Did Reggie Bush Pull a Michael Scott?

Fans of The Office, if they still exist after the show’s post-wedding nosedive, will remember that there was an episode in this current season devoted to Michael Scott reneging on a promise made to students to pay their college tuitions. It wasn’t exactly magical television, but it did give us this clip, which NBC will probably purge from YouTube as soon as they see it here.↵

↵↵I wonder if Reggie Bush would enjoy that song. He’s certainly accused of a failure in scholarship follow-through much like what Dunder-Mifflin’s dunderhead did. Except, you know, he actually has the money to fund them.↵

↵

↵↵⇥In March 2007, Helix High School seniors Brandon Fountain and Matt Cobb were presented a $10,000 scholarship from Bush to use for college.⇥⇥↵⇥↵⇥“I think it’s always been in my heart, just a desire to be able to come back and give back to the high school I grew up in,” Bush said in 2007.⇥⇥↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥... ⇥⇥⇥↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥Each received a $2,500 installment on their scholarships in their freshman year. Both ran into problems the following year when trying to contact the scholarship’s trustee, Jerry Michaels.⇥⇥↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“Mr. Michaels never responded. A couple of weeks later, he (Brandon) sent a second e-mail and still no response,” said Fountain’s father, Bruce.⇥⇥↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥It was the same story for Cobb, and after weeks of wondering they received an answer they were not expecting.⇥⇥↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“That’s when we were told he was out of funds and due to the economy he didn’t have the money,” said Cobb.⇥⇥↵⇥

↵↵↵“Due to the economy” sounds like an absolutely terrible excuse for a professional athlete with both a lucrative contract and a wheelbarrow of endorsement cash, doesn’t it? (The report does allege that the scholarship, before Bush was involved, was tied to the stock market, so that part might not be on him.) It’s hard to see how the money that was promised to the students hasn’t been delivered, no matter how you examine this story.↵

↵↵It’s not like the $20,000 in question is a fortune to an NFL player; it’s a fraction of a game check, and about what Bryant McKinnie spent on alcohol on one night in Miami recently, according to Dan LeBatard. Bush stiffing two students from his high school for a relative pittance is impossible to spin into a positive story, too: Are Bush and his people going to allege it never happened, claim temporary insanity, or plead bankruptcy?↵

↵↵Here we have a sticky situation that barely counts as a Super Bowl sideshow. Bush may not be able to juke his pursuers on this one, but he’ll probably shake more than a few fans.↵

↵↵(HT to Second-String Fullback.)↵

↵