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The notorious Trojan Deficiency Syndrome is a plague that keeps spreading and spreading thanks in large part to the work of Pete Carroll, who helped restore Troy by reeling in two national championship trophies to Heritage Hall this past decade.
In short, this infamous epidemic is the result of the sort of envy that stems from the success USC has enjoyed in recent years. Hey, when you're on top (seven consecutive conference crowns and winners over rival UCLA in ten out of the last eleven games), you're not going to be well perceived by the folks across town.
But really, why do we care? It's them who spend more time and energy talking about us than they do their own team and its new "highly-potent" ‘pistol' offense.
Even still, it appears as if this outbreak is spreading a little too far nowadays. It's one thing to routinely bash a team that you've only defeated once on the gridiron (by 4 points) this millennium, but it's entirely different when your undying fandom supersedes all logical thought. Nonetheless, it appears as if that is presently the case with some members of the Westwood crowd:
According to the OC Register, the settlement includes a confidentiality agreement which means most likely, we will never know the full truth. The OC Register piece has new information on 4 fronts, at least to me.
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Fourth, the Bushes paid Lake between $200,000 and $300,000.
What can we take away from this turn of events? I always believed Bush and his parents would settle rather than testify. If they took the money, they could never testify about their skulduggery. Any criminal defense lawyer would tell Bush and his parents not to testify if they took the money and didn't report it to the IRS.
Presently, there are no reports disclosing the exact terms of the settlement between Bush and Lake. They haven't been released. I'm not sure where these numbers come from, or the $3.2 million that some Bruins (notice I'm actually spelling the team nickname that appears in the media guide -we're giving professionalism a shot) have suggested that Bush paid. The only time $3.2 million was even discussed was when Sports by Brooks brought it up.
But, as reported by the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, Lake's silence allegedly was considerably more expensive than was his partner Michaels, at least according to Bush's attorney David Cornwell.
Cornwell also called an initial $3.2 million settlement demand (by Lake) "extortion."
Of course it's extortion, but if Bush's attorney is telling the truth, then had Reggie Bush written Lake a check for the alleged $3.2M, this whole thing would be over. At least as it pertains to Bush. The current NFL player would've never be questioned under oath in public about anything regarding the USC football program
Lake wanted $3.2 million. That doesn't mean he received it when the settlement came about.
And even Brooks refutes such a number.
But most importantly, the notion that the settlement is an admission of guilt on the part of Bush regarding whether he took up to $300,000 in gifts is completely off base. That just isn't the case. In fact, Lake, as much as Bush, didn't want a deposition to occur and was hoping for a settlement.
Don't forget that Lake is a convicted felon and is presently on probation. As a result, a Bush deposition could possibly lead to the violation of his probation, because under California state law, it is illegal for a marketer such as Lake (albeit a lousy one) to present money and gifts to an amateur athlete such as Bush. So if Bush is guilty, so is Lake. He isn't some white knight pushing for Bush to appear in court and admit to all his "wrongdoings." He's protecting his own business interests, because arguably he's engaged in more wrongful, illegal activity than Bush has.
Nobody really knows what happened with this whole fiasco unless you're a Bruin backer (all UCLA fans have known all along that Pete Carroll was personally responsible in overseeing a funneling of cash to Bush and thus the Trojan football program should be dismantled).
So realistically, in the end, let's just keep a little more quiet and not talk about things that we have no full understanding of.
Fight On Westwood! Enjoy the pistol offense...