Customer Reviews

Tarnished Heisman: Did Reggie Bush Turn His Final College Season into a Six-Figure Job?

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been an avid football fan my entire life. I played competitive football when I was younger and have been a devoted student and fan of football for almost half a century. In the last 13 years alone I have attended 135 NFL games in person and watched thousands of college and professional games. During that time I have only seen two players that could literally be running full speed ahead at lightning speed, change directions at an angle that could only be accurately described in a geometry class, as if their head was on a swivel while the rest of their body contorts in another direction, as if it was spinning around on a hyper-active "Lazy Susan"! The first other-worldly player that fit that heretofore un-defined mold was the great Chicago Bear Hall Of Fame running back Gale Sayers. The second one is Reggie Bush!

On September 3, 1994 at the age of nine, Reggie made his debut scoring 5 touchdowns on 6 carries against the Grossmont Warriors. A few weeks later against the Kearny Mesa Komets, he scored 8 touchdowns, 3 extra points and gained 544 yards on 27 carries. A football star was surely being born. By the end of his senior year at Helix High School in San Diego in 2002 he had scored 450 points, ran for a total of 4,995 yards, and averaged 12 yards per carry. He was named to the "USA Today" All-USA first team and as a Parade All-American he was also selected as their top running back in the country. In track Reggie registered the 3rd fastest hundred meter dash time 10.42 in the state of California. This also ranked Reggie as the fastest senior football player in the country. Reggie's services were obviously passionately desired by every major university in America. Reggie chose the University Of Southern California. (USC)

USC has a legendary gridiron history that includes 11 National championships. They've won 29 out of 45 bowl games. They have 36 Pac-10 titles, they have more first round draft choices, the most top overall draft picks, the most Pro Bowl players and most Super Bowl players of any college in history. Even John Wayne played for USC. Reggie joined the Trojan football team as a true freshman and by his sophomore year he started getting noticed nationwide and ended up finishing FIFTH in the Heisman voting as a SOPHOMORE! As a junior Reggie seemed to have another indescribable performance every week including breaking the Pac-10 record with 513 total yards in one game against Fresno State. Of course as the world now knows Reggie Bush won the Heisman Trophy as the top individual player in college football. As all sports fans know, the NCAA, the guardian of amateur college athletics has stringent rules regarding its college athletes. Any breaking of these rules result in firm punishment for its players and schools. Suspensions, forfeits, curtailing of post season tournaments, restriction from appearing on TV, reducing scholarships, and even reversing teams won - lost records and removal of statistical records are but a few of the weapons in their arsenal that are used to protect the sanctity of all that they oversee. That is why this author's research is so important. Reggie has been accused of some very serious offenses in this book that can affect not only his records, but the reversal of all of USC's victories from the time Reggie may have committed the "alleged" offences. The author of this book Don Yaeger, is a respected journalist. I have personally read his biographies on Walter Payton and Tug McGraw. Even more importantly I read the book he co-authored in 1998 entitled "PROS AND CONS THE CRIMINALS WHO PLAY IN THE NFL." That book was absolutely shocking in its time listing player after player in detail with the hideous crimes they had committed including rape, kidnapping, assault and battery, weapons possession, drug dealing, driving while intoxicated, domestic violence, and even homicide. The book was so well documented that despite the big names and disparaging comments upon its release, as far as I know there was never a law suit. This book "Tarnished Heisman" seems to be just as well researched. This author is not a tabloid reporter he is a polished professional. Since one of the main characters in the telling of this story Lloyd Lake has a criminal past, Don does not hide it, he instead divulges in great detail Lloyd's drug dealing and prison time, and even includes details directly from the United States District Court Southern District of California Presentence Report that categorizes Lloyd as a career offender. The ongoing accusations that would tarnish Reggie, the Heisman, USC, NCAA, The Rose Bowl, Reggie's parents, and others include but are not limited to: (While Reggie was a player at USC.) $36-$38,000.00 for a down payment on a $757,500.00 home for Reggie's parents, monthly mortgage payments, utility bills, $28,000.00 to pay off Reggie's parents credit card bills, $13,000.00 for Reggie's car, $4,000.00 for aftermarket tires and rims, numerous hotel payments, shopping sprees and much more (all detailed in this book.) The author documents the claims with transcribed taped conversations provided by Lloyd that chronicles his conversations with Reggie's dad LaMar Griffin in which at numerous times LaMar acknowledges that if Reggie doesn't follow through with his plan to go into business with Lloyd and other individuals including the SYCUAN INDIAN TRIBE (who had built an oasis for themselves, a plush operation that grossed approximately $800 MILLION A YEAR.) that REGGIE SHOULD PAY THEM BACK! Also provided by the author are internal emails from tribe representatives.

The transgressions detailed in this astonishing expose have not been publicly acted upon by the NCAA at this time, but I feel as I did after I read "JUICED" by Jose Canseco. The powers that be (Like the NCAA now.) tried to ignore it thinking it would just go away. It didn't! i.e.: Congress and the Mitchell Report. I read "THE GAME OF SHADOWS" the day it came out and I said Canseco told the truth. Now the world has the Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds fiasco and a "LIE-A-THON". Next, the NCAA may tackle Reggie's college missteps!

Don't buy this book!

Even after the NCAA's decision for sanctions, this is still a pooly researched book. As opposed to the other reviews written which implied research, there is nothing but Loyd Lake's (and his family's) rambling complaints and "supposed" evidence. If you read the Ncaa complaint and the USC Response, you will see that even the Ncaa did not have any documented evidence but Lake continued to say it existed.

Even worse, look at the WEB page of Yeager (tarnishedheisman.com) where the only signed document was the lease agreement which was not in question. NOTHING is documented and unsigned agreements with/without (mostly without) Reggie's name on them mean nothing. It is a farce of a web sight seemingly built by some teeny-bopper at Yeager's request. Most documents shown could be generated by anyone is less than an hour of effort!

Yeager publishes "excerpts" from recordings but no one has heard the recordings. If they exist, publish the entire recording so we can get the full context and make them available so we can verify that the voices are who Lake, and Yeager, claim they are.

I read Yeager's "Under the Tarnished Dome" and felt it was poorly researched too. Maybe I just expect too much from a "Bestselling Author" who purports to be writing fact and not fiction. Poor research always shows but great titles sell. Yeager's best writing is in his titles, not in his books.

If you want the factual claims and responses, read the documents the Ncaa and USC filed and try to make sense of those. This book does not provide as much info as these documents do.

If you should be so inclined to buy this book anyway, notice that the ramblings of Lake, when he relates conversations with Griffin, start with Griffin denying his charges. He then manipulates the conversation to address things "as if Reggie said" whatever he wanted Reggie to say. Once again, no documentation on anything is produced.

This is a rush to publish, not a complee book! Shame on Yeager!

So, I am not sure why USC didn't read this earlier and sanction themselves. Perhaps it would have been a lesser punishment. Reggie Bush was a kid grabbing everything he could get that he thought he earned by being a superstar. I think it is telling of our society as well as the greed of this young man. It clearly explains that Reggie Bush knew what he was doing and that he wasn't being guided by informed mentors with integrity. It is a sad tale and every Trojan fan should read this--just to understand what happened. The "official" line from AD, Mike Garrett was that it was written by a journalist looking to sell a book. Hm...I don't think so.

Just finished a spec copy, and it is clear that Yaeger knows of what he speaks. Despite being fairly short, it creates an expose of Reggie Bush's junior year activities in a style similar to his also-excellent book about the Duke lacrosse team. He spends quite a bit of time talking about what the University of Southern California athletic department and coaching staff knew or didn't know, and that's really the most interesting part of the book.

I recommend this brief but tremendously interesting look into the grey area where "amateur" athletes and big money endorsements meet. I'll be watching the case unfold with great interest. This is a good weekend read for the offseason.

It's sad that the NCAA has never done anything to Southern Cal for all the documented violations. A must read book about a kid that knew how to use the system and avoid any consequences for his actions. Wake up NCAA!

If you have been following Bushgate such as I have, this book introduces nothing new. Everything in this book you have heard in the news. I would suspect that most people reading a book such as this are pretty avid college football fans, thus I tend to believe you too have at least a basic understanding of the allegations. There are still far too many questions left unanswered and it really makes this book fail in terms of enjoyment.

Outside of the book - I question these allegations. It has been over two years now, and still we have yet to hear the audio tapes, we have yet to have anything substantial introduced. In case you are unaware, Lake himself has quite the lengthy criminal past and has plenty a motive to make the allegations that he has - as does Michaels. Can anybody explain why the NCAA has yet to punish USC considering they have all of this "evidence." Cany anybody explain why Yahoo is the only one to ever pick up this story?

Lets be real. This entire situation is a joke. Dont waste your time with this book - anything you want can be found on yahoo.