They say what hurts us only makes us stronger, but New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush has become anything but strong after fracturing his leg in Monday night’s 25-22 win over the San Francisco 49ers.
Bush had trouble with Candlestick Park’s signature wind gusts, and muffed a punt, hurting himself in the process. Just days after stating giving back the Heisman Trophy was “not an admission of guilt,” Bush fractures his fibula.
Now I guess you can say it all comes back to us, and that’s why it’s called karma. Boy did Bush feel that karma hit him hard, a direct hit to his right leg. He is now not only hurting mentally, amidst the controversy swirling around his days at USC, which resulted in a complete disassociation with anything USC, Bush is hurting physically.
Karma got the best of him, and cut him from beneath his legs. A tall-tale microcosm for a reputation gone awry wrong. The football Monday night acted as a symbol of his reputation, and the gusts of wind as the swirling controversy that pushed his reputation around. Having been tarnished, the reputation was hard to get back, and was a microcosm for how he handled it: he lost it in the wind of controversy. Sure he eventually picked the ball back up, but it was too late; karma was waiting for him with a blow below the belt, that being the precious femur in his right leg.
Now I do not go about implying a higher deity was responsible for his injury Monday, but it could have been fate. It’s only minimally coincidental that within days of refusing to admit guilt regarding improper benefits he received at USC, he winds up in crutches and out four to six weeks.
Karma has struck Bush, and not even a life-size band-aid will be able to heal his bleeding wound that oozes out denial, controversy and reputation.
His collegiate career has been burnt to ashes, and now his NFL career has suffered. And like his inelgibility as a player at USC, its going to costs his teammates in New Orleans. One win? Two wins? We can’t know for sure, but what we do know is that the injury is a small message from karma; unfortunate events brought upon by the will of fate based upon past events.
One bad deed does not go unnoticed. A small price to pay when an opportunity presents itself, and you fail to take advantage of it.
He has lost his Heisman Trophy. Okay he gave it back, but he knew darn well as an ineligible player it was not rightfully his. He has lost all ties with USC; his accomplishments and achievements thrown away as if he never existed. Now in the NFL, he has a broken fibula, and thats not only a setback in his professional career, but a negative impact on his teammates.
So it might only be one loss. But that one loss could be next week, or during the playoffs. It also only took one ineligible player for the NCAA to slap a two-year postseason ban on the Trojans football team, a decrease in scholarships that can be awarded, and a 2005 season that to the university and NCAA, does not exist.
Trust me. One is a significant and very lonely number.