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Reggie Bush #25

New Orleans Saints

Did You Know?

Reggie's real father left Reggie and his mother just after he was born, and his whereabouts are still not known. Growing up, Reggie's stepdad was a campus security officer, and his mother was a deputy sheriff at the San Diego county jail. (SignOnSanDiego.com, December 8, 2005)
Within a week of being drafted, Reebok reportedly received more than 15,000 orders for Reggie's new Saints jersey (even though he hadn't been assigned a jersey number yet!). Bush petitioned the NFL to be able to wear the number 5 on his Saints jersey--the number he'd worn at USC. According to NFL regulations, running backs must wear a number between 20 and 49, so this petition would call for a change in the rules. Bush promised that if the NFL would allow him to wear his number, he'd donate 1/4 of the money he received from jersey sales to Hurricane Katrina relief. While the ruling was pending, Bush wore the number 5 during Saints' mini-camp practices. Although the NFL rejected his requests, Bush still agreed to donate 1/4 of his jersey sales to the hurricane relief efforts. (Associated Press, May 23, 2006)
Reggie studied political science at USC. While playing at USC, he began to sometimes put the numbers "619" on top of his black under-eye markings. The numbers, which are his area code in South San Diego County, are a tribute to his home city.(SignOnSanDiego.com, December 8, 2005)
Reggie appeared in Ciara's 2007 music video, "Like a Boy." He was also in a commercial for Madden Football 2008, and made a few cameo appearances in 2008 on the TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. (Fan House, February 23, 2007)
A book called Tarnished Heisman came out in 2008, which accused Bush and his family to having received almost $300,000 in cash and gifts while in college. As a clear violation of NCAA rules, the consequences would be serious if such an accusation were proven true. However, nothing has been proven, and neither Bush nor USC have been penalized. (Los Angeles Times, January 9, 2008)

Player Facts:

The year he graduated high school, Bush was the most highly recruited football player out of high school in the nation. Reggie was a consensus first-team Freshman All-American at USC, and was the first Trojan since 1974 to lead the Pac-10 Conference in kickoff returns. With 1,331 all-purpose yards as a freshman, he broke USC records. He was chosen as ESPN's Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year, with 521 yards and three touchdowns on 90 carries his freshman year.
Reggie was just the 12th player in the NCAA to record over 2,000 all-purpose yards twice (he gained 2,330 yards in 2004 and 2,890 yards in 2005). Reggie was ranked 24th on the list of ESPN's Top 25 Players in College Football History.
A few of the awards Reggie won in 2005 are the Walter Camp Award, the Doak Walker Award (given to the best running back in the nation), the AP Sportsman of the Year Award, the Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C. Offensive Player of the Year, and the Touchdown Club of Colombus Player of the Year. He also beat Vince Young and Matt Leinart to become the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner.
The Saints selected Reggie as the second overall pick of the 2006 Draft. Later, ESPN newscaster Pasquarelli noted the Houston Texans' decision to choose Mario Williams (first pick of the draft that year) over Bush was "one of the biggest mistakes in NFL Draft history."
In the NFL, Bush is second only to Peyton Manning in endorsement deals. With about $5 million in deals, Bush has endorsed for Pepsi, General Motors, Subway, and Adidas (Manning has about $10 million in endorsements). Reggie was featured on NCAA Football 2007's cover and in a game for the PlayStation 2 game system.

Charities:

Reggie has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hurricane Katrina recovery. (Rivals.yahoo.com, September 14, 2006)