went to Live. I want to live
Speaker 1: that night we all went to Live. I did not go.
Speaker 1: I ended up going the story Live was like twenty
Speaker 1: something sex. It was like crazy. It was it was.
Speaker 1: It was too crazy and I had to boyson me.
Speaker 1: So it was too much. It was. But yes, yes,
Speaker 1: just being in Miami winning that super Bowl, um man,
Speaker 1: it was such an amazing time period, especially for Saints fans,
Speaker 1: for the organization, for us, the players, um you know,
Speaker 1: being able to win that in Miami against the Colts,
Speaker 1: you know, was it was larger than life. Man. It
Speaker 1: was the biggest thing ever. You know. It was like
Speaker 1: you said in that moment, you know, I was excited.
Speaker 1: I was happy. I was you know, celebrating we finally
Speaker 1: did it. But I had to be honest, like two
Speaker 1: weeks later, I was already like, okay, let's go get
Speaker 1: the next one, you know what I'm saying. It was
Speaker 1: like I didn't take enough time to enjoy it, you know,
Speaker 1: I was already trying to think about how are we
Speaker 1: gonna get number two? You know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing about when you win championships, especially when
Speaker 1: you're able to win them at the highest level, it's
Speaker 1: like a drug because you want it again. You know,
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, that was fun, but I want to
Speaker 1: do that x amount more times. And you know, I
Speaker 1: remember us going to do you remember our our parade.
Speaker 1: Our parade was crazy. Oh my god, legendary. That parade
Speaker 1: was was awesome, man. And they said it was gonna
Speaker 1: be three hours and it lasted about eight. Well, that
Speaker 1: ain't no way that parade was gonna last three hours.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had every street it was just lines
Speaker 1: and just thousands of people every street. No, it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what street you looked on. It was just packed
Speaker 1: with people. And we were on our Marty Guard floats,
Speaker 1: you know, going through the French Quarter, going through Uptown.
Speaker 1: And so I'll never forget this story. I ended up
Speaker 1: being on somehow. I don't know how I end up
Speaker 1: being on Sean's float. So it's me Sean Mickey or
Speaker 1: he's on the float. Um somehow. Jay Glazier was on
Speaker 1: the float. No idea why. He had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the team, but he on the floe celebrated with us,
Speaker 1: and so everybody's lit up, right, everybody, everybody's payton is
Speaker 1: lit up. And so coach decides, I don't even know
Speaker 1: if people know this story. He decides, as we are
Speaker 1: going through uptown, he decides to jump off the floe
Speaker 1: with the Super Bowl trophy. Didn't warn, nobody, didn't tell, nobody,
Speaker 1: didn't ask permission, Yeah, security, all kinds of stuff. It's
Speaker 1: thousands of people. As soon as you step off this floe,
Speaker 1: by himself starts running down the street with the trophy
Speaker 1: above his head. Bro, I promise you, So this is crazy.
Speaker 1: Nobody nobody saw him but me. I was the only
Speaker 1: one that saw him running down the street. And I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, y'all need to go get shot over there,
Speaker 1: because he's running down the street with the trophy, and
Speaker 1: all of all you saw was just thousands of people,
Speaker 1: like the swarming bees, just right on top of him.
Speaker 1: You can't see him anymore, but you saw the trophy
Speaker 1: just bouncing around down, top down, the free card through
Speaker 1: this crowd, and it was it was so crazy because
Speaker 1: it was just one of those things where it was
Speaker 1: just like sudden and security had the round there and
Speaker 1: get them whatever it was. But it was obviously all
Speaker 1: in fun and um, you know, it was a great time, man.
Speaker 1: I think winning the Super Bowl for the city of
Speaker 1: New Orleans during that time period is one of the
Speaker 1: greatest memories and accomplishments of my life. You know. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about another accomplishment, um, and that is in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: you were inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame. Could
Speaker 1: you take me through that, your emotions, how to feel,
Speaker 1: where you're surprised, where you shot, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell the people, um, the biggest Reggie Bush moment after
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Um, you know, I was I was happy,
Speaker 1: you know, I was excited because, um, you know what
Speaker 1: we built in New Orleans, that team. You know, all
Speaker 1: those guys that played our draft class. Everybody played double
Speaker 1: digit years, which is crazy. You know, even even Nikovic,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, he left left us and
Speaker 1: went on to you know, Um, the Patriots end up
Speaker 1: having an amazing career. So it was like everybody from
Speaker 1: our draft class, even down to Coaston, who was you know,
Speaker 1: one of the last picks and ended up becoming one
Speaker 1: of the greatest receivers. Yeah, I think it's second second
Speaker 1: to last pick. And you know, it's just the the
Speaker 1: way that everything worked out, the people that we brought in, Um,
Speaker 1: it was just awesome, man. And to be able to
Speaker 1: you know, celebrate that with Missus Benson, um, and with
Speaker 1: you know, coach and my teammates and just knowing that
Speaker 1: you know, my name was gonna be up there with
Speaker 1: you guys and for everything we did, you know, for
Speaker 1: that organization and for the city. UM. That's what it's
Speaker 1: all about. You know, that's what it's all about. It
Speaker 1: It's all about just you know, leaving everything on the
Speaker 1: field and having no regrets. Um. And I really felt
Speaker 1: like I gave everything I had, you know, to every
Speaker 1: team while I could, you know, and especially to the
Speaker 1: city of New Orleans. Like New Orleans is my home
Speaker 1: away from home. I love that place to death. I
Speaker 1: love all the people down there, the fans and some
Speaker 1: of the best food in the world. I don't care
Speaker 1: where you've been, where you ate. You ain't eating New Orleans.
Speaker 1: You ain't had the best food. I could not deny
Speaker 1: that and totally agree with you. Could I could? I
Speaker 1: just I want to know this too, because this is
Speaker 1: the biggest Reggie push moment? Is that? So Reggie gets
Speaker 1: inducted into the Hall of Fame? You going with? Do
Speaker 1: you going with Lance? Or Coaston? Coasting with Marcus Coasting? Beautiful?
Speaker 1: All right? So I come, I'm not in yet. I
Speaker 1: come because I want to support my guys, same draft class.
Speaker 1: I ain't doing nothing, So tell them and going behold
Speaker 1: you know who's late and don't even show up peel
Speaker 1: game time the next day of the Hall of Fame Families. There,
Speaker 1: wife's looking beautiful, none other than Reginald Bush right here
Speaker 1: by man. He's like, you know, couldn't make the flight
Speaker 1: after my show like Orni's like, Dude, as much money
Speaker 1: as this mother joker has made, he wouldn't just get
Speaker 1: a private jet just like get him there, wouldn't do it. Well,
Speaker 1: we missed you, Red, That's all I'm saying. It was
Speaker 1: a great speech that you supposedly did. It was amazing.
Speaker 1: My wife gave the speech. Lelite looked beautiful, all right,
Speaker 1: it was. It was awesome, all right, it was good.
Speaker 1: The boys, their daughter, everybody looked great. We just missed you.
Speaker 1: Just let you know. It was the most Reggie Bush moment. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is okay. Please please explain, because we were there always.
Speaker 1: As y'all know, New Orleans, Louisiana is a city up
Speaker 1: for a lot of these storms that happened, rain storms
Speaker 1: would be some of the most powerful storms you've ever
Speaker 1: seen in your life. True, that day, there was a
Speaker 1: bad storm and a lot of the fights got delayed
Speaker 1: or canceled, and the airport, the New Orleans, the airport
Speaker 1: New Orleans ended up losing power during this storm, and
Speaker 1: so a lot of fights going into New Orleans got
Speaker 1: really delayed. And so my fight was delayed, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was last minute. There's no way to call um,
Speaker 1: you know, a private jet, last minute like that, you know,
Speaker 1: it was I had already booked his flight, and I
Speaker 1: was already you know, at the airport, you know, pulled
Speaker 1: up and I didn't know until I got there that
Speaker 1: it was gonna be that delayed. And I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm about to miss my Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: in duction speech like what am I? What do I do?
Speaker 1: Like can y'all can y'all hold him? Hold him for
Speaker 1: a little bit? Or can't hold it? Dog? We all here,
Speaker 1: We all in the building. We are all in the building.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's it was one of those one
Speaker 1: of those just times where it was literally out of
Speaker 1: my control, you know, and I really wanted to be
Speaker 1: there obviously to you know, obviously be able to give
Speaker 1: a speech, and but my wife held it down for me. Man.
Speaker 1: And that's the beauty of having you know, a spouse.
Speaker 1: That's the beauty of beauty of having a best friend, UM,
Speaker 1: is that you know, we we we counterbalance each other
Speaker 1: and when there's times where there's something that she can do,
Speaker 1: I pick up for it. When there's things that you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes I can't do or things I can't make it
Speaker 1: and she can hold it down for me, then that's
Speaker 1: what she does. And that's I think the best part
Speaker 1: about me and my wife's relationship is that, um, we
Speaker 1: love each other, We support each other, and you know,
Speaker 1: if one of us is ever in a jam and
Speaker 1: we got to pick up the slack for the for
Speaker 1: the other person, and that's what we're there for, and
Speaker 1: then we're gonna do that. Reggie, I've met Lalage quite
Speaker 1: a few times. Number one, up, Hats off to the
Speaker 1: Laitue for picking up the speech because it was funny. Uh,
Speaker 1: because nobody was. It was practice. By the way, she
Speaker 1: is not prepared for this at all, but she held
Speaker 1: it down. So shout out to the Lague. And I
Speaker 1: know her. She's beautiful, She's amazing, and Bro, nobody's gonna
Speaker 1: have your back more than her, And like, if you
Speaker 1: need a h of body, she would do it for you.
Speaker 1: And you know that. You know that now this is
Speaker 1: this is not the only Hall of Fame that you're
Speaker 1: in this year. Yeah, College Football Hall of Fame new
Speaker 1: and ductee this year's class. My man, Reggie Bush, I
Speaker 1: want to first of all tell you congratulations on that.
Speaker 1: That's a huge, huge deal. And knowing the history of
Speaker 1: what you've had at USC, the nc double A, all
Speaker 1: of what college football as much as you meant to
Speaker 1: it or did for it, and what it has done
Speaker 1: to you on the other side of that, did you
Speaker 1: ever see this happening? And also I want to also know, man,
Speaker 1: like where were you at how'd you find this? Out,
Speaker 1: like who told you? True, I've already told me that
Speaker 1: Corney told me weeks before it even happened, So I
Speaker 1: had already already knew Corney leaked it out, you know,
Speaker 1: because Corney he leaked it out to me. But um,
Speaker 1: you know, I m you know, it's funny as I
Speaker 1: actually wasn't. I wasn't even thinking about College Football Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. Yeah, you know that that was not something
Speaker 1: that was on my mind. Uh, it was something that
Speaker 1: I knew I was gonna eventually happen. I just didn't
Speaker 1: know when you know what I'm saying because of the
Speaker 1: nature of everything that happened while I was at USC
Speaker 1: and um, you know, the things that were done to
Speaker 1: the university to me through the NC double A and
Speaker 1: this that constant, uphill battle, that fight, you know, against
Speaker 1: the incable A. And you know, I'm happy that, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm finally not into the College Football Hall of the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Um. You know, I think that I
Speaker 1: earned it. And again, I don't want anything given to
Speaker 1: me for free. You know, I want everything that I get,
Speaker 1: I want to earn it. You know, I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that I put in a body of work
Speaker 1: to show people that he deserves this or whatever that is. Um.
Speaker 1: And and so you know when I when Ornie told
Speaker 1: me the news, I was excited. I was happy, and
Speaker 1: UM I told my wife, told my kids. You know,
Speaker 1: they were all excited and happy, and UM, you know
Speaker 1: we're looking forward to you know, the actual induction ceremony, dinner,
Speaker 1: all those different things, and um, you know it's been
Speaker 1: a long time coming. Man. Um. You know, I think
Speaker 1: when I look back on my college career, it was
Speaker 1: the place for me where I grew so much and
Speaker 1: where I became a man because coming from high school, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I was a great football player and and
Speaker 1: and played against you know, great talent, but you know,
Speaker 1: I felt like also my talent level was you know,
Speaker 1: at a certain level. And then when you get to
Speaker 1: college you realize, oh, everybody's an All American. Everybody is
Speaker 1: you know, one of the best that you know where
Speaker 1: they came from. And so there was just that that
Speaker 1: shift I think in my mind where I had to
Speaker 1: go earn it all over again. I had to go
Speaker 1: prove myself all over again to my teammates, to the
Speaker 1: fan base, to the coaches. You know, this was not
Speaker 1: gonna be something that was gonna be easily given to
Speaker 1: me because of what I did in high school. But
Speaker 1: yet I was gonna have to go in and put
Speaker 1: the body of work in all over again and reprove myself.
Speaker 1: And you know, I thought Pete Carroll did a great
Speaker 1: job at creating, you know, just competition he created. It
Speaker 1: was always competition on the field, and that's that was
Speaker 1: the one thing that drove us, I think was because
Speaker 1: you couldn't relax because you had another five star behind you,
Speaker 1: You had another five star behind him, and SC was
Speaker 1: so loaded. I don't think people that watch college football
Speaker 1: now understand how SC people in when I was in
Speaker 1: college read to a couple of things. I talked about
Speaker 1: the trend setting that you guys did and the West Coast.
Speaker 1: But you know, people believe that USC would never ever falter,
Speaker 1: that they would be what Alabama has now become or
Speaker 1: what Georgia seems to be wanting to become now in
Speaker 1: college football space. And so we all know that college
Speaker 1: football goes in these ebbs and flows. But man, what
Speaker 1: you guys and Pete Carroll created was crazy, Like everybody
Speaker 1: wanted to put up the V for victory. What you
Speaker 1: guys did I don't know your colors completely. I know
Speaker 1: it's yellow, and you know our colors. I didn't know
Speaker 1: it's not cardinal because maroon is a maroon, not maroon.
Speaker 1: What is it? Like? What is you know what it is?
Speaker 1: It's something in yellow? What is its? Cardinal? And gold? Man? Bad?
Speaker 1: My bad. I didn't want to get it wrong, see
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. My bad, My bad, My bad. Dog.
Speaker 1: I'm better than that. You're right, I am better than that.
Speaker 1: I'm a West Coast guy. You know that. But can
Speaker 1: we talk about Let's just stay right there, because I
Speaker 1: want to talk about a couple of trends that you
Speaker 1: guys said. It set in college, all right, Red, you
Speaker 1: guys were the first ones to where like regulation like
Speaker 1: socks to like calfs to the calf and make make
Speaker 1: that look hot. You know what I'm saying? Like the
Speaker 1: boys was like I was in Alabama wearing my socks
Speaker 1: at practice of like right below my calf muscle because
Speaker 1: that's what sc was doing. And I'm literally playing college
Speaker 1: ball too. But I'm like, bro, yeah, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be like that. I don't know the rest of y'all doing,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to be like good boys out there, Broca,
Speaker 1: like that's where it's at all right. That was one thing.
Speaker 1: You were also one of the first people where and
Speaker 1: where'd you get this from? To put the sixth one
Speaker 1: now in your area code? Yeah, underneath your I passed.
Speaker 1: That was like game changer. A couple of different things.
Speaker 1: Lindell had the different colored visors. You guys had celebrities
Speaker 1: on the on the sidelines, Will Ferrell, you can name
Speaker 1: them off. Just take me into like when all that started,
Speaker 1: and did you guys really really recognize like how much
Speaker 1: you were impacting college football in the country at the time. Well,
Speaker 1: like you said, you know, you never really, um feel
Speaker 1: like this is, you know, the greatest time of your life,
Speaker 1: because you know, when you're in those moments, it just
Speaker 1: feels like you're living, you know, it just feels like
Speaker 1: you're working and you're grinding, um, you know, the six
Speaker 1: one nine unneath my eyes. That started. Actually I would
Speaker 1: write my area code as where I'm from San Diego.
Speaker 1: I would write that on my wrist tape. And at
Speaker 1: some point, you know, I think I stopped wearing risk tape.
Speaker 1: And Tino, who was our equipment manager m was was
Speaker 1: always you know, we were always like just messing around
Speaker 1: with just you know, how can we make this look cool?
Speaker 1: How we can make just different things look cool. And
Speaker 1: so I came into the locker room one time and
Speaker 1: he was just writing, you know, different things on the
Speaker 1: eyeblacks and I was like, oh, maybe we should write
Speaker 1: six one nine on there, you know, the area code.
Speaker 1: Let's let's try it out. And so we went out
Speaker 1: to practice with it and it got a you know,
Speaker 1: I got a pretty good reception. I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna do this in the game, you know.
Speaker 1: And I always wanted to the reason why I did
Speaker 1: it because I always wanted to, um pay homage to
Speaker 1: my hometown where I came from. You know, we talk
Speaker 1: about putting the city on your back on the map,
Speaker 1: you know, so to speak. And that was kind of
Speaker 1: my way of, you know, paying homage to my hometown
Speaker 1: where I came from. UM, the people that helped me
Speaker 1: get there, my high school coaches, literal league, I mean, everybody,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And so I wanted to
Speaker 1: really you know, kind of you know, show that respect
Speaker 1: UM while playing football on the field. And that's kind
Speaker 1: of where it started, you know, it was. It was
Speaker 1: literally something that simple. Was just our equipment manager kind
Speaker 1: of like playing around with just different things. And and
Speaker 1: then when I came in there, we was like, yo,
Speaker 1: we we're gonna try this in the game. And it
Speaker 1: got a great reception, you know, And and had we
Speaker 1: been losing, I don't know, does that ever become a
Speaker 1: trend like that Maybe never becomes a trend if we
Speaker 1: lose it. If you lose it, people can be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's trash man, we should be doing over there. Man,
Speaker 1: you don't know what he's doing. People in the sixth
Speaker 1: one nine, let the reb Let you represent that bro.
Speaker 1: We not eat with us, to eat with us. We
Speaker 1: don't know him. We don't know him. But but that's
Speaker 1: kind of where it started. Man. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: also funny because in the Fresno State game, Um, I
Speaker 1: was rocking the one sleeve? Yeah did that? Did that?
Speaker 1: One got torn? Right? It got torn? It wasn't again,
Speaker 1: but now all of us do it. Everybody rock everybody,
Speaker 1: So you know, it was in the game. I was
Speaker 1: obviously bawling and I was running through a tackle and
Speaker 1: my right sleeve got torn and ripped, and it was
Speaker 1: just like hanging and I was just like, yo, cut
Speaker 1: it off, man, let's go like, let's get back in
Speaker 1: the game. Cut it off. And I'm not even thinking that,
Speaker 1: like people are gonna last onto this and this could
Speaker 1: become a new tram with one sleeve, one arm sleeves,
Speaker 1: and you know, that's kind of ended up being one
Speaker 1: of the best games of my career, you know, the
Speaker 1: college level. And you know, again, when when you're playing
Speaker 1: at a high level and you do little things like that,
Speaker 1: you know, people catch on to it. And I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, people obviously liked it, and it was kind
Speaker 1: of welcomed into the college football world, you know. But
Speaker 1: again a lot of these different trends and things that
Speaker 1: we did at USC was it was not on purpose.
Speaker 1: It was by mistake or accident, you know, and we
Speaker 1: just kind of ended up, you know, latching onto it
Speaker 1: and became a thing. Um. But you know this again
Speaker 1: that time period at USC, I became a man. The
Speaker 1: players of guys that I played with pushed me to
Speaker 1: get to that Heisman Trophy, to win the Heisman Trophy.
Speaker 1: I did not win that by myself, you know, because
Speaker 1: every single day in practice, similar to our two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine season. It was like that. Every single day
Speaker 1: in practice, we were trying to knock each other's heads off.
Speaker 1: We were going at each other. It was trash talking.
Speaker 1: Even the coaches was trash talking to us. Like one
Speaker 1: of one of our our our linebacker coaches was Ken
Speaker 1: Norton Jr. I was gonna say it was Ken Norton
Speaker 1: then he was there with you guys, right and anybody
Speaker 1: who knows Kid Norton knows he is one of the
Speaker 1: greatest talkers that has ever existed, right Ever, like Sharp,
Speaker 1: we see Shandon Sharp talks a lot of trash, Kid Norton,
Speaker 1: same way. And I think it was just something about
Speaker 1: that era, you know what I'm saying, that era of athletes,
Speaker 1: an era of players, because the game was much more
Speaker 1: violent back then. The rules were way different. You could
Speaker 1: destroy a quarterback back then, and so it was just
Speaker 1: a different era, you know, of athletes, and a lot
Speaker 1: of those guys, you know, I think about those are
Speaker 1: guys that I grew up watching, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I still have a folder I don't have it here
Speaker 1: right now. I have a folder for when I was
Speaker 1: growing up of trading cards that I collected and I
Speaker 1: went back through this kind of crazy. Man, this is
Speaker 1: like full circle. I went back. Let me go blow
Speaker 1: my thing off back there, let me go pull it out,
Speaker 1: open it up. Man. I had so many cards in
Speaker 1: there of guys who now I'm friends with or have
Speaker 1: gotten to know. So Ken Norn Jr. I had like
Speaker 1: five of his cards. Um. And these are guys who, really, um,
Speaker 1: I looked up to. You know, when I was playing
Speaker 1: in the league, and one of my favorites ever was
Speaker 1: Dion Sanders, you know, Prime coach Prime, and he is
Speaker 1: literally the reason why you know, I wanted to play football.
Speaker 1: And so it was Dion Sanders and Barry Sanders. So
Speaker 1: I tried to emulate my game after Barry, but I
Speaker 1: really wanted to be Prime, and so I tried to
Speaker 1: mix the best of both of them. So that's why
Speaker 1: Dion return punts, I return punts. That's where all started,
Speaker 1: was watching him return punts, and you know, Barry Sanders
Speaker 1: didn't return punts. I was like, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna figure out how I can do both of these,
Speaker 1: you know, So I tried to emulate Barry from the
Speaker 1: running back position and then Prime returning punts, and just
Speaker 1: that showmanship that he brought to the game. I mean nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody was flasher than the Prime bro Like nobody I
Speaker 1: still got. I got a big poster in my bedroom,
Speaker 1: but Prime I got went in my house right now,
Speaker 1: autograph that I wanted an auction, and just like he
Speaker 1: was completely measurment. I mean he was, he was play
Speaker 1: defense and he was completely polarizing. I want to put
Speaker 1: a you know, start to wind his college career down
Speaker 1: because I want to jump into what you're doing now.
Speaker 1: Um number one, UM, do you feel vindicated now now
Speaker 1: that you're going to the College Football Hall of Fame?
Speaker 1: Because you've been very vocal about um, your your past history,
Speaker 1: your your legacy, the treatment of between the NC DOUBLEA
Speaker 1: and you all these back and force Mark Emert, like
Speaker 1: you've been very open and honest about that. Do you
Speaker 1: feel vindicated, Reggie Bush? Vindicated? Wow? UM, I don't know,
Speaker 1: because I took so much blame for everything that happened
Speaker 1: at USC, you know, for for the things that went
Speaker 1: on and this you gotta understand, I was eighteen years old,
Speaker 1: nineteen years old, you know when when um, when this
Speaker 1: stuff happened. Um, there were a bunch of lies that
Speaker 1: were told that were never brought to light about the
Speaker 1: true nature of what was going on behind closed doors
Speaker 1: into double A. UM decided to paint a narrative about
Speaker 1: me that was untrue. It literally just was not true. UM.
Speaker 1: And and it's you know, it's it's it's hard to
Speaker 1: and it looks as as an as a person, anytime
Speaker 1: somebody says a lie about you, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: defend yourself, you know what I'm saying right away. And
Speaker 1: I never really got that chance, you know, to really
Speaker 1: defend myself because the facts that were thrown out there
Speaker 1: were just not true, um, you know about what the
Speaker 1: nc DOUBLEA was doing, and there was just no real
Speaker 1: true investigation. Um that happened. A lot of people think
Speaker 1: that there was this detailed investigation that went on. It
Speaker 1: literally there was one of the worst investigations that has
Speaker 1: ever happened because the NCUBA just decide did not to
Speaker 1: do their homework. Um. And then my running back coach
Speaker 1: at the time period, Um, you know, this was all
Speaker 1: penned on my running back coach because I was already gone.
Speaker 1: So people gotta understand I had already left college. So
Speaker 1: there was nothing that the NABA could do to me, right,
Speaker 1: they're not. It's not like the FBI or the police
Speaker 1: department where they got subpoena power. You gotta come. Like
Speaker 1: I was already gone in the league with you guys,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and I already shifted my
Speaker 1: focus to New Orleans and to how I was going
Speaker 1: to help you know, this city. Um, and so a
Speaker 1: lot of the things that happened were pinned on my
Speaker 1: running back coach at this time period, Todd McNair. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because he's the only one that they could get because
Speaker 1: he's still in com Yeah. So they just do something,
Speaker 1: get somebody exactly. So it literally just like that. It
Speaker 1: was like, we gotta get somebody, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And if for anybody who knows anything about the way
Speaker 1: that you know, penalties work for the NC doable A,
Speaker 1: they have to have linked somebody from the university with
Speaker 1: knowledge of what was happening or what was going on,
Speaker 1: or they were a part of it somehow, some way,
Speaker 1: and they said my running back coach was that guy.
Speaker 1: A year later, in twenty ten, he filed a lawsuit
Speaker 1: for defamation and character against the NC doable A. Well,
Speaker 1: they just settled that lawsuit about eight months ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why I asked, do you feel vindicated because you
Speaker 1: posted this Instagram post, You called about the money, you
Speaker 1: called out Mark Emmet by his name, you said all
Speaker 1: these you know, like you were very open in Canada
Speaker 1: about this rest That's why I feel like it's cool
Speaker 1: to talk about it right now and you can continue
Speaker 1: to share. And because it's because people have thought that
Speaker 1: this case has been closed, right, they thought this has
Speaker 1: been done and over. It has not been over. It
Speaker 1: has been ongoing since two thousand and nine. Think about
Speaker 1: how long that's been that. That's how long the NC
Speaker 1: doable A has been fighting this and they just they
Speaker 1: didn't want the public to know that. Right, it's been
Speaker 1: behind closed doors and it hasn't been publicized because the
Speaker 1: NC doable A. First of all, I got understand they
Speaker 1: got billions of dollars. All right, We've got billions of dollars, right,
Speaker 1: So when you're trying to sue a corporation that has
Speaker 1: billions of dollars, it's gonna be a fight. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be an uphill battle because they're not gonna run out
Speaker 1: of money. You will run out of money trying to
Speaker 1: fight them. And so that's honestly why you know, we
Speaker 1: I have just been in this waiting holding pattern because
Speaker 1: I knew at some point when this case settled, the
Speaker 1: facts were gonna come out. And this was this case
Speaker 1: was public for a while, there was a court, there
Speaker 1: was a trial on it. You know, there's things that
Speaker 1: happened within that case and a lot of um, you
Speaker 1: know my opinion, a lot of evidence that came out
Speaker 1: that showed that the nc doable A had malice towards
Speaker 1: us and towards Temac, which was unfortunate because he didn't
Speaker 1: deserve it, His family didn't deserve it. He didn't do
Speaker 1: nothing wrong, He didn't even know anything about what was happening.
Speaker 1: So that's why, you know, when the ruling, when the
Speaker 1: ruling first came out, we were all shocked actually because
Speaker 1: we knew that the NCUBA had there was no evidence
Speaker 1: on their part. They didn't have They just didn't have
Speaker 1: any evidence, you know, So we were really shocked about
Speaker 1: the ruling and the pillaring that came out. And at
Speaker 1: that point, that's when the lawsuit was filed. And that's
Speaker 1: when I was like, Okay, so here we go. We're
Speaker 1: gonna wait for this lawsuit to settle and then that's
Speaker 1: when the facts would come out. I just didn't think
Speaker 1: it would take twelve years. I didn't think it was
Speaker 1: gonna take twelve plus years for that case to finally settle.
Speaker 1: But that goes to show you how much the Nuba
Speaker 1: did not want this to happen, and how much and
Speaker 1: how long they chose to fight this. And now look
Speaker 1: now look at it as like what we are right right?
Speaker 1: The Supreme Court ruled against him eight nothing was or
Speaker 1: nine nothing. I don't know what it was, eight or
Speaker 1: nine basically, but but what that shows is that one
Speaker 1: what they were one is a violation of human rights.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. This is where I come
Speaker 1: to with this whole nil thing. Name, image and likeness
Speaker 1: is nil. Is something you are already given at your birth.
Speaker 1: It's your name, your image, and your likeness. N Cuba
Speaker 1: is the only place where you're told you can't benefit
Speaker 1: from that, you know what I'm saying. And in no
Speaker 1: other form of work can you do that. If you
Speaker 1: work for me, I cannot tell you Rome, you can't
Speaker 1: go make money off your name, image of likeness once
Speaker 1: you leave this ability. You know what I'm saying and
Speaker 1: that's that's but those are the rules in the games
Speaker 1: that were put in place, in my opinion, to hold
Speaker 1: back one group of people and to elevate another group
Speaker 1: of people. And it's literally that simple, No, it really is. Um.
Speaker 1: One more question on this Heisman thing, and that is
Speaker 1: that on the I Am an Athlete podcast a few
Speaker 1: months ago, you talked about it and you said the
Speaker 1: trophy is coming back. Yeah, m is it close to
Speaker 1: coming back? What's your opinion on that now? And UM,
Speaker 1: I would like to know. I mean I always said, Reggie,
Speaker 1: I think you were crazy for giving it back, but hey,
Speaker 1: you know how you know how I feel. I've told
Speaker 1: you that since day one. Anyways, go I listen, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to give it back. So let me just
Speaker 1: go ahead and say that, like, this was not something
Speaker 1: that I wanted to do. It was just something in
Speaker 1: that time period I felt was the right thing to do. Correct,
Speaker 1: because the human side of me was like, f y'all, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like giving this back. I earned it, you know,
Speaker 1: I grinded, I put into work. Y'all saw what I
Speaker 1: did on the football fields back and like you didn't
Speaker 1: see that, you know what I'm saying, and it is
Speaker 1: what it is. But you know, in that time period
Speaker 1: where all this media attention was on the trophy and
Speaker 1: was on me, was all just negative energy. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be able to shift my focus and have just
Speaker 1: a clear mindset of where I was going, if that
Speaker 1: makes sense. So when I know it makes complete sense,
Speaker 1: it's like the trophy seemed to be bringing all this
Speaker 1: negativity here, just hey exactly, and then next you know,
Speaker 1: I will be able to focus and go with all
Speaker 1: this because this is what it's all about. You can't
Speaker 1: punish me. So if this is what it's about, then
Speaker 1: take it right. And I didn't want to bring that
Speaker 1: energy into New Orleans because at that time period, you know, one,
Speaker 1: I was supposed to be drifting to Houston number one.
Speaker 1: And the reason why there's another reason why, another story
Speaker 1: of why that didn't happen, which but that was all
Speaker 1: because of the Heisman Trophy and everything that was going on.
Speaker 1: But going to New Orleans, you know, when that happened,
Speaker 1: the first thing they did was they flew me in
Speaker 1: and they took me on a tour through all the devastation.
Speaker 1: And right then, right there, I felt this great sense
Speaker 1: of responsibility to the people of New Orleans, to the
Speaker 1: city that there's something much bigger here that needs to happen.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to bring baggage or negative energy
Speaker 1: along with me into the situation, because these people need
Speaker 1: my best and they need my one hundred percent locked
Speaker 1: in focus. And as long as I'm still getting phone
Speaker 1: calls and text messages and questions in the locker room
Speaker 1: about the Heisman Trophy and it's everything's about that, you know,
Speaker 1: that's focused on New Orleans, I can't fully be myself.
Speaker 1: I can't fully dive in and lock in. And I
Speaker 1: just didn't. I felt like the people didn't deserve that
Speaker 1: down there in New Orleans, like it was it was
Speaker 1: something much bigger. Sometimes you go into these situations and
Speaker 1: it's just something it's just bigger than it was, bigger
Speaker 1: than football, right, It's it feels like there's you know,
Speaker 1: there's there was just you know, I don't know, there's
Speaker 1: just a greater connection there that it was waiting for us,
Speaker 1: you know. And we all got involved into helping people
Speaker 1: rebuild their homes, donating money physically out there, nailing down
Speaker 1: you know, boards and stuff on top of people's houses,
Speaker 1: and and so you know when you're in a situation
Speaker 1: like that one. What it did for me was it
Speaker 1: just gets when the city of New Orleans welcomed me
Speaker 1: with open arms, it really lit a fire underneath me
Speaker 1: and made me just want to dive in and give
Speaker 1: these people everything. And so that's, honest to God. You know,
Speaker 1: part of the reason why, a big reason why I
Speaker 1: gave it back because I just wanted to focus. And
Speaker 1: then also I knew at some point when all these
Speaker 1: facts start to come out, people are going to see
Speaker 1: the truth, right and that trophy is going to end
Speaker 1: up coming back. Where are we staying right now? My
Speaker 1: attorneys have been in contact with the NCUBA for some
Speaker 1: time now. We've pressed them, We've sent them demands letters. Basically,
Speaker 1: we sent them fifty six page letter identifying every hole
Speaker 1: in an investigation, every issue that's wrong with what everything
Speaker 1: that happened. And next some amount of months later, I'm
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame, where to God, this is
Speaker 1: literally how it happened. We pressed them, were like listen
Speaker 1: once the because once the court case set then that
Speaker 1: gave us factual proof to where the NCLABA had nowhere
Speaker 1: to run. Right, You've already got the Supreme Court ruling,
Speaker 1: and now you got this court case that just crumbled
Speaker 1: underneath you. And so now all the facts are there,
Speaker 1: and now y'all literally can't run, You can't go anywhere,
Speaker 1: you can't hide. All right, this is what the facts
Speaker 1: are showing and have said, and same thing. We sent
Speaker 1: that same information to the Heisman Trust and so um
Speaker 1: where we are right now, we're in a holding pattern
Speaker 1: waiting for them to respond. That's that's kind of where
Speaker 1: it is. But do I believe it's gonna come back?
Speaker 1: I've always felt that way in my heart of hearts.
Speaker 1: I've always felt like that, you know, I've never I
Speaker 1: always felt like once the once the facts come out,
Speaker 1: you know, the trophy is gonna come back. I totally wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: I work in the college football space too. Now you
Speaker 1: know that I believe it's gonna come back to UM.
Speaker 1: Tell me this, because first of all, I gotta give
Speaker 1: you some credit. You and your boys, you know, pressing
Speaker 1: these cats, you know, like big worm. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But do you think all this extra pressure,
Speaker 1: all this extra stuff, do you think that impacted your
Speaker 1: career early in your career in New Orleans or at
Speaker 1: any other time and throughout your career, like having to
Speaker 1: deal with all this stuff for twelve years, Reds. You know,
Speaker 1: over twelve years, did this impact your career or your
Speaker 1: thought process or any other part, or maybe you can
Speaker 1: point out a specific game or a moment that comes
Speaker 1: to mind. You're like, man, it was just in my
Speaker 1: head and I could not shake it. It was every day. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm being lying to you. Every day has been on
Speaker 1: my mind, every single day since two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: The Heisman Trophy has been right here at the front
Speaker 1: of my head, and it's it's been something that I
Speaker 1: thought about. Um, it's been something that has drove me,
Speaker 1: you know, to depression at one point. You know, when
Speaker 1: I was in New Worlds, it was crazy, as you know,
Speaker 1: when I got drafted. This is supposed to be the
Speaker 1: happiest time in my life, you know, I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: be I'm living out my dream. I finally made it.
Speaker 1: My opportunities finally here, and I'm at my lowest point spiritually,
Speaker 1: I'm at my lowest point mentally. And I felt broken
Speaker 1: honestly because of just the things that were being said
Speaker 1: about me. And then that's what it comes down to. Man,
Speaker 1: when again, when people are calling you one thing and
Speaker 1: they're labeling, labeling you as a certain person as a cheater,
Speaker 1: how am I labeled as a cheater? I ain't never
Speaker 1: cheated a day in my life, especially on that football field,
Speaker 1: you know. And I always always showed up and punched
Speaker 1: that ticket, you know what I'm saying, and punched that
Speaker 1: clock to go to work. And that was the only
Speaker 1: way I knew how to work. It was the only
Speaker 1: way I knew how to how to show up and
Speaker 1: to be great and to be myself. Um. And then again, luckily,
Speaker 1: I've been blessed to be surrounded by great teammates like yourself. Um,
Speaker 1: like all my teammates at USC, guys that pushed me
Speaker 1: to get there every single day. It was like it
Speaker 1: was like this unspoke it's an unspoken bond, as you know. Um,
Speaker 1: that unspoken bond is like I'm gonna show up every
Speaker 1: single day and I'm gonna push you, right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: push you to to to be your best because I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be at my best, right. And so if I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be at my best, one or two things is
Speaker 1: gonna have to happen. When I stepped across this football field.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stop across the sideline from you. Either you're
Speaker 1: gonna rise to the occasion or you're gonna fall. And
Speaker 1: and that's why again I say that usc I became
Speaker 1: a man. It is because I was surrounded by nothing
Speaker 1: but dogs. And when I got to New Orleans again,
Speaker 1: surrounded by nothing but dogs, and you didn't have time
Speaker 1: to sit there and and kind of you know, I
Speaker 1: think worry about you know, your problems and your issues
Speaker 1: and things that were going on. It was like the
Speaker 1: locker room became, um, my escape. It became, you know,
Speaker 1: my sanctuary. It became the place where I could go to.
Speaker 1: I could release my stress. Every single day on that
Speaker 1: football field, I can go into the weight room, you know,
Speaker 1: throw up some you know three fifteen or whatever. I've
Speaker 1: seen you. I've seen you, dog, I seen you. I
Speaker 1: seen you. I seen you, dog. I know I've seen
Speaker 1: you do boy thor to weight on that bench, no question, Andy,
Speaker 1: jumping like a forty like I seen it. I seen it.
Speaker 1: So that that became, you know, I think my place
Speaker 1: of peace, you know, um, which is which you know
Speaker 1: I think too. To me now it sounds crazy because
Speaker 1: when you say the football field becomes your place of peace,
Speaker 1: or the football field is the most chaotic play you
Speaker 1: can be. It's literally chaos, right, So how crazy though
Speaker 1: that the football field, the chaos became my place of peace, right,
Speaker 1: became my sanctuary where I can go and get away
Speaker 1: from the outside noise and where you guys couldn't touch me,
Speaker 1: the media, the the my friends, whoever was texting me,
Speaker 1: calling me. It was like, it's just me and this field,
Speaker 1: me and my craft and and and that's the one
Speaker 1: thing I always take away from being able to be
Speaker 1: around you guys, being able to be around players, you know,
Speaker 1: being around that team was just that I needed every
Speaker 1: bit of that in that time period because I was
Speaker 1: in such a broken place spiritually that the city of
Speaker 1: New Orleans, my teammates, everything, it just it brought me
Speaker 1: right back. It was like, Nah, we're not gonna let
Speaker 1: you go too far, you know, down his dark path.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep you right here with us. And then
Speaker 1: we end up winning that Super Bowl, man, and I
Speaker 1: was just like the biggest release of just like the
Speaker 1: monkeys off my back, breathe fresh air. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's what it was about, you know, reg that's really
Speaker 1: amazing though to hear you say that. First of all,
Speaker 1: thanks for being so vulnerable with us and the listeners.
Speaker 1: You know, the fact is like I was your teammate
Speaker 1: and I didn't know, and that was a good friend
Speaker 1: of yours. We hung and we did all those things,
Speaker 1: but like I didn't know all this, so much of
Speaker 1: this burden on you through all these things to the
Speaker 1: Heisman just really was weighing you down all the time.
Speaker 1: That literally we got the best version of Reggie when
Speaker 1: he was on the football field because of all the
Speaker 1: things that have been going on off the field. And
Speaker 1: my other comment and kind of the question that I
Speaker 1: would ask, is, with all this being said and you
Speaker 1: sharing all this with us, do you think your NFL
Speaker 1: career is any different if you don't have all these
Speaker 1: other things? And I'm not asking you what you change anything,
Speaker 1: as much as like, how would it be different in
Speaker 1: your eyes? Um, if I, if I if that didn't happen, dude,
Speaker 1: I think there would have been a difference in on
Speaker 1: the field. I just think the stress level of everything
Speaker 1: I was dealing with is it was the toughest part, right,
Speaker 1: and it's going through you know, the going through the fire,
Speaker 1: right a lot of the times as men were taught
Speaker 1: to suppress, right, suppress whatever issues you got going on.
Speaker 1: You got to be a man about it. Um, you
Speaker 1: gotta handle it, you know what I'm saying, like a man,
Speaker 1: you know, and don't cry, you know this and that,
Speaker 1: and you know, don't complain and and so you know,
Speaker 1: for me, it was just handling those demons of what
Speaker 1: was coming along with that. And we all go through stuff, right,
Speaker 1: We all go through trials and tribulations. Were not perfect.
Speaker 1: We make mistakes and when things happened to us. Um,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of times, you know, I think
Speaker 1: people run away from those problems, right, rather as opposed
Speaker 1: to walking through it. But the thing is, when you
Speaker 1: walk through those problems, you come out you. First of all,
Speaker 1: you're gonna come out of it, right, You're gonna make
Speaker 1: it through it, but you're gonna be better on the
Speaker 1: other side because you walked through and you didn't avoid it.
Speaker 1: You know. The one thing that I've known I learned
Speaker 1: is that when you suppressed stuff, at some point in time,
Speaker 1: it's gonna come out right, and usually it comes out
Speaker 1: against the people closest to you. Yeah, and you can
Speaker 1: hurt them more than anybody else, exactly, and you can
Speaker 1: hurt them more than anybody else. And that's where the
Speaker 1: one thing I wish I could go back and change
Speaker 1: was that, I just wish I didn't allow it to
Speaker 1: affect me as much as it did, because what happened
Speaker 1: was after my rookie year, I tore my PCL right
Speaker 1: so two thousand seven season, tore my PCL two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight toward my medium meniscus, didn't have microfracture surgery.
Speaker 1: So for those two years, two and a half year years,
Speaker 1: while I was injured, I was banged up. I wasn't
Speaker 1: on the football field. That's when the depression really set in,
Speaker 1: was because you know, I wasn't on the field doing
Speaker 1: what I love. I couldn't go on the field and
Speaker 1: run and you know, run routes and all these different
Speaker 1: things and turnpunts, and I'm watching y'all on TV and
Speaker 1: it's just a horrible feeling, you know, being injured. And
Speaker 1: then now media starting to label me as injury prone,
Speaker 1: and it's like, wait, hold on, man, I ain't never
Speaker 1: been injury prone the day of my life, you know,
Speaker 1: until you know, these last two years where I started
Speaker 1: getting injured and and that's where it can become toxic,
Speaker 1: you know, for for somebody, you know. And and that's
Speaker 1: where I think the mental health part of the game,
Speaker 1: that's where it's the toughest, because how do I control
Speaker 1: this while I'm repeatedly getting hit in this you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's like two great great, it's two
Speaker 1: rams going head to head every single day in practice, right,
Speaker 1: and then you're supposed to go off the field, and
Speaker 1: I got to control this, well, shoot, hold on, I
Speaker 1: just I got beat up for the last two hours
Speaker 1: on this football field over here. And yet as soon
Speaker 1: as you walk out of that facility, you already have
Speaker 1: to take off the armor. You gotta take off, the
Speaker 1: head play, you gotta put down the sword, you gotta
Speaker 1: take off, you know, the chess play. You gotta put
Speaker 1: your shield down. You know what I'm saying, because you're
Speaker 1: in this barbaric environment on the football field, and then
Speaker 1: you got to quickly, you know, change and transition to
Speaker 1: a normal person. And that's where, you know, it became
Speaker 1: tough for me because I was still mentally in that environment,
Speaker 1: but I just wasn't physically there. And so I dealt
Speaker 1: with a lot of depression naturally having to take a
Speaker 1: lot of pain killers for the pain. That was bad
Speaker 1: for me as well. You know, there was a small
Speaker 1: diction there with just taking pain killers and just wanting
Speaker 1: to kind of one I'm wanting to ease the physical pain,
Speaker 1: but also the mental pain as well that I was
Speaker 1: with And so you know, that was just, um, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I wish I could go
Speaker 1: back and take back. And it's something that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: now teach my kids to how to deal with problems,
Speaker 1: how to deal with that stress, right, don't run from it,
Speaker 1: but walk through it, because when you walk through it,
Speaker 1: you become stronger for going through it as opposed to
Speaker 1: trying to run away from it, because you can't run
Speaker 1: away from your issues and your problems. They're always gonna
Speaker 1: be there in the back of your head. And and
Speaker 1: like you said, at some point, it's gonna come out
Speaker 1: against the people closest to you, you know. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just didn't have that that that right guidance at
Speaker 1: that time. But thankfully, you know, I had y'all, you know, right,
Speaker 1: and I had the football field, and I had my teammates,
Speaker 1: and that was if I didn't have that. I don't know, Bro,
Speaker 1: I don't know. You know that's um, Like I said, Man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that dog because I mean I was your teammate, Bro,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know the depths of everything that you
Speaker 1: were dealing with at the time. Um. But you know
Speaker 1: a lot of that is because shoot, when we were
Speaker 1: part of your saying, so we were your release when
Speaker 1: we got like the best of Reggie. Um. And look,
Speaker 1: I tell everybody to this day, it's a couple of
Speaker 1: people I love hanging with all the time, and you're
Speaker 1: one of those because when I with Reggie Bush, nobody
Speaker 1: ever wants to talk to Roman Harperd. It's like, oh
Speaker 1: it's Reggie Bush. Nobody ever bothers me. I just gotta
Speaker 1: just like Bro. Love. I love being with Reggie. Love
Speaker 1: it now feeling this blank for me. My life right
Speaker 1: now is blank. Peaceful. It's peaceful and um that's you
Speaker 1: know to me, that's the thing that everybody wants it,
Speaker 1: but now everybody has it right and it's free and
Speaker 1: it's free. Oh that's oh you're preaching right now because
Speaker 1: piece is free and you know, it's as you go
Speaker 1: through these evan flows of life, these trials, and these tribulations. Um,
Speaker 1: as you get older, right, it's also part of maturity too,
Speaker 1: is you start to just under understand and I see
Speaker 1: life from a different perspective. Now we've got families, We've
Speaker 1: got a wife and kids. You know, the the I think,
Speaker 1: the reason now why we want to go and get
Speaker 1: it is much different than when we were playing. Right
Speaker 1: now we've got something much bigger, a bigger purpose, a
Speaker 1: larger purpose. Um. You know, I got to be right
Speaker 1: for my kids. Every single day. I need to study
Speaker 1: and continue to push myself so I can give them
Speaker 1: knowledge and give them, you know, UM answers to questions
Speaker 1: that um, you know that I didn't have, and UM,
Speaker 1: just making sure that they are being led the right way.
Speaker 1: Because leadership, man, is you know what I've learned is
Speaker 1: leadership is it's it's about going through Um. You know,
Speaker 1: these these experiences you know, And to me, that's where
Speaker 1: real leadership comes from. Is you've been through all these experiences.
Speaker 1: You've been able to you know, fight through some battles
Speaker 1: and and and go through some things and be able
Speaker 1: to be successful and all these different things. And so
Speaker 1: to me, right now, it's just about the leadership. You know,
Speaker 1: of my family and leading my kids the right way,
Speaker 1: my wife, um, you know, making sure I'm handling business things,
Speaker 1: different projects that I that I'm involved in, and our
Speaker 1: college football show as well. You know Big Noo Kickoff,
Speaker 1: which is which has been doing great, dude, it's it's
Speaker 1: the number one watched, It's one of the if not
Speaker 1: the number one, it's it's one of the top two
Speaker 1: watch uh programs in those specific hours of college football.
Speaker 1: So hats all. I mean, it's crazy. I look, man,
Speaker 1: I try to watch it all the times. You know,
Speaker 1: I can't because I'm like all that busy man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's right there. But I know, I know we all
Speaker 1: watch each other when we get the chance. Bro, you
Speaker 1: know that. It's amazing. Number one, that how many of
Speaker 1: our teammates are all in the media now, which we
Speaker 1: said we never we all we said we would all
Speaker 1: never do it. I would never do this, I never
Speaker 1: do it at the end of the media people, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: But now it's how many from that team. It's me
Speaker 1: you film Ninkovich Street did it for a second for
Speaker 1: a second, Yeah, yeah, yeah, It's it's multiple multiple facts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So tell me this, what made you want to get
Speaker 1: into TV, And what's it been like the past few
Speaker 1: years now getting to go back to these campuses, Like
Speaker 1: that's the best thing for me. It's getting to go
Speaker 1: to these campus We never got to tailgate. We never
Speaker 1: got to experience these places. And you specifically getting to
Speaker 1: go to you know, back to see or covering the
Speaker 1: Big Ten where it's like cold, and you get to
Speaker 1: experience like what are the campus life and all those
Speaker 1: things like give me just share with the people that
Speaker 1: are listeners and things of that, like encapsulate Reggie Bush's life.
Speaker 1: What made him make these decisions? And how's this whole
Speaker 1: thing going for you? It's an awesome experience, man, it
Speaker 1: really is, um, you know, being able to you know this.
Speaker 1: His other thing too, is I didn't want to come
Speaker 1: back to cons football after all this stuff that happened.
Speaker 1: I never thought about that when they came to I
Speaker 1: was actually doing NFL Network, and I was doing NFL
Speaker 1: Network for like two three years at this time period.
Speaker 1: I was doing Thursday Night Football. I was doing the
Speaker 1: Saturday Good Morning Football shows with Nate and and k
Speaker 1: and you know a Colleen, all these different people, Smitty
Speaker 1: Um and so I was closely removed from the NFL.
Speaker 1: So I was like, I'm just gonna stay in the NFL.
Speaker 1: And Fox came and recruited me for this show. Um
Speaker 1: during the Super Bowl when we're in Atlanta, and at
Speaker 1: that time, I was just like, man, I don't think so,
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm gonna do it. I don't know
Speaker 1: nothing about college football. Um, the last place I want
Speaker 1: to go back to was college football. But you know,
Speaker 1: Fox and Zaeger and Eric Shanks were awesome and they
Speaker 1: they really you know, made it easy for me. Um.
Speaker 1: They really were like, listen, we want you to be
Speaker 1: part of the show. We think it's gonna be great.
Speaker 1: We want to rebrand and cosge football show here at Fox,
Speaker 1: and we think can be a great opportunity. And they
Speaker 1: talk to me just about the way it was gonna
Speaker 1: to look and feel of it and everything that we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. I'm so glad I took that, took that
Speaker 1: leap of faith. Man, I'm so glad. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a great show. It's a great show. You guys have
Speaker 1: fun up there too, you we And that's and that's
Speaker 1: the thing, man is we get a chance to be
Speaker 1: ourselves and get a chance to have fun and now
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, we're like ambassadors of college football,
Speaker 1: you know, and we get a chance to go to
Speaker 1: these campuses and and kind of relive, you know, some
Speaker 1: of these experiences because we're celebrated everywhere we go. And
Speaker 1: that's the best part of of of um, you know,
Speaker 1: what we do is is being in the college uh experience.
Speaker 1: And at the college level, there's there's a different passion
Speaker 1: than the NFL. Right, it's way different than than than
Speaker 1: the NFL. You get the pageantry, you get the bands,
Speaker 1: the mascots and student sections, the cheerleaders, like you get
Speaker 1: so much to the eye when you watch the college
Speaker 1: football game. And then being there is even bigger, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's even it's even greater. So I really enjoy
Speaker 1: you know, doing college football. Um. You know, man, I
Speaker 1: just years ago, I just never thought I would be
Speaker 1: back here. But man, I'm having so much fun with it.
Speaker 1: I love it, enjoy it, and um man, it's just
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what the future holds from
Speaker 1: me and uh at this at this level. All right,
Speaker 1: one more quick question before we tossed to a break.
Speaker 1: We gotta we gotta pay some bills. Talk We've been
Speaker 1: on and me and you. We could do this all day.
Speaker 1: You do this all day, and we could literally do
Speaker 1: this all day. And we hadn't talked it a little bit,
Speaker 1: so we hadn't seen each other. So this is like
Speaker 1: what we do. UM, what's been your favorite campus? UM?
Speaker 1: Let's see. Ohiuse States always great, Michigan never disappoints. UM.
Speaker 1: I think this year going to TCU was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Seeing I've never been there. I have no
Speaker 1: idea what campus looks like. Going to Fort Worth, uh
Speaker 1: was awesome and um just getting a chance to to
Speaker 1: you know, TCU is a smaller school, a smaller private school. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that until I really didn't know that.
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, it's really not that many people.
Speaker 1: But you know, they just seeing a run that they
Speaker 1: went on this year and just seeing kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: just this this magical season that they had. UM and
Speaker 1: following them and being a part of that, you know
Speaker 1: a little bit, and covering them some of their games,
Speaker 1: and getting a chance to talk to Max dug In
Speaker 1: and you know, some of these other athletes. To me,
Speaker 1: that's the best part. I love getting a chance to
Speaker 1: actually meet the athletes and talk to them because you
Speaker 1: see so much of ourselves in them, you know, and
Speaker 1: where they are in their careers at the college level.
Speaker 1: And also I'm just excited for you know, where it
Speaker 1: college football is headed now that you know some of
Speaker 1: these kids can make money off their name, image and likeness,
Speaker 1: because I just to me, it's when you're at the
Speaker 1: college level, you're in your prime. When I was eighteen,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty years old making all those highlights at USC,
Speaker 1: I was in my prime, right, And now that these
Speaker 1: kids can benefit from that, they can go and provide
Speaker 1: for their families at a much earlier stage. Right, they
Speaker 1: can take care of themselves, right, They can they can
Speaker 1: pay some bills, they can put gas in their car.
Speaker 1: These are all things I was worried about in college.
Speaker 1: Was like, where's my next meal gonna be? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't blame you. Gas is very expensive in LA,
Speaker 1: very expensive, pensive as hill and then the cost of
Speaker 1: living as well, you know. Um, So it's like a
Speaker 1: lot of the things that were on our minds, things
Speaker 1: that we were thinking about on a daily basis, is
Speaker 1: these kids don't have to worry about that, So the
Speaker 1: stress level goes down, right, So now you can just
Speaker 1: kind of really just be yourself, man, just really dive
Speaker 1: in and just be who you are. You don't have
Speaker 1: to rush to the NFL if you don't want to,
Speaker 1: right you can make some money at the college level,
Speaker 1: which I think is very important, you know, because there's
Speaker 1: some guys who feel like I gotta go now because
Speaker 1: I got to get that money right now, because you know,
Speaker 1: my family's depending on me, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and so I just love, you know, all these different
Speaker 1: stories that I'm in a chance to see read and
Speaker 1: hear about me with the young kids at the college
Speaker 1: level now, because they deserve it, you know, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's important. It's impactful, you know, for
Speaker 1: all of them. Man, it's really cool because, like you said,
Speaker 1: we are ambassadors of the college football area and you
Speaker 1: have so much to do with where this game is
Speaker 1: right now most importantly. So here, let's talk to a break.
Speaker 1: We got we got like five quick hitters for Reggie Bush.
Speaker 1: When we get back, all right, talk to a break here.
Speaker 1: We gotta pay some bills. We'll be back in a minute.
Speaker 1: Thank you, guys, keep listening. Red, you know you're my guy.
Speaker 1: Here we go. We got a couple of quick hitters
Speaker 1: for you. I didn't just give us to his first
Speaker 1: thing that comes to mind. This is what we always
Speaker 1: try and give people. Some people we throw people off,
Speaker 1: some we don't whatever. All right, what was your first
Speaker 1: welcome to the NFL moment two thousand and six playing
Speaker 1: in Division Around playoffs? I didn't know you were gonna
Speaker 1: go here, but got my ass laid out. Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: all right. We talked about Damar Hamlin and everything he
Speaker 1: went through, which I'm so glad. Well, that is a
Speaker 1: great much better doing great. But I gotta be honest
Speaker 1: with you. Everything that he experienced I experienced at times too.
Speaker 1: And that hit against from Sheldon Brown in that in
Speaker 1: that game, Bro, I felt like my heart stopped. I
Speaker 1: felt like my soul left my body. Um. I felt
Speaker 1: like my head was detached from my body, like literally
Speaker 1: everything you could ever imagine in the worst car accident
Speaker 1: you've ever been in, but you lived through it. That's
Speaker 1: how I felt in that moment. That was my welcome
Speaker 1: to the NFL moment and hit and I will never
Speaker 1: forget it. Bro. You saw a human being fighting for
Speaker 1: his life on that field, Bro, I did see it.
Speaker 1: I was on the sidelines. Yes, and so those that
Speaker 1: don't know, Sheldon Brown hit Reggie Bush on a flat route.
Speaker 1: I mean, Drew, I just't check to it anyway. Great
Speaker 1: job to even hold onto the ball. You held onto
Speaker 1: it too, right, Yeah yeah, but bro, so the best
Speaker 1: part is Redge gets destroyed. Right. Brown did a complete
Speaker 1: sprint right through Reggie's chest. Um, Redge being trying to
Speaker 1: be as tough as he could. Bro, he tried to
Speaker 1: get up. I tried, My boy, tried to get up
Speaker 1: like twice, but he went right back down. Right. He's like,
Speaker 1: it was great effort, dog like, and you you came
Speaker 1: back in the game eventually, But Bro, you was hurt dog,
Speaker 1: and it looked really bad. And I can only imagine
Speaker 1: because it got like Reggie Bush. You gotta seen his highlights.
Speaker 1: He's never taking a hard hit his whole life. Probably
Speaker 1: that's probably the first time you ever really gotten hit.
Speaker 1: That was That was my first real I mean I've
Speaker 1: had I've had some some moments where I banged helmets
Speaker 1: or something, you know, kind of but you saw that
Speaker 1: white everything goes clear. He starts seeing little stars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but this one was like a grenade, like an explosion,
Speaker 1: like my my entire everybody disintegrated and then came back together.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, all in one moment, and
Speaker 1: I just I never forget like you said. Once I
Speaker 1: hit the ground, I jumped right back up because I
Speaker 1: just did not want to show that I was hurting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was watching. It hadn't registered in my body yet
Speaker 1: that there was no air and I couldn't breathe because
Speaker 1: the wind was knocked out of me. So I dropped
Speaker 1: right but folded right back to the ground. Now I'm
Speaker 1: crawling right now, I'm going, but I'm crawling for air
Speaker 1: like I'm crawling trying. Is air over here? Is it
Speaker 1: over there? Like? Where's the air? Fam? I ain't got
Speaker 1: it right now? Hey, the best part was over on
Speaker 1: the sidelines, bro, because I told my acl so I
Speaker 1: wasn't playing, I wasn't dressed, and the rest of all
Speaker 1: of us that is non dressed were all like, you know,
Speaker 1: uh like uh, we're all like smokey uh. In Craig's
Speaker 1: dad in Friday, get up, Craig, get up crib we
Speaker 1: all like, get up Rid, Get up Rid. He's just
Speaker 1: like he wasn't getting up dog. It was we felt you.
Speaker 1: We felt You know what's funny is M Dante, even
Speaker 1: Dante star Wars of one of my really good friends,
Speaker 1: was on the other sideline. He played for the Eagles
Speaker 1: at that time, and I was on their sideline when
Speaker 1: it happened. You were close and he was yelling at me,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't hear anything he was saying because it
Speaker 1: was like, literally I was deaf and I was just
Speaker 1: trying to breathe. And afterwards, uh, you know, years later
Speaker 1: whatever he was like, man, I was like, I was
Speaker 1: trying to get your team. I was like, Fred, you good?
Speaker 1: Wre's you good? You good? I literally couldn't hear this dude, right,
Speaker 1: and he's standing right here next to me, and I
Speaker 1: couldn't hear the word he was saying to him. You look,
Speaker 1: it looked painful. I'm glad that was your well. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you shared that with I'm glad I survived it.
Speaker 1: I'm not only write a book surviving the worst hit
Speaker 1: in the NFL. All right, If you could pick one
Speaker 1: of these to start your team with a running back,
Speaker 1: that is, who would it be? We know your love
Speaker 1: for Barry Sanders, Marshall Fault or Marcus Allen. You've all
Speaker 1: mentioned that all of these guys that one point in
Speaker 1: time were like a role model to you, so who
Speaker 1: would be Oh my god, it's hard. They all had
Speaker 1: different influences of my life. Marcus is from San Diego,
Speaker 1: It's from my neighborhood, from my hometown. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: watching him and just seeing what he did and his accomplishments,
Speaker 1: um was amazing for me. And and just it really
Speaker 1: gave me hope that I can go and do it.
Speaker 1: That's why I really got the first sense of hope
Speaker 1: that I could actually go and do this thing was
Speaker 1: knowing that there were guys from my neighborhood that already
Speaker 1: did it. Marshall Falk. I not Marshall Falk. It was Marcus, Allen,
Speaker 1: Terrell Davis, Ricky Williams, and Rashaan Saloon rest in peace. Um,
Speaker 1: those are the four guys from my neighborhood that paved
Speaker 1: the way for me and gave me hope that I
Speaker 1: can go do it. And then talk about Marshall. Marshall
Speaker 1: really instilled in me watching him to to to step
Speaker 1: outside of the running back position and go play receiver,
Speaker 1: cash the ball out of the back and be able
Speaker 1: to go play in space. Um and to be able
Speaker 1: to just be an extra added weapon not only the
Speaker 1: running game, but in the past game as well. UM.
Speaker 1: And then Barry was like my ultimate influence. Like I wanted,
Speaker 1: I really wanted to be buried on that field. And
Speaker 1: you know it's just I would. If I had to
Speaker 1: choose one of you forcing me, I'm gonna say Barry Man,
Speaker 1: because nobody was better than Barry. You're not wrong, You're
Speaker 1: not wrong. That boy buried myself. Different dog. I was
Speaker 1: watching some highlights at him the other day. His stopping
Speaker 1: goal was and he got to think he doing this
Speaker 1: on that old turf old turf, not that new turf
Speaker 1: day we got. Now he doing that on carpet. I'm
Speaker 1: surprised he didn't tear more guys knees up with like
Speaker 1: all his moves. I'm not lying, all right, redg this
Speaker 1: is one that I had not thought of when I
Speaker 1: knew that you were gonna come on, and then just
Speaker 1: knowing your uniqueness, who you are, were, all the places
Speaker 1: you've been and all the things you've seen, give me,
Speaker 1: all right, have this picture in your mind. I want
Speaker 1: to know what's the best room that you've ever been
Speaker 1: in with like the who's who of like this person
Speaker 1: is this? This is that I want to know, the
Speaker 1: like the highlight room that Reggie Bush has been in
Speaker 1: where it's like, man, this is like big time high quality.
Speaker 1: You mean, just like like athletes or like entertainers or
Speaker 1: everything the whole gambit of it. I'm sure you've been
Speaker 1: in the room with some some Yeah, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think of the different rooms though that I've been in.
Speaker 1: You know I've been I've been able to I think,
Speaker 1: just meet some great people, Manum. You know, meet some
Speaker 1: amazing people in my time period, people that I've looked
Speaker 1: up to, people that I've had a lot of respect for. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I got a chance to meet Obama when
Speaker 1: he was not the president yet, when he was actually
Speaker 1: running to become the president. I went to one of
Speaker 1: his camp paying parties. He got a chance to meet him,
Speaker 1: and you know then it seeing what he was able
Speaker 1: to do after that, going to be the president of
Speaker 1: the United States was was awesome. Man. And you know
Speaker 1: that was one person you know that I think that
Speaker 1: I look at UM as somebody that was just a
Speaker 1: pleasure to meet. I actually used to live very close
Speaker 1: to also Jim Brown. Um Jim Brown was m you know,
Speaker 1: is someone who hold a lot of respect for um
Speaker 1: when you talk about you know, the time period he
Speaker 1: played in, the things he had to deal with right
Speaker 1: Like we were talking. We talk about some of our
Speaker 1: issues and things we deal with right now. But Jim Brown, man,
Speaker 1: he was really in the field. He was really in
Speaker 1: the streets really, you know, fighting for equality, you know,
Speaker 1: for African Americans, for athletes and for just you know,
Speaker 1: people of color, and you know, just getting a chance,
Speaker 1: I think, to meet him, you know, somebody like that
Speaker 1: who was just again we talk about how football sometimes
Speaker 1: is bigger than the sport itself. That was one of
Speaker 1: those moments, you know, um, you know, for Jim Brown,
Speaker 1: meeting him. And so this was crazy. So I had
Speaker 1: two dogs, Um, I had a boxer and I had
Speaker 1: an American bulldog. And when I would leave, they would
Speaker 1: break out of my house and would get out and
Speaker 1: they just be running around the streets where I lived
Speaker 1: at and Jim's wife literally like four different times found
Speaker 1: my dogs and brought them back to my house. And
Speaker 1: so it's so crazy, like Jim Brown's wife is like
Speaker 1: finding my dogs for me running around the streets, probably
Speaker 1: terrorizing neighborhood. This young this young whipper snapper, Reggie bus dog.
Speaker 1: They't keep his dogs take care of his dogs. Man
Speaker 1: terrorized our neighborhood over here, just bringing the property value down.
Speaker 1: Got great dogs. But but yeah, man, I've been I've
Speaker 1: been blessed to meet some great people. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think those are the two people that jump out
Speaker 1: to me. Is just people who are larger than life
Speaker 1: in their time periods and just so much, you know,
Speaker 1: for the change of our world and in the direction
Speaker 1: of sports and all those things. Okay, well, all right,
Speaker 1: here's my last question, and that is who is on
Speaker 1: your Mount Rushmore of people that influenced you and impacted
Speaker 1: your life on Mount Rush Moore, you get four My
Speaker 1: mom for sure, from my mom in the category love
Speaker 1: love your mom. Man, just such an amazing woman, amazing person.
Speaker 1: She's always worked so hard. Um. And and that's honestly
Speaker 1: where I get my work ethic from is from watching
Speaker 1: her and seeing how hard she used to work and
Speaker 1: in the time she used to put in to support
Speaker 1: you know, our family, Me and my brother. Um, who
Speaker 1: your brother? People don't know your Reggie brothers like sixty three, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: sixty seven exactly. It's like it makes it makes zero sense, ladies,
Speaker 1: zero sense. That is what everybody know. Reggie, I got
Speaker 1: to speed, he got the hight. Yeah, it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1: It's the most ludicrous thing ever. All right, go ahead,
Speaker 1: so crazy. The other person I would, I would go
Speaker 1: back to my little league coaches. Um. I had two coaches, uh,
Speaker 1: Coach Peely and coach Kiola. One was Samoan and one
Speaker 1: was Hawaiian. And both of these dudes as crazy as hell.
Speaker 1: And and when I was my first introduction to football,
Speaker 1: when I first started playing, when I was nine years old,
Speaker 1: they were my coaches, and they were so strict and
Speaker 1: so not mean. But you know, it's it's how coaching.
Speaker 1: How coaching is like you gotta be, you know, you
Speaker 1: gotta be. You gotta expect discipline from from the kids.
Speaker 1: And so they commanded respect, they commanded discipline from us.
Speaker 1: And it really set me off the right way. It
Speaker 1: really set me up the right way because it gave
Speaker 1: me such a good foundation from my first you know
Speaker 1: coaches out that I was around of just how to work,
Speaker 1: how to grind, how to go get it, um you know,
Speaker 1: how to be disciplined. Um, it really set me up
Speaker 1: for the rest of my career, you know. And I
Speaker 1: go back to them because again of what they instilled
Speaker 1: in me, but also you know, the opportunities that they
Speaker 1: gave me. And I needed a I needed positive male
Speaker 1: influence in my life at that time period because I
Speaker 1: didn't have my real dad in my life, um as
Speaker 1: much as I wanted to, and um, these these coaches became,
Speaker 1: you know, that positive male influence in my life that
Speaker 1: I really needed and really just set my career up.
Speaker 1: My other Mount Rushmore coaches, UM, I would probably or not,
Speaker 1: I don't even necessarily coaches, but there's a combination of guys.
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll, t mac Tom McNair, my running back coach
Speaker 1: at USC, um Ken Norton Jr. You know, I would
Speaker 1: just say that coaching staff that we had at USC
Speaker 1: because they really demanded again so much just discipline and
Speaker 1: respect and competition and all these things that were just
Speaker 1: you know, but we were we were born into that
Speaker 1: helped us, um, not not only on the field but
Speaker 1: off the field, you know. So I think I learned
Speaker 1: a lot of things from them that helped serve me
Speaker 1: well off the field. Um that it's just helped me
Speaker 1: to become the man I am today. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say my wife, because when me and my
Speaker 1: wife met, I was in a very dark place. I
Speaker 1: was in a very dark time period. Um. I was
Speaker 1: still fighting through a lot of the demons and things
Speaker 1: from the from the Heisman stuff that happened in usc
Speaker 1: And I was actually ready to move. I was about
Speaker 1: to move to Miami because I just remember I got
Speaker 1: traded to Miami. Ye, I was ready to move to
Speaker 1: Miami all in sell my house in La. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just go out here. I'm gonna dive in fully. And
Speaker 1: I just I wanted. I was ready to get away
Speaker 1: from La and do something different. And then we met
Speaker 1: m and it literally just changed my life because she
Speaker 1: once she was just there for me, and we had
Speaker 1: our daughter and we developed such a close relationship. We
Speaker 1: became best friends, and that was something that I really
Speaker 1: needed at that time period. I just I didn't have that,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know I needed that until until until
Speaker 1: I got it. Man. So my wife has been such
Speaker 1: a huge inspiration in my life. U we. I think
Speaker 1: our best medicine has been just laughing every day. You know,
Speaker 1: It's it's literally that simple. Um. I make her laugh,
Speaker 1: she makes me laugh. We tell jokes to each other
Speaker 1: all the time. And that relationship, more than anything, has
Speaker 1: given me so much. Just stability at home, stability in
Speaker 1: my foundation. Um, not only you know when I was playing,
Speaker 1: but off the field as well, you know, because again
Speaker 1: that's the thing when you play a sport like football. Um. Again,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing always come back to is how do
Speaker 1: you control this mind when you're constantly getting hit in
Speaker 1: your head constantly? And that's a that's a tough thing
Speaker 1: to do. Um. It's like a boxer, right, box wisconstant
Speaker 1: getting hit in the head and we see some of
Speaker 1: those long term effects that happens to them. U. And
Speaker 1: it's no different than football. You know, we got helmets,
Speaker 1: but we're still getting smacked in the head. And so um,
Speaker 1: just the stability that she brought me in this time
Speaker 1: period that I really needed. Um, it's real, it really
Speaker 1: helped me out a lot. Man. Yeah, shout out to
Speaker 1: the lad again that you know that's what girl love
Speaker 1: the league. She's an amazing cooker too, like you be
Speaker 1: throwing it down all right. For those that don't know,
Speaker 1: go look her up, follow her on Instagram follow my
Speaker 1: boy Reggie too. Reggie Man, You're a blessing man. I
Speaker 1: love you, appreciate you. We're gonna get up out of
Speaker 1: here man, and thank you. I really really appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Coming on man, peanup. Miss a great one. All right.
Speaker 1: I want to thank all my listeners for tuning in.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you all to continue to spread
Speaker 1: the word. Give us a rating of review and a
Speaker 1: follow on Apple podcast or the iHeartRadio Apple or wherever
Speaker 1: else you get your podcast. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: tuning in, and we will see you later. Peace,