Not surpisingly, Bush and New Orleans avoid ugly holdout

By Connor Byrne  |   Sunday, July 30, 2006  |  Comments( 3 )

New Orleans Saints
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After a lengthy period of cat and mouse games between running back Reggie Bush and the New Orleans Saints, the No. 2 overall pick finally agreed to a contract late Saturday night. Bush, who missed the first two days of Saints camp because of a holdout, signed a six-year, $51 million deal with the organization that will see him make $26.2 million in guarantees.

Over the last couple weeks, Bush representatives have threatened that the former USC Trojan Heisman winner would sit out the entire 2006 season and reenter next April's draft if he wasn't given more money than No. 1 overall pick Mario Williams, who went to the Houston Texans. As it turns out, the 21-year-old Bush bit on a deal worth $300,000 less in guaranteed cash than Williams received.

Although many of the Saints' fans were worried about never seeing Bush in their team's uniform, there was no real threat of the first-rounder missing any regular season time in '06. The 5-foot-11, 200-pounder has been known up to this point as a character player, but he would have taken a severe hit in the public relations department if he did stage a long, possibly season-stopping holdout. The bad blood for the entire city of New Orleans towards Bush would have been quite palpable, especially since the area is still recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the area about 11 months ago. The last thing it needs is an athlete bickering over his millions.

Now that the Bush crisis has been averted, the team can finally get back to focusing on football. Under new head coach Sean Payton and $60 million quarterback Drew Brees, it's widely believed that the Saints are finally set to make a return to respectability. Bush, who is said to be the best runner to come out of the draft in years, will make that process a whole lot easier for the franchise.

Along with the Saints' current No. 1 running back, Deuce McAllister, Bush will form a likely lethal backfield combination. In his first five seasons in the league, the 6-2, 232-pounder has accumulated three seasons of over 1,000 yards on the ground, becoming one of the most feared backs in the NFC. With both he and Bush lining up in the backfield and the latter playing the role as a receiver oftentimes, New Orleans' offense could be flat-out frightening.

"He's going to be a special player, and I think we'll work well together," said the 27-year-old McAllister, who is coming off an ACL injury from last year.

As long as these two runners work as a cohesive tandem, the possibility of a playoff season in New Orleans seems much closer than it did when the 3-13 squad entered the offseason. However, the organization still has quite a bit of ground to gain in the remainder of the summer.

The first order of business is to get the ball to No. 25.

--Connor J. Byrne can be reached at cbyrne@realfootball365.com

Get more on Reggie Bush at Realfootball365.com
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CommentsComments: 3  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Carl		02:24 PM
07/30/2006
What is the possibility of Reggie Bush receiving permission from the league to number 5 next year or is he likely to keep number...
No.2
CJ Byrne		02:32 PM
07/30/2006
Carl, Unless the NFL changes its numbers policy somewhere along the way, Bush will wear 25 throughout his career. Don't expect...
No.3
Daniel Mack		09:00 PM
07/30/2006
Yeah, all this Reginald/#5 talk? Give it up. Never gonna happen. He has accepted it, and so should you. As far as the contract;...
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