Reggie Bush Would’ve Been the Best Weapon Ever Had He Been Born a Decade Later
Despite what social media tells you, people are largely reasonable. However, there are some things we won’t budge on despite having little to no tangible evidence to prove our assertions. The title of this post is one of mine.
I want to sarcastically thank Ian Kenyon for putting this “most exciting” college player ever bug in my head. I fell down a Reggie Bush Youtube hole this morning and I have to write something before my head explodes, so I’m word barfing here while I wait for the preview link to load on my real writing gig over at Paste Magazine.
Reggie Bush was a fucking God amongst single-celled organisms in high school.
Seriously man, look at this nonsense. Even when he got to college he looked like a different species.
I’ve never seen anyone combine that agility and footwork with the ability to maintain his speed, and even accelerate through every cut. Barry Sanders is the closest that comes to mind, but his brilliance came more on stopping and starting. Bush just glided through the defense on a magic carpet of awesomeness. I never saw Gale Sayers other than his highlights, but that’s the only other species I’ve seen like Bush.
Unfortunately, he never brought this excitement to the NFL, a league that would become tailor made to his strengths just as soon as they eroded. Bush is a middling backup, but if USC Reggie Bush were a rookie right now, he’d have 1,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving yards — easily.
Think of how the Patriots use James White as a receiver, just roasting linebackers on quick slants, wheel routes, etc…and throw that into a running back slightly smaller than Le’Veon Bell who can still run between the tackles. Reggie Bush was born to play in these modern spread offenses, and fate intervened ten years too soon. Imagining him on a Chip Kelly Oregon team is frightening. He and Mariota may have averaged 100 points per game. It is one of our great sports tragedies that we’ll never see his other-worldly talents utilized to their full ends, but at least we’ll always have Youtube.
Reggie Bush was jaw-droppingly incredible. Don’t ever forget that.
