 |
 |
 |
|
INDIANAPOLIS -- Reggie Bush partied at the Playboy Mansion this offseason. He ate at the White House. He filmed a commercial in Spain. He attended a Grammy gathering with big-voiced R&B star Ciara, and he began a relationship with big-bootied sex-tape star Kim Kardashian.
Here's one thing Reggie Bush didn't do this offseason:
Improve as a football player.
|
|
| What happens when the ultimate X-factor becomes a nonfactor? Well, this pretty much says it all. (US Presswire) |
What a knucklehead. After a rookie year in which he caught 88 passes, ran for 565 yards, returned a punt for a touchdown and helped the New Orleans Saints reach the NFC Championship Game, Bush had the opportunity this offseason to live the life of the jet-setting young superstar. And by God he took it. He became the centerpiece of at least nine national advertising campaigns, with the commercial shoots and photo shoots and everything else that goes with it. He was a paparazzi magnet in Hollywood, where he bought a $5 million offseason home.
He missed a month of offseason workouts with teammates.
The Saints let Bush have his fun this offseason, presumably because he was exhausted after playing 22 games last year, exhibitions and playoffs included. Bush was far from the only Saint, or only Saints rookie, to play so many games, but he was the only one named Reggie Bush. This is a guy who has been handed everything, including his place of residence at college, since he was a teenager. Hard work and crazy genetics got him this far, but Bush spent his first NFL offseason betraying both.
Which brings us to Thursday night, a 41-10 loss to the Colts. In the first game of his second NFL season, Bush was terrible. He made bad cuts. He dropped two passes. He got run down by two linebackers. His final numbers were inflated by the Saints' final drive against a disinterested, prevent-playing Colts defense, and still his final numbers were ugly: 12 rushes for 38 yards, four catches for 7 yards, one punt return for 2 yards.
The better second-year back in this game was the Colts' Joseph Addai, who went No. 30 overall in the 2006 draft -- 28 spots behind Bush -- but with 1,081 rushing yards nearly doubled Bush's rookie output. That continued Thursday, with Addai rushing for 118 yards and even outproducing Bush through the air (three catches, 25 yards).
But Bush has other things over Addai. It was Bush, not Addai, who witnessed the running of the bulls this offseason in Spain. It was Bush who was invited to play in that celebrity basketball game during the NBA All-Star Break. And who snagged Ciara, and then Kardashian. And who became the NFL's second busiest endorser, after Peyton Manning.
And it was Bush who went from star to stiff.
Bush wasn't just human Thursday night. He was bad, physically and mentally. His first touch was a punt return early in the first quarter, when he wiggled and juked and danced for two yards before being corralled in the open field by Colts immortal Matt Giordano. Moments later Bush pulled in his first reception on second and 4, and with the RCA Dome crowd groaning at all the open field in front of him, he cut into the teeth of the defense and was tackled short of the first down. That drive later ended when Bush was obliterated in the backfield for a 3-yard loss.
The Saints offense struggled until its third possession, which Bush killed when he dropped a pass on third and 3 from the Colts 16 -- forcing the Saints to settle for a field goal. Before the half was finished, Bush would be chased down by Colts linebacker Rob Morris on the left corner, and by linebacker Freddie Keiaho on the right corner.
In fairness to him, Bush wasn't the reason the Saints got rolled Thursday night. Addai was better than Bush, true, but Manning was better than the Saints' Drew Brees. Colts receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne were better than Marques Colston and Devery Henderson. The Colts defense looked faster than the Saints defense. Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri was more accurate than Olindo Mare. This was domination, up and down both sides of the ball and on special teams.
But that's where Bush comes in. The Saints picked him No. 2 overall to be an athletic equalizer. He's supposed to shrink the gap between teams like the Colts and Saints ... not blow it wide open.
Bush's final play of the game was an interception that Giordano returned for a touchdown. An instant before Bush could grab Giordano from behind, he was taken out by a sloppy offensive lineman. Bush slowly stood, walked to the bench and sat down with his head in his hands.
An hour later, while most of his teammates were climbing into jeans and T-shirts, Bush lovingly pulled on a crisp yellow Oxford, beige tie, light brown three-piece suit -- vest buttoned to the hilt -- and leather wing-tips. He placed a diamond into each ear. He wheeled a designer handbag and slung a Heisman Trophy backpack over his right shoulder. He looked a lot better in the locker room than he looked on the field, I'll tell you that.
And then Bush disappeared, leaving for the team bus. Saints officials said he would return to meet the media, but he never did. The media understood. Reggie Bush had just spent three hours embarrassing himself on national television. He wasn't coming back.