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Did Bush Take Money??

With the Reggie Bush book hitting stores soon copies are already starting to make their way to some.

Adam Rose at All Things Trojan already has his copy and he explains how the book shows that Reggie received money directly.

[...]the book's accounting says $47,000 went directly to Bush out of the overall $291,000 that went to his family. That makes it hard to deny he knew what was going on. While the photo section lacks any photocopied receipts, bank statements, or otherwise, the Author's Note says that a website will publish much of it.

That could be damning towards Bush but not necessarily USC.

It is hard to say at this point until the book is read completely if there is really anything substantive or new out of all this. I have said before that I think Reggie probably knew was going on but at to what extent his involvement was, is another matter. He was NOT going to rat his parents out if he did know.

My only concern is USC, I can't worry about what Bush did because it is in the past but I will worry about SC the program because this could hurt the program's success in the future.

The author of this book does have impeccable credentials; a former associate editor and an investigative reporter for Sports Illustrated and publisher of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. But I am concerned that he did pay compensation to Lloyd Lake to listen to the supposed tapes. He is supposedly also going on the say of the one person who has the biggest axe to grind in this situation so that is makes it look a little tainted.

Again, I won't make a judgment on this until all the facts are out and the NCAA makes their statement. Its way too early worry about what-ifs and such so I will quietly bide my time before passing but we won't bury our head in the sand either.

The question - to us at least - hasn't been "were there any shenanigans with Bush and his family taking money?" - the answer to that is plainly yes. The question has been "is there any proof that USC knew and did nothing?" It doesn't sound like this book addresses that.