There’s been a lot of discussion surrounding Reggie Bush again lately, this time with the report coming out coutesy of Yahoo! Sports that the Saints gave Reggie Bush permission to gauge interest around the league for his services. Since then, Bush has denied the report saying that it’s “absolutely not” true.
Personally, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Saints DID give Bush permission to shop his value. In fact, i’m very confident they did. So why is Bush denying it? Probably because he’s already seen fans turn on him once after his childish reaction to the Saints drafting Mark Ingram and he doesn’t want to alienate them further. Also, he fears fans would get the wrong idea about him testing the market. Why? Simply put: I believe gauging interest around the league is more about setting his market value and less about trying to leave. Bush’s move isn’t necessarily anti Saints, but the majority of Saints’ fans would take the news of Bush gauging interest at face value and view it as a negative.
At this point in his contract, Reggie Bush makes more than he’s worth. This has been established. Both the Saints and Bush have conceded a new contract needs to be re-negotiated. The Saints have said they want to keep Bush, assuming the numbers work out, and Bush has said he wants to stay in New Orleans. For me, that can’t happen unless Bush fully understands his value. “Gauging interest”, as it were, is all about helping Reggie get more educated about what he is worth. Let’s face it, left to his own devices, Reggie would probably overvalue his worth, so personally I am all for him getting as much information as possible about his worth on the open market so that he can make a more realistic decision.
The risk of testing the market, obviously, is that someone values Bush much higher than the Saints. That’s possible, and I do believe that Bush would ask for his release if there was someone out there that was willing to pay him a huge amount of money. I doubt this will happen, but it is a risk. More realistically, though, Bush is now armed with factual information of what other teams think he’s worth, and that will ultimately help frame his negotiations with the Saints. It benefits the Saints because an offer lower than what he makes now won’t be a slap in the face, and it benefits Reggie Bush because he won’t have unrealistic financial demands. The Saints will be less likely to get away with a low ball offer, maybe, but getting compensated fairly would still be a vast improvement for the Saints over what they’re paying him now.
The point in all of this is: 1. I think it’s true that he tested the market and 2. I think that’s a good thing for the Saints. I believe Reggie Bush is denying the truth out of fear the fans won’t understand the reasoning behind testing the market. Most people jump to the conclusion incorrectly when a player talks to other teams that they are disloyal and want to leave. I’m sure Bush is at least partly curious to see if someone will throw a ridiculous signing bonus his way, and again, I do believe he would leave if he could get that and the Saints refused to match it… but at the end of the day I think Bush appreciates the team, the organization, the fans and the city. If things make sense financially he will be back, and this is a part in the process of understanding the financial terms of a new deal.
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