Today marked the end of the Reggie Bush era for the New Orleans Saints and I have this question: can you be undervalued AND overpaid?  I believe Reggie was way undervalued by many in the Who Dat Nation while at the same time being an ever increasing burden on the Saints payroll.


I have never understood the Saints fans display of disrespect/ hate/ mockery of such an integral part of the team that brought the city so much joy following the Katrina disaster.  In the last two days I've seen these comments in posts on message boards, facebook and others:

Everyone is crying about reggie bush, he never did anything for the saints

hope the Dolphins turn their stadium sideways since that's the direction Reggie likes to run!

Maybe it's the LSlosers who hate all things USC,  maybe it's the Kim Karscrashingagain factor, maybe they're dedicated Bush bashers, maybe they're all blind, but they're definitely wrong.  The facts are that Reggie has caught more passes than any other RB over the past five seasons, accounted for over 4,000 yards of offense and 33 touchdowns.  In the playoff win over reigning NFC champion Cardinals, Bush led the team onto the field and then onto victory with an electrifying performance.  

Bottom line for me, before Reggie, 0 NFC Championship games and 0 Super Bowls, after Reggie 2 Championships and a Lombardi Trophy!  I haven't even mentioned the decoy factor, game planning problems and game changing punt returner that Reggie was.  On top of all his on field production, Reggie was great in the community with serious financial contributions to rebuilding projects after the storm.


Was Reggie  perfect? Hell no!  He fumbled too much, got hurt too often and looked for the big play when it wasn't there.  There was no way the Saints could pay him the more than $11 million his contract called for this year and he rejected the idea of taking a pay cut to stay in New Orleans.  So now Reggie will play in Miami and the Saints will come marching in with new players and we'll cheer our Who Dats back to the Super Bowl, but that won't change the fact that #25 made a significant contribution to the Saints recent success.  Good luck Reggie, except against the black and gold!  You pulled off another miraculous play : undervalued and overpaid at the same time!